The Law on the Modernisation of the Citizenship Law, which facilitates the right to dual citizenship in Germany, prepared by the German government, adopted by 382 votes against 234 in the Bundestag on 19 January and approved by the Federal State Representative Assembly (Bundesrat) on 2 February, signed by President Frank Walter Steinmeier and published in the Official Gazette, will enter into force on 27 June.
Turkish citizens living in Germany can also have the right to german citizenship without renouncing their Turkish citizenship. With this law, the legal residence period required to acquire German citizenship will be reduced from 8 years to 5 years. This period will be reduced to 3 years in cases where the person who wants to acquire German citizenship has school or professional success in adapting to the living conditions in the country, doing volunteer work or making special efforts to learn the language. The option model, which forced young people to choose between the citizenship of their parents or German citizenship until the age of 23, will be completely abolished.
Children born in Germany, even if they are not German citizens, will be able to acquire German citizenship if one of their parents has legally resided in the country for at least 5 years. For workers who came to the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) as part of the Labour Force Agreement until 30 June 1974 and to the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) as contract workers until 13 June 1990, the written examination requirement for naturalisation will be abolished.
In addition, polygamists or those who violate the constitutional equality between men and women will not be naturalised.
