Apply for naturalisation for foreigners without naturalisation entitlement

• You have been legally resident in Germany for at least five years without interruption. Your stay must be permanent.
• Your identity and nationality have been established.
• You have legal capacity or legal representation.
• You have an unlimited right of residence or a qualified residence permit.
• You and your family members run a household independently in Germany. Your living conditions are centred in Germany.
• If you are at least 16 years old at the time of naturalisation: You are committed to the free democratic basic order of the Basic Law. This also includes a declaration against anti-constitutional or extremist endeavours, Germany's special historical responsibility for the National Socialist reign of injustice and its consequences, in particular for the protection of Jewish life, for the peaceful coexistence of peoples and for the prohibition of waging a war of aggression.
• You finance the living expenses for yourself and your dependants sustainably and permanently without recourse to public funds. In principle, the receipt of child benefit does not prevent naturalisation. Benefits to secure your livelihood in accordance with the Second or Twelfth Book of the German Social Security Code (citizens' allowance, basic income support for jobseekers, social assistance) are generally not an obstacle to naturalisation. If you receive other benefits such as unemployment benefit, parental allowance, maintenance allowance, housing benefit or education support, your naturalisation authority will check whether you will be able to finance your livelihood in the future without receiving such benefits.
• You are exempt from punishment. This does not apply: Educational measures or disciplinary measures under the Juvenile Courts Act, fines of up to 90 daily rates, prison sentences of up to three months that have been suspended and remitted after the probation period has expired. Convictions for unlawful anti-Semitic, racist or other inhuman offences are never disregarded.
• You have sufficient knowledge of the German language. You fulfil the requirements of the language test for the German B1 certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or have acquired sufficient knowledge of German by attending school or obtaining a school-leaving certificate.
• They have knowledge of the legal and social order and living conditions in Germany. You can prove this either by successfully completing a naturalisation test or by providing a certificate from a German general school (at least secondary school). The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees provides further information on the naturalisation test. Addresses and dates of the adult education centres in Baden-Württemberg where you can take the naturalisation test can be found on the websites of the adult education centres.
• You accept the basic principles of the social and legal order applicable in Germany. Acts motivated by anti-Semitism, racism or other misanthropic behaviour are incompatible with the guarantee of human dignity in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany and violate the free democratic basic order within the meaning of this law.

Note: There are many exceptions and special features to these basic naturalisation requirements that cannot be described here.

Naturalisation is excluded

• if there are factual indications that you are pursuing or supporting anti-constitutional or extremist endeavours or have done so in the past and cannot credibly demonstrate that you have turned away from pursuing or supporting such endeavours in the past,
• if there are factual indications that justify the assumption that the content of your commitment to the free democratic basic order or the extended commitment is incorrect,
• in the case of an existing polygamous marriage,
• if your behaviour shows that you disregard the equal rights of men and women laid down in the Basic Law.