Citizenship of Germany, the most powerful and important country in the EU, allows you to hold many options in all EU countries: opening a business, housing in all EU countries, mortgage relief, opening and managing bank accounts, receiving scholarships, various grants and quality education from kindergarten to university - usually For free.
Sometimes the options are not relevant to the applicant for citizenship - but will be very relevant to his children and also to unborn offspring.
Even outside the EU, German citizenship offers many benefits, such as a visa waiver upon entry into the US.
The new laws in Germany now also allow descendants of the "East Juden" to obtain German citizenship and a German passport with it.
In search of a livelihood, many Jews from Poland and Eastern European countries emigrated to Germany with their families in the 1920s.
According to the original German Jews, they were called "Ost Juden", meaning Jews from the East.
Most of them lived in Germany with their original citizenship, and when the Nazis came to power most of them hurried to flee the country.
Until recently, the basic condition for obtaining German citizenship was a blood relationship with a father or grandfather who was a German citizen and whose citizenship was denied to him by the Nazis.
Tens or hundreds of thousands of applications for German citizenship, filed by descendants of Jews born or living in Germany and fled there, were rejected by the German authorities.
Germany's argument was that although their father or grandfather lived and worked in Germany or perhaps even was born there, they were not entitled to German citizenship, since the condition for obtaining German citizenship with a German passport was the very existence of citizenship originally denied, not the father's birth or residence. The grandfather.
The new law that changes the picture
As mentioned, a law was recently enacted in Germany that also allows the descendants of immigrants to Germany from Eastern Europe in the years before the Nazis came to power, whose center of life was in Germany or they were born there (and several other conditions) to obtain a German passport and citizenship.
Germany is undergoing political changes, after the many years it was led by Chancellor Merkel.
It is possible that these changes and the entry of a new interior minister into office and the expectation of tens or hundreds of thousands of Israeli applications for a German passport, will lead to a stricter tightening of conditions and the closure of the current window of opportunity.
Therefore, it is recommended that anyone who is a descendant of a person who before 1933 lived in Germany or was born between the years 1933-1945 in Germany and was the center of his life there, hurry to apply for citizenship.
The legal procedure for applying for German citizenship
Like most foreign citizenship applications, submitting an Israeli application for German citizenship is a complex legal process.
The body responsible for this is the German Ministry of the Interior and it carries out very careful inspections.
Since this is a legal proceeding conducted entirely in German and according to German law only, it is recommended to use an attorney who is completely fluent in German at the level of legal arguments and not at the level of completing a German language course. German citizenship.
Legal studies in Germany provide the same lawyer with the appropriate tools and legal ability to attack the decisions of the determining factor in Germany - the German Ministry of the Interior, find in German law and case law support for his claims and locate required documents in Germany.
The author is an attorney in Israel, a doctor of law and a notary who deals with the issuance of German citizenship to eligible persons.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
