h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Chez Sho we today received letters confirming that our applications for German citizenship have been approved.

In my municipality which is small and relatively poor, with a high proportion of refugees also applying for citizenship, they don't have ceremonies. You make an appointment, go down, pay your EUR 255 and collect a certificate. That's it. Tbh that's fine by me because I am still really boilingly bloody angry that I've had to do this. For the four of us that's a thousand euros. I'll send the bill to Nigel Farage.

And if we have to give up our British citizenship, that will be over 300 of your British quids each. That bill is going to Boris Johnson. or Rees-Mogg. They can afford it.

Don't forget - that's only the start. I then had to fork out a further 88 Euros for ID card and passport. Plus having photos done.

passport later, I'll use my British one until it expires - the others have 4 or 5 years left on theirs (of course, that's assuming we're able to keep dual citizenship)

I suppose I could have put off the passport thing, but I thought it would be easier for the Esta formalities when travelling from the EU to the US next month.

We don't return till the 30th April which means I really will have to miss out on the meet on 27th.

oh pity you won't be there. I'll be using my British passport for that trip

As far as I know (and you may want to check this again) if you have German citizenship you HAVE to be able to show a German ID.

My husband and I are unsure if we have to get the kids a German ID additionally to their Austrian one if we ever want to visit Germany or if we get away without that. (It's a tedious and expensive trip to the embassy...)

The ID card is clear - in fact for #2 Gruesome who has lost her British passport in the past, because of having to carry ID, getting a Perso was the sole reason for wanting to do this. #1 Gruesome didn't want to do it at all and is going to wait until it's all settled down a bit and apply for Irish citizenship (grandfather rule)

the passport thing will depend on what type of Brexit there is and what the German government say about being allowed to keep a non-EU second citizenship

Thanks for that tip, Tav. We were given one or two info sheets at the time but there was no mention of ID. You were left on your own with that. However, some of the more exotic candidates had to hand in their passports and they were crossed through and invalidated at the ceremony, so they must realise that they need some form of ID.

I do know that you are obliged to carry ID at all times so I'm glad I have a little cheque card now instead of a whole passport.

It's a damn cheek of the German authorities to scribble in another authority's official documents, if you ask me. There was the same outcry back when they realised that people were getting driving licences from Luxembourg and started stamping on the foreign driving licences that the holder also has a German licence. Don't know how they get round that these days as here, too, they are all the little plastic cards.

For example, my old paper German driving licence also had a note on it that it was only valid until my 70th birthday, as the British one had been. This couldn't be transferred to the card version, so now I have an unlimited licence.

Sho, why would you have to give up your British citizenship? And why would you have to pay for it?

https://praxistipps.focus.de/doppelte-staatsbuergerschaft-alle-voraussetzungen_104138

I had not read all posts as they only appeared on my screen after my posting

Meanwhile I found this but have to say this does not make us much wiser. We will have to wait till we know what kind of brexit this all ends up with

https://britishingermany.org/dual-citizenship-the-facts-as-of-october-2018/

yeah - it's all up in the air, so we'll wait and see.

Meanwhile, might you be interested in this?

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jan/22/tell-us-have-you-applied-for-dual-citizenship-due-to-brexit

It'd be funny, were it not so serious, and utterly ing up so many people - that the closer we supposedly are, the less we know what will, or even 'Might'* happen <grr I'm still vaguely hoping that the polititions utter incompetence is so extensive, that the entire thing eventuall falls to pieces under the combined weight of their incompetence and means nothing happens, and so the UK remains in the EU

Some are having field days, though. My daughter being one of them. She flew to Brisbane on Business Class and is staying at the Hilton with all expenses payed because she's giving a lecture on the judicial ramifications of Brexit to her colleagues there.

A gazillion lawyers will benefit also, of course. But then when do they not?

Thanks for the link, Pierce, I'll reply to them

Unfortunately the Guardian poll has finished.

I (re)read the British in Germany thing and it seems quite clear: as the law stands if the 2nd country was an EU country on the day the citizenship was accepted you can keep it. Sounds good to me.

That does sound good, yes. Let's hope it does post Brexit also

Fingers crossed that it does work like that BoB-knows little else to do with the whole car-crash of Brexit seems to work

so this morning I got to my office and called the local authority to make an appointment to get my Citizenship Certificate.
I'm off to China for 10 days on Wednesday, returning in B-Day. So when she realised that the lady said "can you come now, you should get a German ID card right away too. Just in case."

So I am now German. Officially.

And because it's all been done before the actual Brexit we get to keep dual citizenship