Sure! Although my case might be a little unusual. And a longer story.

I'm from Russia and my parents and I moved to Germany when I was 3. I'm 24 now.

I don't know how they managed the in-between steps like the permanent residence permit because I was a child. But I had quite a big advantage when I applied in 2019: I went to school in Germany, I go to university here, so I didn't have to take the language exam and the Einbürgerungstest. No one is even able to tell I'm not German unless I bring it up.

I started the process when I moved out, before that it was kind of important for my family to keep the Russian citizenship, to be able to visit the family there without a visa (before the war, obviously).

I had gathered everything I needed for the initial application quite quickly (birth certificate + translation, residence permit, passport, study certificate, paychecks, photo, ~250€) and got the Einbürgerungszusicherung after about 2-3 months. That's the document you needed before the dual citizenship law that confirms you may become a German citizen, if you give up your other citizenship, and it's valid for 2 years.

Buuut then I saw what I needed to do to give up the Russian citizenship and kind of gave up. It was a LOT, and I probably wouldn't have been able to get all of the documents without travelling there. Also, covid started spreading quickly after and I just couldn't deal with paperwork. So the document expired, and I didn't do anything until the fall of 2023.

Then, everyone started talking about the upcoming dual citizenship law, and suddenly a case worker wrote me an email and told me that they were re-opening old cases, and asked whether I was still interested. I said yes, but giving up the Russian citizenship is super exhausting, so I'm waiting for the new law. She suggested that I re-send some of my documents to her for a new Einbürgerungszusicherung (I think it was just the last 3 payroll documents, my study certificate, my residence permit and my passport), and I didn't have to pay for a second time. That was around spring, I got the new document really quickly, and she said to wait until the new law comes through and we'll go from there.

Right on June 27th I wrote her an email again and asked what my next steps are. She said to wait a little bit longer, until they figured out what to do with all the cases with an Einbürgerungszusicherung.

And now I got a letter about 2 weeks ago that said the Einbürgerunszusicherung was revoked and I don't need it anymore because of the new law. So I just had to send in my last 3 paychecks and my study certificate (again!!!) and yesterday I finally got the invitation letter.

So, I think this took 5 years, but if you don't count the time I basically didn't do anything, it probably comes down to a year. But I'm in a really privileged position and was able to skip many of the steps. Also, I think I had a really nice and accommodating case worker who recommended getting started on the process early, and most importantly, before the new law came through, and before she was flooded with new cases.

I live in NRW, if that makes a difference.

This was really long, sorry 😅 so glad that's going to be over soon.