Germany passes new law on fraudulent citizenship applications

A new law will see people who are found to have submitted fraudulent German citizenship applications be blocked from reapplying for 10 years.

10-year block for fraudulent citizenship applicants

Members of the Bundestag have passed a CDU/CSU-SPD proposal to amend the German Nationality Act. The amendment outlines that people who have falsified information as part of their German citizenship application will be blocked from reapplying for 10 years.

“We are introducing a 10-year ban on naturalisation for anyone who commits fraud. This applies in particular to anyone who wants to become a German citizen using forged language certificates,” CDU/CSU representative Alexander Thom told tabloid newspaper Bild.

Generally, people applying to naturalise as German citizens must have lived in Germany for at least five years and prove they have learnt German to B1 level or higher. 

Under Section 35 of the German Nationality Act, authorities already have the power to revoke citizenship in cases of fraud. If someone naturalises as a German citizen and is later found to have falsified parts of their application, authorities can revoke their German citizenship so long as it was granted within the past 10 years.

Stern and RTL report prompted new law

Alongside a general swing to more restrictive immigration and citizenship policies in Germany, the coalition government’s Nationality Act amendment was prompted by an investigation published by Stern and RTL. 

The magazine and public broadcaster found that criminal networks were using social media, namely TikTok, to sell fraudulent German language certificates to prospective citizenship applicants for around 1.500 euros per document. 

While the Stern and RTL report claims that “thousands of language certificates have been falsified”, it also states plainly that there are still no official figures to support claims that fraudulent citizenship applications are a widespread problem.

The Federal Administrative Office has revoked German citizenship from 1.009 people in the past five years and 270 of these revocations happened in 2025. However, according to the Stern report, “it is not recorded whether the revocation of naturalisation was due to forged certificates”.

Even if we assume that all 1.009 people had their citizenship revoked because they were found to have falsified documents, this group would still make up a tiny percentage of the hundreds of thousands of residents whose applications are processed and deemed to meet all legal requirements.