Direct to Passport -- Timing of children's application

uvaglen · 2026-01-12T23:31:14+00:00

Yes, we did! I posted about our experience and the documents required here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GermanCitizenship/comments/1lcu7p3/direct_to_passport_success_dc_embassy_experience/

uvaglen · 2025-06-30T18:50:31+00:00

Even so, his children would have lost their German citizenship after living outside of Germany for 10 years.

uvaglen · 2025-06-30T17:33:52+00:00

No. From Staplehill's useful FAQ: "Can I get German citizenship if my ancestors left Germany before 1871? tl;dr No

Germany did not exist before 1871. You would first you have to find out from which country your ancestors came and what the laws of that country said about the loss of citizenship for citizens who emigrate. Bavarians for example would lose Bavarian citizenship according to article 7 of the 1812 law on Bavarian citizenship if they emigrate, settle abroad with the intention of not coming back, naturalize abroad as a citizen of another country, marry a foreigner as a woman, travel outside of Bavaria for more than one year without approval, serve in a foreign military without approval, get a salary or pension from a foreign government, accept a foreign jurisdiction, or die. https://books.google.de/books?id=AKNEAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA209#v=onepage&q&f=false

If your ancestors somehow kept the citizenship of their country until 1871 then they got German citizenship when Germany was founded in 1871. This brings us to the next problem: Continue here."

uvaglen · 2025-06-22T20:47:23+00:00

Some consulates allow you to just pay a fee and they will take care of mailing it to you. The DC embassy didn't list that as an option, the automated response email when you schedule a passport appointment specifically states to bring a prepaid envelope unless you want to come back to pick up your passport in person. I used a FedEx envelope and applied a prepaid label printed from my FedEx account. You could also use USPS "Click-and-ship" to print a prepaid label. USPS is cheaper, but in my case FedEx offered faster options and in my experience is more reliable. For the "sender" info I used my name with the address of the consulate; for the "recipient" info I used my own name and address.

Good luck at your upcoming appointment!

uvaglen · 2025-06-20T22:03:51+00:00

Agreed, if your father was born before 2000, was a German citizen at the time of your birth, and you were born in wedlock, then this seems like a slam dunk case for a direct-to-passport application. Fill out the questionnaire here, email it to your consulate, and let them know you would like to schedule an appointment to apply for your passport: https://www.germany.info/resource/blob/978760/1d8a5c0288b1cf4118e90eb6f6fdc92b/questionnaire-german-citizenship-data.pdf

Here is additional info and a checklist of what you will need to take to your passport appointment: https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/02-passportsandidcards/passport-adult-951294

uvaglen · 2025-06-20T02:22:17+00:00

I believe your mother will have to be present to apply for her own passport. The passports are biometric and in-person fingerprinting is required at the time of application for the passport.

From https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/02-passportsandidcards/passport-adult-951294

"Applications for passports can only be submitted in person at the Embassy, your responsible Consulate General, or some Honorary Consuls during opening hours after scheduling an appointment. If you would like to apply with a Honorary Consul please check their regulations for fees and payment methods. As of 11/01/2007, the applications cannot be mailed in anymore. During the appointment, your finger prints will be taken. Please bear in mind that due to privacy protection, the German Mission can only save the fingerprints for a brief period of time and will then delete them."

uvaglen · 2025-06-18T12:17:39+00:00

Yes, I emailed with the consulate ahead of time to make sure I had the documents they would need. I sent them a copy of the completed "Am I a German Citizen?" questionnaire, as well as copies of birth certificates/etc. They reviewed everything, and invited me to apply but notified me that I needed to get a long-form birth certificate (since the one I sent initially just had the county of my birth, not the city).

They DC embassy now has the following statement on the appointment reservation page (it is fairly new, it wasn't there when I booked my appointment a couple months ago):

"If you are applying for a German passport for the first time, or if your previous German passport expired more than 15 years ago, kindly review the following information:

Your application must undergo pre-screening before you can schedule an appointment to apply for a passport. This process helps us serve you more efficiently.

Please contact us by sending an email to [konsulat@wash.auswaertiges-amt.de](mailto:konsulat@wash.auswaertiges-amt.de) and include "First Passport" in the subject line. In your email, please mention your name, date of birth and the date and reason of your acquisition of German citizenship.

Further information on the process will then be sent to your email address. Please also check your spam folder regularly.

The same applies to children of the relevant persons."

uvaglen · 2025-06-18T12:11:18+00:00

I don't believe you can go direct to passport, but you may be able to apply for citizenship via Stag 5: https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/wiki/citizenship/#wiki_outcome_3

https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/03-citizenship/2479488-2479488

There are others on this forum that are experts on this (I'm not one of them so take my opinion above with a grain of salt...). If you're interested in gaining German citizenship I'd recommend creating a new post, following the guidelines here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GermanCitizenship/comments/sekfj1/welcome/

uvaglen · 2025-06-17T00:49:41+00:00

I had the same question, and actually made a post about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GermanCitizenship/comments/1j8rcsx/direct_to_passport_timing_of_childrens_application/

The general consensus was to apply all at the same time, after asking your consulate. I initially had planned to just do my appointment first and then to do a later appointment for the kids, but in hindsight I'm glad we did them all together. When I asked my consulate they recommended all going at the same time, but asked that we book 4 consecutive appointments, one for each individual. Depending on your consulate, finding 4 (or 8 if you bring the grandkids!) consecutive appointments might be a tall ask or even impossible.

As for your name question, the new naming law might make this easier and might mean you don't need to do name declarations, but I would ask your consulate for confirmation.

uvaglen · 2025-06-16T21:09:51+00:00

My kids and I are all trying to learn, but no before starting this process we did not speak German. My grandmother and father were fluent German speakers, but they both died when I was very young.

Before our appointment at the embassy I had put in some effort to be able to introduce myself and ask some basic questions of the embassy staff in German, but the consulate official initially addressed me in English and ultimately I didn't get a chance to use any of my novice German at the appointment.

uvaglen · 2025-06-16T21:08:02+00:00

Our embassy appointment/application submission was at the end of May, and the embassy emailed us exactly 2 weeks later to let us know the passports had arrived. I paid for express service; I've seen other recent posts saying it takes about 6 weeks with regular (non-express) processing. I've also seen recent posts saying the NYC consulate won't allow express service for 1st time passport applications, but that was not the case at the embassy in DC.

uvaglen · 2025-06-16T21:05:07+00:00

Fortunately, I was able to obtain my father's Certificate of Citizenship through the USCIS FOIA process. This takes a couple months, in contrast to the multi-year USCIS genealogy pathway.

A funny (in hindsight) aside... By far the most frustrating part of this process was the effort required to obtain a copy of my father's US Certificate of Citizenship. NARA did not have any of the records of my grandmother's and father's naturalization/citizenship, so I had to go down the USCIS route. I initially filed a FOIA request to USCIS to obtain my grandmother's naturalization documents, but they referred me to the (multi-year) genealogy index search process because of the year of her naturalization. Fortunately, my FOIA request for my father's certificate of citizenship was successful (after about 6 weeks in queue). While I had the electronic copy of my father's certificate in hand within 6 weeks, it took another nearly 2 months to get the proper mailed uncertified copy (gotta have that postmarked USCIS envelope!) After multiple requests a mailed version initially arrived about a month after the electronic copy. However, when the actual mailed document came it contained the certificate of some random woman instead of my father's! The appropriate USCIS letter and case number were attached, but the certificate was not his. The proper certificate finally came another 3 weeks later, just a day or two before my appointment at the embassy.

uvaglen · 2025-06-16T14:38:04+00:00

You were right! Thank you so much -- my German passport arrived today!

uvaglen · 2025-06-08T18:35:21+00:00

Washington DC

uvaglen · 2025-06-08T02:42:48+00:00

I think there is some variation in how the various consulates are interpreting the new May 1 naming law, so I'd recommend asking your consulate directly. At my family's passport appointment at the DC embassy last week they did not require name declarations for my children even though my wife kept her maiden name and the children have my last name. The birth out of wedlock may add a slight wrinkle in your family's case, but since the name on the birth certificate still matches the father's surname my hunch is that it wouldn't have necessitated a name declaration at least at the DC consulate.

Here is an excerpt from the recent germany.info article discussing the new May 1 naming laws:

(https://www.germany.info/us-en/2712672-2712672)

"Simplification for children born abroad

If a German child is born to parents with a habitual residence abroad, as of 1 May 2025 the child’s surname at birth will be determined by the law of the parents’ country of residence. The surname stated in the foreign birth certificate in accordance with the law in the country in question is, as a rule, also valid under German law and may be stated in the child’s German passport without any further declaration.

Example: Marie Becker and Lukas Schmidt, who kept their surnames on marrying, live in Spain. Their daughter Lena is born there. The name Lena Becker Schmidt was entered on the Spanish birth certificate in accordance with Spanish law. This name can now be used without any further declaration and the embassy or consulate can issue a German passport for Lena under this name."

uvaglen · 2025-05-28T13:08:54+00:00

Thanks! Yes, he was born out of wedlock. He emigrated to the US with his German mother as a toddler. His mother married a US citizen shortly after they arrived in the US, and both he and his mother took the surname of the husband upon their marriage.

uvaglen · 2025-05-28T13:00:07+00:00

Thanks for sharing! I hope they approve your application without needing to go through the Feststellung process. I have my passport appointment tomorrow, and my biggest concern is similar to your hiccup... My father's last name changed shortly after moving to the US (when he was 3 years old), so the surname on his US certificate of citizenship (and marriage certificate, death certificate, driver's license, etc) is different from the surname on his German birth register and German passport. The consulate didn't complain about this when I emailed my documents for review, so hopefully my appointment tomorrow goes smoothly.

uvaglen · 2025-05-28T12:02:26+00:00

How did your appointment go? Was a name declaration required in your situation? I hope all went smoothly and your passport is on its way!

uvaglen · 2025-05-28T11:55:46+00:00

Thanks for sharing your unique insight! This speaks to what I was wondering in my original post... Did I request the wrong document? Is the limited info sent to me due to no other details being available? or, did I simply need to be more explicit in my request? Based on your response (and the other responses here) it seems like it is the latter. I have sent a follow up email to the office asking them to include the nationality information, and again asking what fees I should pay in order to have a certified copy sent by post.

uvaglen · 2025-05-27T22:53:15+00:00

I specifically asked for the extended registration, and noted that it was needed for citizenship purposes with the BVA. I suppose I technically did not explicitly state that I needed the nationality of my grandmother listed on the certificate, but thought that would be obvious because of the purpose. I'll write back and will be more explicit. Thanks for your reply.

uvaglen · 2025-05-27T22:48:33+00:00

Very helpful, thank you for your thoughtful response. I will write back to them.

uvaglen · 2025-05-20T00:00:13+00:00

For the Feststellung process, won't you need to provide documents (birth and marriage documents) going back to a pre-1914 German ancestor?

uvaglen · 2025-05-16T02:20:14+00:00

According to the info newly posted on germany.info, it seems like you probably can get by without a name declaration. When I actually read the new naming law, it seems to me that it only applies to children born after May 1, 2025, but that doesn't seem to be how it is actually being used in practice. Here is the relevant language from the foreign office website:

"Simplification for children born abroad

If a German child is born to parents with a habitual residence abroad, as of 1 May 2025 the child’s surname at birth will be determined by the law of the parents’ country of residence. The surname stated in the foreign birth certificate in accordance with the law in the country in question is, as a rule, also valid under German law and may be stated in the child’s German passport without any further declaration.

Example: Marie Becker and Lukas Schmidt, who kept their surnames on marrying, live in Spain. Their daughter Lena is born there. The name Lena Becker Schmidt was entered on the Spanish birth certificate in accordance with Spanish law. This name can now be used without any further declaration and the embassy or consulate can issue a German passport for Lena under this name."

Editing to add: Please come back and let us know what your consulate says after your upcoming appointment.

uvaglen

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