by Laura Block 

A new law reforming the so-called „option duty“came into force on 20 December 2014. From now on, most ius soli children, provided they have lived in Germany for eight years, have attended school there for six years, or have obtained a German school leaving certificate, will not have to choose between their parents’ and their German citizenship upon turning 21 years, but will be able to keep both. 

However, as dual nationality continues to be highly disputed matter, the law represents only a political compromise. The option duty was not completely scrapped and will still lead to withdrawal of German citizenship from young German-born adults in certain cases. In fact, in a response to a parliamentary inquiry by the Left Party the government revealed that prior to the reform, 553 individuals had their German passports withdrawn due to the option duty until November 2014, up from 248 at the beginning of 2014. No exceptions or facilitated re-naturalisation procedures have been planned for this group. 

Read the news item on the German government site and the Press Release by MP Sevim Dagdelen (in German).