After living in Germany for five years you can apply for a German permanent visa, and after eight years you can become a German citizenship.

Once you have had a German residence permit for a period of time (usually five years) you may apply for a German permanent visa, and after eight years you may be able to apply for German citizenship.

There are three ways to stay in Germany permanently: permanent EC residence, a settlement permit and naturalisation. The first two are very similar, the main difference being that the former allows you to live and work elsewhere in the EU.

Permanent EC residence

If you have been living in Germany on a residence permit for five years, and satisfy certain other conditions, then you are entitled to stay on in Germany indefinitely on a permanent EC resident permit. Once you have this permit, whether it’s from Germany or another EU country, then you can live elsewhere in the EU permanently, too.

You must:

• have been living in Germany for five, uninterrupted, years;
• have a secure livelihood with health insurance and provision for retirement (pension);
• have adequate living space;
• possess adequate German language skills and a basic knowledge of German life, legal and social systems (by taking an integration course);
• not have a criminal record.

If you hold a permanent EC resident permit from another EU country, to stay in Germany longer than three months you’ll also need to have a valid passport or ID, and provide information on your planned employment or study.

Settlement permit

A settlement permit also allows you to stay in Germany permanently. It is very similar to the permanent EC resident title except that it does not allow you to move around the EU, and, in certain conditions, you can get it much sooner than five years.

For example:

• Highly qualified people may be issued with a settlement permit immediately.
• Graduates of a German higher education institute may be able to get a settlement permit after two years.
• EU Blue Card holders can apply after working 33 months (or just 21 months with a level B1 language certificate).
• Self-employed people, with an established business and secure livelihood, may be able to get a settlement permit after three years.

Depending on your own circumstances, you may have to prove that you have adequate German language skills, are able to support yourself financially, have health insurance, and do not have a criminal record.

For more information on these types of permits, and to apply, you’ll need to contact your foreign affairs office. To find yours, click here.

German citizenship

Once you have been living permanently in Germany for eight years, you can apply to be a naturalised German citizen.

Becoming a German citizen not only means that you’re more fully integrated into, and accepted by, German society but it also gives you the same rights and legal status as other German citizens – which the permanent residence permits do not. You will have the inalienable right to live in Germany, have basic constitutional rights (such as the freedom of assembly and association), you can vote, move freely through the EU, have consular protection and be exempt from certain visa requirements – plus be eligible to become a civil servant.

Requirements

If you want to be naturalised, most people will need to pass an hour-long naturalisation test (on legal and social aspects of life in Germany) and fulfill certain basic requirements.

You must:

• have right of residence at the time of naturalisation;
• have been living in Germany permanently and lawfully for eight years (seven if you’ve attended an integration course; six in special circumstances);
• be able to support yourself and dependent family members without the help of welfare or unemployment benefits;
• have adequate oral and written German language skills (equivalent to level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages);
• have no criminal convictions;
• be committed to the constitutional principles of freedom and democracy; and
• renounce your former nationality, unless you’re from an EU member state or the former Soviet Union, you’re the child of parents from the US, or you’re from a country, such as Morocco, Syria or Iran, that does not allow their citizens to relinquish their citizenship. In these cases you can have dual citizenship.

If you do not fulfil every single condition, then you may be granted a discretionary naturalisation, if it is deemed that your naturalisation would be in the public interest.

Not everyone needs to take the test. Exemptions occur if you:

• are under 16,
• have graduated from a German school or from German higher education in law, social, political or administrative sciences, or
• don’t meet the testing requirements through illness, disability or age are exempt.

How to apply

You’ll need to get an application form from your local foreign affairs office, youth migration services, immigration advice service or adult immigrants, or the town council or local authority. To find your local foreign affairs office, click here.

Spouses and partners

If you are married to a German national, you don’t automatically become a German citizen yourself. Certain criteria have to be met, including having been married for two years and legally residing in Germany for three years.

Parents can apply for children under 16 years of age; those aged 16 or over can submit an application themselves.

The naturalisation test

The test, which lasts one hour, consists of 33 multiple choice questions on different areas – ‘Living in a democracy’, ‘History and responsibility’ and ‘People in society’ – including some specific questions about the particular state in which you live.

You have to pass at least 17 questions correctly to pass the test, and you can re-sit it if you don’t. If you pass, you’ll be given a certificate to show to the naturalisation authorities.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has more information about the test including how to prepare, free online tests, and where to take it.

If you give birth while you’re living in Germany

If one of the parents has been living in Germany for the eight years and has a permanent right of residence, a baby born to foreign nationals on German soil automatically takes German nationality, along with the nationality of the parents. When the child reaches 18 years old, he or she has five years to choose between German nationality and the nationality of the parents.