Following the Federal Constitutional Court decision of 20 May 2020 – 2 BvR 2628/18 – the eligibility criteria under Article 116 (2) sentence 1 of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) have been Extended.

From now on, the following also count as descendants under citizenship law:

• children born in wedlock before 1 April 1953 to German mothers whose citizenship had been revoked and foreign fathers
• children born out of wedlock before 1 July 1993 to German fathers whose citizenship had been revoked and foreign mothers

Hence there is no longer any need to have recourse to the existing naturalisation options under § 14 of the Nationality Act in conjunction with the decrees of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community of 28 March 2012 and 30 August 2019.

Affected persons whose citizenship application under Article 116 (2) sentence 1 of the Basic Law was rejected in the past on the basis of the legislation in force at the time can contact the diplomatic mission about this at any time.