Editing German diaspora (section)

==Germany's policy on dual citizenship==

Since June 27, 2024, unrestricted dual citizenship has been possible.

Prior to that date, [[German nationality law]] allowed [[dual citizenship]] only with other EU countries and Switzerland; with other countries, in some cases:

# With special permission ("''Beibehaltungsgenehmigung''"), for which German citizens must apply ''before'' taking the other citizenship (otherwise, German citizenship is ''automatically lost''). Non-EU and non-Swiss citizens wanting to be naturalized in Germany must usually renounce their old citizenship, but may keep it if their country does not allow the renunciation of citizenship, or if the renunciation process is too difficult/humiliating/expensive, or, rarely, in individual cases if the renunciation of the old citizenship means enormous disadvantages for the concerned person.
# If dual citizenship was obtained at birth. Some countries do not accept the "dual-citizenship-by-birth principle," so the concerned person must later choose one citizenship and renounce the other.
# Under Article 116 par. 2 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), former German citizens who between 30 January 1933, and 8 May 1945, were deprived of their German citizenship on political, racial, or religious grounds may re-invoke their citizenship and the same applies to their descendants, and are permitted to hold dual (or multiple) citizenship.<ref>{{cite web |last1=German Mission to the United States |title=Information on the Naturalization Claim under Article 116 (2) of the German Basic Law |url=https://www.germany.info/blob/2150888/8ad386029606c531f03512c25ead84b4/information-on-naturalization-claim-art--116-data.pdf |website=www.germany.info |publisher=Government of Germany |access-date=18 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181019001541/https://www.germany.info/blob/2150888/8ad386029606c531f03512c25ead84b4/information-on-naturalization-claim-art--116-data.pdf |archive-date=19 October 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

A law adopted in June 2019 allows the revocation of the German citizenship of dual citizens who have joined or supported a terror militia such as the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant|Islamic State]] and are at least 18 years old.

Naturalized Germans can lose their German citizenship if it is found out that they got it by willful deceit / bribery / menacing / giving intentionally false or incomplete information that had been important for the naturalization process. In June 2019, it was decided to prolong the deadline from 5 to 10 years after naturalization.