German Citizenship Eligibility Questionnaire

If one of your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents was German, you may have a claim to German citizenship. Whether that is the case depends on the details of your family history – for example, when your ancestor left Germany, whether anyone in the line was naturalized in another country, and whether there were marriages before 1953 or births outside marriage.

Please complete the questionnaire below. Your answers allow us to make a first general assessment of your situation. We will then get back to you.

Passport on a map of Germany

Before you start

  • The questionnaire takes about 10 minutes.
  • Please answer as precisely as you can. If you do not know something, simply answer “unknown”.
  • You do not need to upload any documents at this stage.
  • Helpful to have at hand, if available: names, years and places of birth for each generation, the year your ancestor left Germany, and dates of naturalization and marriage.

Section 1 – About you

Section 2 – Your German ancestor

Section 3 – Each generation from your German ancestor down to you

Please describe each person in the line, starting with the child of your German ancestor and ending with you. For each person, please state:

  • Name, year of birth, country of birth
  • Through whom the line continues – this person’s mother or father
  • Whether this person’s parents were married to each other at the time of birth (yes / no / unknown)
  • Whether this person ever naturalized in another country, and if so in which year
  • For women in the line: whether she married a non-German citizen before April 1, 1953, and if so in which year

Please include as much information as possible. The more details you share about each generation, the better we can assess your situation.

Section 4 – Special circumstances

Section 5 – Family members and documents

23. Which documents do you already have? *
The questionnaire is a free screening tool. It is not legal advice, and submitting it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Your information is treated confidentially and used only to respond to your inquiry, as described in our Privacy Policy.