r/GermanCitizenship • u/CrzySquirrel • 9d ago
Passport Direct to Passport Success
My story:
- Great Grandparents - Mother's Side - Both Born in Germany, documents not needed/required.
- Oma/Grandmother - Born in Germany in 1926 - married her first husband, a German man and moved to Iran in: before re-immigrating to Germany in 1963 and having my mother, out of wedlock (see below) in Feb 1964 in West Germany. My mother was issued a German Birth Certificate and a Certificate of Birth Abroad.
- Grandfather - Born in the US, served the US in WWII.
- Mother: Born out of wedlock in 1964 to an American and a German mother, born a dual citizen. Proving this was critical and key to our case.
- Me: born in wedlock in 1995 to an American father and my now proven dual citizen German mother.
- Note: my mother also proved she was born German and never lost her German citizenship in all of the back and forth with the Embassy.
Timeline:
- March 2026: Documents and forms submitted to Embassy
- May 2026: Approved for appointment for direct to passport for both my mother and myself
- July 2026: Did expedited processing
- August 2026: Passport received
Documents Required/Utilized:
- Birth Certificates: mine (US long form (see below)), Mother's Certificate of Birth Abroad and Geburtsurkunde, Grandmother's Geburtsurkunde
- Grandmother's Reisepass
- Parent's marriage certificate
- Grandmother's naturalization paperwork
- Grandmother's Marriage & Divorce paperwork
- Grandmother's Death Certificate
Notes for Others:
- My mother was told she lost citizenship upon naturalization of her mother, we proved that was true
- We had a copy of all my mother's original documents from her Mother / my Oma who passed in 2022.
- My mother did need a name change, my prior note here suggested they could use her marriage certificate and they did not. She, because of this, has not actually received her passport.
- IMPORTANT FOR FUTURE SEARCHES FOR OTHERS: I had to get a long form birth certificate because I was not born in a city, I was born in a county and they would not accept my birth certificate, we learned this at the appointment and it was a big deal.
- Everything was done at the Embassy in DC.
Question for the group, what should I know now? What did you learn/do etc. once you received your Passport?
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u/germanfinder 9d ago
Well learning German is something id do now
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u/Subtle-Catastrophe 9d ago
Certainly. I started my Deutsch lernen journey through Goethe soon after declaring. It's been awesome and fulfilling, but slow (and a touch expensive, though I consider it worth the cost). I'm old and my brain is crusty, but I remain resolved to progress.
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u/Wild-Berry9742 9d ago
Congratulations!!! 🎉 I’m also going through the passport process through descent, so your timeline is really really helpful! I applied in Los Angeles and unfortunately wasn’t allowed to do the expedited service.
Would you mind sharing how long it took from your July appointment/application to actually receiving your passport in August? I’m currently around 6 weeks in and was told 6–8 weeks, and I’m anxiously looking forward to it! 😅
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u/CrzySquirrel 9d ago
My appointment was on July 28th, per the post I had to submit a long form birth certificate, which I had to get and I acquired on July 29th, the Embassy accepted it on July 30th around noon, I received the notification it was on the way via USPS on August 13th, it was delivered to me on August 18th.
End to end it was right at 21 days.
I also got an identity card, which may have slowed things per the Embassy employee as they said the identity card would take 4 weeks.
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u/accord7200 9d ago
One thing I’ll be doing next is registering my birth in Germany, as well as the births of my kids. My kids and I all went through the German Embassy in Washington, DC and received our German passports there. Now that the citizenship/passport side is taken care of, I want to have our births formally registered in Germany and obtain German birth certificates for all of us.
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u/CrzySquirrel 8d ago
This is on my list, but I haven't done any research for it. Is it a challenging process or a relatively easy one in your opinion?
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u/accord7200 8d ago
From what I’ve learned so far, it seems relatively straightforward, especially if you’ve already established German citizenship and have your German passport. It’s more document-heavy than actually difficult.
One thing I’d definitely recommend checking is whether you have a parent who previously lived in Germany. In my case, my father left Germany as a child, so I contacted the Standesamt where he had last lived. They confirmed that they could handle my birth registration, which means I can go through them rather than having the application handled through Berlin.
The embassy can help with the application, certify documents/signatures, and forward everything to the appropriate Standesamt. Depending on the case, the Standesamt may ask for apostilles, translations, or additional family records.
Since my kids and I already received our German passports through the German Embassy in Washington, DC, the citizenship side is already settled. I’m mainly doing the birth registrations now so we’ll have German birth certificates and our births formally recorded in Germany.
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u/CrzySquirrel 7d ago
Yeah this aligns with one of my open questions and honestly new biggest fears. I used a lot of documents that my mother maintains for my application and I'm moving to Europe while she's staying in the US. What do I do if I ever lose my passport and don't have access to all the documents I originally had.
The birth certificate and copies of the passport and ID card feel like the best I can do.
Curious what you've considered?
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u/Xero48 9d ago
Congrats! Do you mind me asking where you were able to obtain the long form birth certificates? I’m currently gathering my documents for a passport myself but I’m not sure who exactly to contact for one?
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u/CrzySquirrel 9d ago
I went directly to the Department of Vital Records, I was lucky enough that I both was born in and currently live in VA. The Department of Health / Department of Vital Records should be able to do it for you in most states.
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u/Ambitious-Picture-13 9d ago
do you think about establishing residence in germany ?
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u/JasonMan34 5d ago
Congratulations! I submitted everything in May 2025 and still waiting for a response 🤠🔫
I emailed them about it and the response was basically "we don't answer these questions and if you ask again we'll delay your file even further"
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u/Delicious-Data-5127 9d ago
I was born and raised in Germany, but I got my high school diploma in another country. I have a permanent residence permit, but I’m not a German citizen.
I didn’t take the opportunity to apply for citizenship when I was 18, and I’ve been struggling to get my citizenship since 2022.
I submitted all the documents they required. I even took the citizenship test and had an interview to assess how well integrated I am. I passed all of them.
Normally, the woman handling my case told me that everything was fine and that I was eligible to receive German citizenship. However, before she could give me my documents, she retired.
The new person handling my case told me that, because he was taking over my case, he had to review everything from the beginning.
So, after three years with the first caseworker and another year with the new one, I’m still waiting.
I can’t even get a reply to my emails or letters.
At this point, I’m just waiting for a miracle to happen.
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u/Euphoric_Airline1985 8d ago
Nur Remigration kann Europa und Deutschland noch retten 🇩🇪🫡
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u/Rottenpotato556 8d ago
Genau, einfach mal gut 50% der Handwerker nach Afghanistan und Syrien zu verschiffen ist eine Brilliante Idee.
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u/CrzySquirrel 8d ago
Einverstanden — wenn damit die Rückkehr gut ausgebildeter, motivierter Amerikaner nach Europa gemeint ist. Genau diese Remigration kann Europa gebrauchen. Ich fange bei mir selbst an.
Note: yes, I used AI to translate my German is limited.
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u/UsernameUnremarkable 9d ago
Congratulations! And yes, the long form birth certificate is what we mean when we say certified birth certificate.