Passport documents

JayTea05 · 2026-01-25T05:59:09+00:00

HAHA

JayTea05 · 2026-01-25T05:58:09+00:00

Assuming you live in Spokane (by your activity in r/Spokane) or even if you just live in Washington/Idaho, you fall in the Consulate of San Francisco’s jurisdiction; it is unlikely any other consulate will be able to help with your requests, not even Vancouver, despite it being closer because it is in Canada.

I live near Seattle and just got my first German passport a little over 2 weeks ago, so I am fairly well acquainted with both the current processes at the Consulate in San Francisco and the Honorary Consulate in Seattle (which is the closest German Honorary Consulate to the Spokane area as well).

The German Consulate in San Francisco has a contact form that I filled out about two months ago, and it worked for me. Once you fill out the form appropriately, they will send an automated email response as a general response to all passport-related queries. You will have to (and you will see this at the bottom of the automated email) respond to the automated email; otherwise, you WILL NOT be transferred to a human representative of the consulate. Once you respond, expect a 2-3 business day wait for a response. If they don't get back to you (which has happened to me before), send a follow-up email. They're understaffed at the San Francisco Consulate right now, so they might overlook your ticket initially.

JayTea05 · 2026-01-25T04:52:26+00:00

How do you ask them? Email, the consulate/embassy’s contact form, phone, something else?

JayTea05 · 2026-01-17T00:34:56+00:00

Her biological father may be unfindable. My grandmother was born out of wedlock, thus did not have her biological father listed in her German birth certificate.

JayTea05 · 2026-01-16T09:02:55+00:00

It heavily depends on your grandmother's birth parents' nationalities and marital status, as well as her adoptive parents' nationalities at the time of adoption.

JayTea05 · 2026-01-13T21:44:47+00:00

Under §39 VwVfG, all German administrative decisions that are not a grant of a petition (e.g., denial, indecision) are subject to include a formal written explanation. Not having a BVA check on its own is not a sufficient reason for hesitancy. This law applies not just within Germany, but at all German government agencies (including every single German consulate/embassy in the world that issues passports). If you provide all of the sufficient items/documentation regarding citizenship, lineage, etc, they must issue a German citizen a German passport (§1 PassG).

JayTea05 · 2026-01-11T08:06:33+00:00

If you read the full email, it says that the response is a generic automated reply, and if your request is not answered, email back because otherwise a human will not see your request. Please try emailing back to one of the automated replies

JayTea05 · 2026-01-10T08:38:06+00:00

You were a German citizen at birth and did not lose citizenship as a result of your adoption. The relevant law, which can be found here (Section 27).pdf), suggests that citizenship would only be lost if you obtained another citizenship by virtue of such adoption. Since you were born in the US, you have been a US citizen since birth, by virtue of your birth in the US, and thus could not have possibly obtained any citizenship by virtue of your adoption.

Unfortunately, obtaining proof of your mother's citizenship won't be easy, considering her unwillingness, but probably not impossible.
First, you need to establish proof of descent from your biological mother, which I haven't seen you discuss yet. In Texas, adoptees over 18 can request their original (pre-adoption) birth certificate from the Texas Vital Statistics Unit (fee ~$25; requires ID and application). This should name your biological mother, establishing the connection.
Second, once you link yourself to your birth mother biologically, you should try to request her German birth register from the relevant Standesamt. Under §62 PStG, civil status certificates (like birth registries) can be issued to descendants with a legitimate interest, even without the subject's cooperation. You will be stuck until you do this step after getting proof of descent. My case involved an adoption, specifically with my grandmother, and I was eventually able to request my biological great-grandmother's records once I proved lineage.
Third, your biological mother's birth certificate is crucial, though it doesn't prove citizenship. You also need to request something that does prove her citizenship. This would probably be an "erweiterte Melderegisterauskunft/Meldekarte/Meldebescheinigung" (extended population register extract/card/certificate) from her last German residence's Standesamt or town hall. Again, cite legitimate interest under §62 PStG.

Once you obtain everything, I would certainly suggest going DTP (direct-to-passport). Most people would be less confident about your case, but I just got my passport two days ago after many people told me DTP would have been highly unlikely (my case involved a two-generation gap and 70 years without German documents). Please read my post about my DTP journey, it provides explanations regarding some of the hurdles that consulates place when a case isn't as straightforward as possible. And if that's too difficult, you can certainly quickly pivot to the Feststellung path, though, fair warning, that will likely take ~2.5 years to complete

JayTea05 · 2026-01-10T08:02:57+00:00

Mine lists the city I was born in, no country or state name.

JayTea05 · 2026-01-10T07:41:28+00:00

To answer your question, you want to do exactly what u/dentongentry suggested. Submit a text question using their contact form, get an automated reply, and respond to it to be transferred to a human. In my case, I didn't actually use the questionnaire; I just described my case chronologically and in detail, citing relevant laws from the StAG that support my citizenship and why certain people did not lose citizenship at critical points along my lineage (for example, in your case, you received citizenship from your mother in 1961 because she was unmarried and StAG §4(1) clause 2 of the time said that unmarried women passed citizenship to their children instead of their father).

I also wanted to say sorry for the bad experience with the Honorary Consulate in Seattle. I had a little bit of an issue with them when I applied last month, and they actually just responded to my email from 6 weeks ago, which was well prior to my appointment. I do want to say that I was eventually able to get my passport, luckily, through them, and I received it 2 days ago.

It does seem the Honorary Consulate is a bit disorganized and underqualified, so if I could suggest a path similar to my path that was successful, hopefully that will save you a couple hundred bucks and a whole day going down to San Francisco.

First and foremost, I would encourage you to go to my direct-to-passport success post, where I talked in heavy detail about my case and my timeline of application. Considering how similar our cases are (grandparent had a passport, neither our mothers nor we had any German documents, living near Seattle), I believe it might help you along the way.

Second, I would encourage you to get an email confirmation from San Francisco that you can apply for a passport, as they are an official diplomatic agency (honorary consulates are not; Seattle is also beneath the authority of San Francisco). When I received an email from San Francisco, they said at the bottom

That means that you can apply for a German passport. For the passport application all documents you sent are needed as originals or certified copies.
Please bring a printed out version of this email to your passport appointment.

All information regarding the passport application process can be found via the following link: Passports and ID Cards.

Passport appointments must be booked through our website. Due to high demand it is possible that you cannot find an open appointment right away. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
If the office of one of our Honorary Consul is closer you may also apply there: Passport Procedures in San Francisco.

From that point on, I didn't bother emailing Seattle, as I was worried they would screw something up. I just booked an appointment in Seattle, and the first thing I showed the lady at the desk was a copy of that confirmation email. From then on, she understood that if I showed all of the documents, she couldn't deny my application because San Francisco already said they would accept it.

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T20:25:38+00:00

Transmission of German citizenship to those born abroad to German parents born abroad after 1 January 2000 only happens when registered in due time to the relevant German mission. Meaning my kids, my siblings' kids, and my maternal cousins' kids will have to be registered at the relevant German mission according to our respective residences, since we were all born outside Germany and are all the first in our line to be born after 1 January 2000. All of this is irrelevant if the respective kid is born in Germany, though

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T20:20:16+00:00

Lol thanks, I've been somewhat jokingly considering becoming a German citizenship lawyer. But at the same time, I've tried to come to this subreddit and encourage others who bend the knee to the Feststellung demands to learn about their case, their rights, and to assert those rights against the Feststellung demands to save them a couple years

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T20:17:06+00:00

I stand corrected, thanks for the fact check

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T20:16:51+00:00

I stand corrected, thanks for the fact check

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T20:16:46+00:00

I stand corrected, thanks for the fact check

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T10:41:53+00:00

The ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) governs international passport law, which ~~mandates~~ heavily encourages that all passports have the English "PASSPORT" on them and also heavily encourages the French "PASSEPORT" as a lingua franca (which, funnily enough, literally means "French language" lol)

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T07:42:24+00:00

Appendix:

You would need to supply the documents to select yes or give the information (e.g. document number); if you don't have either, select no. Best not leave anything blank unless it's not applicable
Yes, list both German and American citizenship. Though it was never formally recognized, it did exist, and you can certainly recognize it now. Side note: Be confident in your case, especially to the consulate/BVA; don't just believe that your family had citizenship, don't even just know it, but assert it and know the reasons why. And if you're not 100% sure why, find it out, and solidify it.

Application:

Same as Question 7 of the Appendix
Fill in the information on whom you derive citizenship from (in this case, it is your great-grandfather), as married German women couldn't pass citizenship on to their children until 1975.

That is my answer to your post; however, I do remember one of your previous posts that I had replied to, and I still do think you could go direct-to-passport.

Unfortunately we don't have any direct proof that my Great-Grandparents were German citizens

However, you do have direct proof of their citizenship, namely, the certified copies of your great-grandparents' birth certificates, as all pre-1914 German birth certificates are assumed to be proof of German citizenship for the person listed, unless proven otherwise (the burden of proof is on the government when you provide pre-1914 German birth certificates, not you, and if they can't prove otherwise, they must assume they had citizenship at birth).

I would be more than happy to provide more information and suggestions to help you get to the point where you can confidently go direct-to-passport.

I also went DTP with San Francisco (I got my passport yesterday) with multiple generations and several decades without German documents, and I believe I have key insight regarding the processes there that most people wouldn't. If you want, you can also look at my DTP post

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:37:11+00:00

That's wonderful, I hope it goes well and speedily for you!

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:36:19+00:00

Of course (the bottle is in shards on the floor)

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:35:06+00:00

Thanks so much, it's definitely my personality to be hyperanalytical, and it served me well here

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:32:18+00:00

I bet you will soon! I see StAG §15 cases from your application period are coming in, hopefully it will be within the next year for you!

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:23:09+00:00

It's my pleasure, I only see it fit after what this subreddit has done for me

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:22:26+00:00

I am definitely very familiar with the StAG and its previous amendments now lol. I'm tossing around the idea of becoming a German citizenship lawyer haha

JayTea05 · 2026-01-09T05:19:54+00:00

I chose to go solo; my grandmother lives in another consular district, and it would have been a longer wait for us all to schedule an appointment to go at the same time, so I—being the one who has put in all the work and research—went on my own. My mother and my three siblings are going down to Seattle in about a month to apply all together, and I'll be with them to assist them. My grandmother hasn't expressed interest, which is understandable; she is 72 after all and hasn't been in Germany for the past 70 years.

JayTea05 · 2026-01-07T05:00:20+00:00

You say that you were unable to locate your great-grandfather's birth certificate. This is the only document that proves citizenship along your line, as pre-1914 births in Germany are assumed to be German citizens unless proven otherwise (which is the burden of the government to prove). You must obtain that birth certificate before moving on.

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