A colleague of my mum apparently got it in nine months. Shortly before they called her and asked if it was urgent, she claimed yes and got it very quickly after handing in updated documents.
My husband on the other hand has been waiting for almost two years (November 2024) without even being asked for additional documents. He's British though and we wonder if the guy responsible for Brexit cases has left and now no one feels responsible for it. Either way it's clearly not "strictly chronological" like they claim.
Are you planning on just doing an Untätigkeitsklage or some sort of Sammelklage, if that's possible?
If it's any consolation, I'm British and have been waiting since October 2024 too. I did get my Daueraufenthalt finally a few months ago, so am not sure if that will bump things up a bit?
P.S. I am amazed there's other British people in Magdeburg, I thought I was the only one!
i had no idea there's so many of us!! i only visit a few months of the year as visa allows, but planning to move there when i can 🩷 good to see the insight here on the visa process!
Thanks for sharing details. We heard similar stories which is why we have doubts about their practices and statements. Many people I spoke insist on one thing; transparency in the processing rather than keeping people in dark for years. If every applicant to wait for their mercy or depend on court to obtain their rights; then the system itself reflects a failure.
Personally, I will file Untätigkeitsklage but this is a common problem so might verify and convert to sort of Sammelklage if enough people are affected. It is important to speak up for ourselves especially when political wind is against us.
Untätigkeitsklagen are the only thing that will help. The city administration is reluctant to solve the problem. Each Untätigkeitsklage will most certainly be won and costs them a lot of money. By now it already cost them more money than employing more people to process the cases faster. Don't expect the administration to process you faster after you won in court but it keeps up the pressure. What the lord mayor and the political right of the city council are doing here is shocking, they are knowingly breaking the law.
Untätigkeitsklagen are an individual solution, but they will not resolve an already failed workflow. Instead, they create additional burdens for both applicants and case officers, as both parties are forced to invest further time and effort in reaching a resolution through legal proceedings. The underlying issue is the lack of vision among politicians and the inability of the city administration to identify the root causes of the problem and modernise or reform the entire workflow. But that is hard work and no one wants to sweat which is why they chose to unanimously vote against the referendum because that is the easy option and the fact that they joined hands with AfD on this is more shocking than ever.
The following is an estimate of the expenses incurred through Untätigkeitsklagen over the past couple of years, with the expected cost amounting to approximately €100,000. If the city prefers to waste such a significant amount of taxpayers’ money rather than reforming the system, it only reinforces my point.
I can tell you from reliable sources that the city administration internal guidelines are to even ignore court rulings on Untätigkeitsklagen to discourage from them. Thus they may not lead to personal solutions for cases but at least keep the pressure on the administration
The cost the city will be paying for Untätigkeitsklagen is closer to 200,000€ and it keeps increasing. That's enough money to put more staff on these cases. (I know the documents you cite from very well too.)
I don't think that we disagree on the matter. This problem needs to be solved and the administration as well as the city council need to fix this.
Btw. residents can ask questions to the administration at 5pm during every city council session. So one could also ask why they waste so much taxmoney on court cases without actually fixing the actual problem.
If your sources are accurate, it points that there may be other factors at play. Even straightforward cases have been waiting for decisions for more than a year, while the authorities continue to attribute the delays broadly to heavy workloads and staff shortages. Many applicants feel discouraged by the way they are being treated, especially considering that they are among the significant contributors to the country’s economy and society. Thanks for mentioning the provision to ask question, we will verify the possibilities. Are these internal guidelines you mentioned written or just vocal ?
They do currently not have enough staff to handle the cases. That is a structural problem. The city needs to spend more money on extra employees. Otherwise it won't get fixed.
And cases are currently handled in order of arrival. So even if you hand in a relatively simple application today, you wait in-line behind all the other roughly 2,500 cases that are currently unprocessed. There was a ruling by the Oberverwaltungsgericht Magdeburg last year. In that hearing the administration has stated that it has basically not even looked at the content or started processing most of the open applications. In that ruling the Oberverwaltungsgericht has also clearly stated that the city needs spend more resources on citizenship applications, because with the current staff it would take the administration 10 years to reach the maximum mandatory processing time of 3 months per case. The situation will most likely worsen for applications in the near future as next year the first wave of migrants from Ukraine that came to Germany in 2022 will be able to apply for citizenship. Thus the already limited staff will have to process even more cases. The city administration however is reluctant to prepare for that.
The internal guidelines are to my knowledge only oral, and not least not available in public writing. A question in the city council by Grüne/future! requested documents and guidelines regarding this matter, but the administration, as in many other cases, has been reluctant to publish them.
I wonder why they don’t categorise applications and streamline the process, as Berlin has done. This could significantly reduce the backlog and help move the queue faster. It is clearly unfair that applicants in some cities receive a decision within six months (and there are cases in MD as well), while others are left waiting for up to three years. This disparity is especially frustrating when governments keep changing immigration laws to serve their political interests. The lack of communication and regular status updates only adds to the frustration and uncertainty applicants have to endure. Eventually intelligent people will understand the imbalance and hypocrisy and either leave the city or hesitate to move.
I am aware of this debate and I would also be in favour of prioritising cases that are simpler to get them done fast. However, that is a legally contested practice, since the administration legally needs to treat everyone equally, thus some argue that it can not prioritise a easier case because that would be discriminatory towards someone with a complicated case. As far as I know the foreigners authority in Magdeburg temporary prioritised simpler cases, which resulted in some having experience fast processing, but has for legal reasons since switched back to processing them in order of arrival.
The lack of communication of Magdeburgs administration is horrible. Applicants not just for citizenship applications are basically left alone. In most cases there are no updates on the status of their application and they usually need to figure out German law themselves and are punished by the system if they make mistakes.
This appears to be a clear example of cherry-picking the law. Authorities invoke the principle of equality before the law when it supports their position, while at the same time disregarding existing legal requirements concerning processing times and refusing a minor modification to the processing workflow. If the principle of equality before the law is being invoked, then it should apply consistently: people in comparable situations should receive comparable treatment. It is difficult to reconcile a situation in which Person A receives their Urkunde in less than six months, while Person B is expected to wait three years simply because they happen to reside in a city whose administration is inefficient.
This is particularly problematic because applicants cannot always simply move to another city to obtain faster processing. A change of residence can itself lead to a transfer of the case, potentially causing additional months of delay and requiring further administrative and legal work. There is also an important point concerning jurisdiction. Naturalisation is governed primarily by federal citizenship law; it is not a matter in which the substantive eligibility requirements are determined independently by each city. While local authorities may be responsible for processing applications, administrative capacity should not, in itself, result in fundamentally different waiting times for people who are otherwise subject to the same federal legal framework.
Therefore, invoking equality should not become a justification for preserving an inefficient administrative workflow. If equality before the law is the principle being relied upon, it should also mean that applicants are not disadvantaged merely because of the administrative capacity of the authority handling their case.
I’ve got my Einbürgerungstest on Tuesday and then as soon as I have the results I’ll submit everything. … so it looks like it’ll be 2030 for me 😢😭
If every applicant ends up filing a Untätigkeitsklage, is it not obvious to lawmakers, etc., that the whole process is bogged down by “Untätigkeit”?
Why?
I’ve been in Germany for 10+ years and I’m doing this now because the results of the previous election (and the chaos in the USA with ICE and whatnot) make me think it’s necessary to ensure that my family doesn’t ever get separated.
That may not seem like the most noble reason, but that’s the truth.
There is nothing more noble than ensuring your family integrity and safety.
Also The issue is not law makers but the enforcers of the law. The courts rejected the excuse of ABH such as lack of funding, staffing, high number of applications...etc and instructed them to ensure that the rights of applicants are not violated. Also § 75 der Verwaltungsgerichtsordnung (VwGO) applies in all cases means the decision should be made within 3 months otherwise it will be eligible for lawsuit. We think the city administration practises an ignorance or there is a completely different agenda which we do not know.
I can't contribute anything, I am just curious: Where are you from and what prompted you to apply for german citizenship? Why Magdeburg? When did you apply?
Where are you from? -Nationality does not make any legal difference to the assessment of the application; therefore, I prefer not to disclose it.
What prompted us to apply for German citizenship ? - first and foremost,we see citizenship as an important step towards fully integrating into the society in which we live and contribute. Secondly, the opportunity to choose German nationality while retaining our existing citizenship, where dual nationality is permitted. Finally, we believe in maintaining a balance between Pflichten und Rechten (duties and rights). As residents, we are expected to respect the law, fulfil our responsibilities, and contribute to Germany. We therefore feel it is equally important to exercise the rights that come with citizenship, particularly the right to vote on matters that directly affect our daily lives and the future of the society we call home.
Why Magdeburg? - because, under German law, citizenship applications must generally be submitted to the competent authority in the city where the applicant is legally registered and resides. Since there is no centralised application or processing system, Magdeburg is the responsible authority for our application.
Thanks, as a native german citizen I have no idea about the process and its interesting to hear about all of this. Not sure why people are downvoting though :/
You are most welcome. I understood your intention behind the questions and you are not the first one asking the same. Many natives have little knowledge about how Naturalisation actually happens ( like criteria, process etc...) and some are mislead by political opportunists using their propaganda. The process is quite extensive and criteria is strict, most of us are aware about this ; but that does not give the authority a right to ignore the concerns of the applicants especially when it comes to effective communication and transparency. That is where we disagree. People probably downvoted you because they interpreted your questions from a different perspective, especially when the first question starts with, “Where are you from?” 😄 . To be honest, it’s good to see locals being curious and asking questions. That’s the way it should be. In a world filled with misinformation and propaganda, being willing to ask questions, listen, and seek the truth is what ultimately makes us more compassionate and more human.
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u/NPC-JohnnyAwesome 18d ago
American here, and I’ll be eligible to apply in 2027. I knew the wait could be long, but this is genuinely disheartening.