New citizenship law

Question

I have lived in Germany for 4 years with my family as an asylum seeker, recently in October was issued the residence Permit 25 abs 3 or "Abschiebungsverbot" for me, my wife and 2 small children. In December 2024 we'll have 5 years living here by that time we will have pais around 36 contributions to the Rentenversischerung and we have a daughter who was born here who will also be 3 years old by that time, my wife has a law degree recognized in Germany by IBAS but she did a Quereinsteiger to work as a tram driver, I do an Umschulung as a Fachinformatiker paid by a Jobcenter's Bildungsgutschein und both of us got a Beruf B2 Zetfikat.

I would like to know how does the new citizenship law benefit us? Does the time we spent as asylum seekers count? Is it possible for us to obtain permanent residence or nationality? Or at least our daughter that born here.

You can find tons of vague information, but the cases are different, no one says that there are closed paths to get nationality in this country, so please, I ask for some clarity, concrete with my residence permit.

And a last and different question, our residences permit were issued on October 2023 for one year in other District as "Ausweisersatz"  by error because we hold our valid passports except our daughter that born here,  now we move to Dresden and we can't travel outside Germany with this "Ausweisersatz" and Ausländerbehörde Dresden denied my request to give me an appointment and modify my Aufenthaltstitel. They said that we must wait to renew it on September 2024 but we need to travel soon because I have a sick family member. The situation of my Daughter is different because despite we tried several times to gave her our nationality our embassy don't issue it and she remains without passport and indeed without any citizenship she only hold a German Geburtsurkunde and her German Aufenthaltstitel. What can I do? Have we or not the legal rigth to be allowed to travel?  Can they actually force me to wait until September?? Can my daughter request a grey pass?

 Thank you very much in advance.

Answer 1

Hi @Faga0206

You may be entitled to permanent residency after 5 years. A requirement is that you have 60 months pension contributions. However, this can be reduced by any months you or your wife spent at home looking after your daughter. Therefore, if by December 2024 at least one of you spent 24 months at home with your daughter, then you fulfil the 60 months (i.e. 36 months from work and 24 from childcare). It is enough for one of a married couple to have enough months for both of them to get permanent residency.

It is not possible to go from the permit 25, Abs. 3 directly to German citizenship. You must first change to the unlimited residency (Niederlassungserluabnis) or another type of permit. You can then apply for citizenship. The time you spent in the asylum process is counted for permanent residency but not for citizenship. Under the new law, citizenship will be possible after five years. This is reduced to three years if a person is well-integrated. If you manage C1 level of German, then this could be an option for you after three years.

You daughter will not receive permanent residency but will get German citizenship alongside you if you fulfil the requirements.

Best,

Éanna