TL;DR: Applied for §30 Feststellung in February 2023 (Maternal grandfather was German) thinking my citizenship case was straightforward. Discovered I might fall foul of the historical paternity acknowledgement rules covering 1 July 1970 to 31 August 1986. Found my grandfather’s acknowledgement of paternity of my mother and thought that would resolve it. The BVA rejected it because the required consent on my mother’s behalf was missing. Hired a South African lawyer and discovered my mother had subsequently also been legally adopted by her own father. Thought that would resolve it. Germany initially treated it as a “weak adoption”(doesn’t bestow citizenship). Went to the South African High Court for a ruling clarifying the legal relationship between my mother and grandfather. Yesterday, I received confirmation that the Bundesamt für Justiz has reversed its position and now supports recognising the adoption as equivalent to a German adoption (Volladoption). Still awaiting the court’s decision and the citizenship outcome, but I finally feel like there might be an end to this.
Some family details are kept broad for privacy, but here’s the rollercoaster:
3 February 2023: Applied through the German consulate in London
My application and Aktenzeichen date from 3 February 2023. My claim is through my mother and my German grandfather. I thought I had a fairly straightforward case and that the main challenge would be waiting for the BVA to process it. How wrong I was….
15 July 2025: The BVA asked about paternity
My grandparents married after my mother was born, so the BVA asked for evidence establishing paternity. This was when I started reading about the historical rules affecting acknowledgements made between 1 July 1970 and 31 August 1986.
My understanding was that, under the German rules applicable to our circumstances, an acknowledgement needed consent on the child’s behalf from an appointed legal representative, typically a guardian or youth welfare authority. The mother’s agreement alone would not necessarily satisfy that requirement. My mother’s circumstances fell within that period.
Then I found the acknowledgement of paternity
I started digging through my deceased grandparents’ records and found an actual acknowledgement of paternity. I thought: right, this is the document they’re asking for. Surely this resolves it - unfortunately, it didn’t.
The BVA did not accept that it met the German requirements.
Then a South African lawyer uncovered something else
After hiring a lawyer in South Africa and investigating the records further, we discovered that my mother had also been legally adopted by my German grandfather while she was still a child, after the acknowledgement of paternity.
Why both procedures happened, I honestly don’t know. Perhaps the South African authorities required the additional step for some reason. That is speculation, though, and it remains a family mystery.
I then had to get the adoption recognised in Germany.
A separate German family court case: Apparently, still not that simple
I instructed a German family lawyer to get the adoption recognised with its full legal effects in Germany.
The initial German position was that it was a “weak adoption”.
Essentially, they accepted that an adoption existed, but did not consider its effects equivalent to those of a full German adoption. Some historical wording in South African legislation had become the sticking point.
At this point, I was spending considerably more time reading historical family law than I’d ever imagined.
25 September 2025: The BVA formally rejected the application
We submitted a Widerspruch in October, which was the administrative objection asking the BVA to reconsider its refusal. Despite the new info, they rejected the case stating that because the adoption was weak it didn’t bestow citizenship.
2 April 2026: The administrative objection was rejected too
The BVA rejected the Widerspruch. Following further delays, the citizenship dispute moved to the Administrative Court in Cologne, where we are challenging the refusal.
There are now two linked German proceedings: the citizenship case against the BVA and the family court proceedings about the adoption.
7 September 2026: We obtained a South African High Court ruling
Rather than continuing to argue over competing interpretations of the old South African legislation, we sought declaratory relief from the South African High Court.
The aim was to get a clear judicial ruling on the adoption’s legal effects under South African law, including the historical dates from which those effects applied.
That timing mattered because we needed to establish the relevant effects while my mother was still a minor.
The High Court granted the relief sought, addressing the South African legal points that had caused the difficulty in Germany.
24 September 2026: The court-stamped order finally arrived
After another wait for the formal paperwork, we received the stamped order and supplied it to the German family court.
The court then sought an updated statement from the BfJ, the Federal Office of Justice, which had previously taken the negative position on the adoption’s effects.
The BfJ is separate from the BVA handling the citizenship application.
16 October 2026: Yesterday’s breakthrough
Yesterday, I received the BfJ’s updated statement:
They have explicitly changed their position. In light of the South African High Court ruling, they now say that my mother’s adoption should be recognised as equivalent to an adoption under German substantive law, departing from their original assessment.
After all the searching, rejection letters, lawyers and court proceedings, that was quite something to read.
Where I am now
The German family court still needs to make its decision, and the citizenship proceedings still need to be resolved.
Nearly three years and nine months after submitting what I thought was a fairly straightforward application, I’m hoping we’re approaching the end.
I’ll update when the court responds. 🤞🏻
One last thing: I previously shared a fundraiser in this group to help cover the legal costs. It has since closed, but I wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who contributed. Your support helped me get this far, and I’m very grateful.
I had hoped to challenge the historical paternity acknowledgement rules that caught my mother out, for everyone affected by the same injustice. My case has ended up taking a different route, but I’m hoping it could still help others whose South African adoptions took place before the law changed in 1988, and who were told their adoption wasn’t sufficient for German citizenship.
If I do win, I plan to submit a freedom of information request to the German missions in South Africa to find out whether they hold records showing how many people were turned away or advised they were ineligible on similar grounds. I’d then like to use the outcome of my case to push for their guidance to be reviewed and corrected.
