Mild irritation. That was my main feeling when I walked out of Rathaus Schoeneberg on Monday afternoon with my German citizenship certificate in hand. The morning had consisted of “a series of unfortunate events” that made crossing the finish line a rather unceremonious affair.
First, I discovered the reason why I had not received a letter telling me that I could pick up my citizenship document. We recently moved to a new apartment and we neglected to register our new address with the authorities. Yes, we should have known that this is a legal requirement in Germany, but since we only moved a short distance within our district we didn’t think about it. Frau Mittag at Rathaus Schoeneberg had our new address, but she still sent the letter to our old address where we were registered. When I asked her why she had not informed me that the letter was being sent to the old address, she said that she was unable to let me know since I was not registered at my new address. Living in the modern digital age is no guarantee that a German bureaucrat is willing to use the phone or email! The letter sat for over a month at our old address where our landlord had more important things to do than let me know about it (though I had asked him to do this).
But another unfortunate event looms much larger in this story. My husband also applied for his German citizenship and we had decided to put our three children on his application. On August 26th, Brian learned that his citizenship would be approved along with the applications for two of our three children. Apparently there was an issue with our adopted son’s application and we would be informed at the local level about it. But when Brian also received his citizenship approval letter on Monday, it made no mention of our son Sam. I stared at the letter for a long time searching in vain for some mention of our third child.
When I met with Frau Mittag expecting that she would clear up the mystery about Sam, she proceeded to tell me in rapid-fire German what we would need to do next to have his application approved. As she read in detail from the file, I sat before her, somewhat uncomprehending, waiting for her to hand me a letter or form or something with instructions about what must be done. But she had nothing to give me and refused to copy any of the pertinent correspondence from the file for me. She then wanted to know if the other two children would be coming in personally to pick up their certificates! My very cold response made it clear that we would not bring in the two children unless their little brother was getting his certificate too.
So four out of five of us have crossed the finish line and are German citizens. Sam is our legally adopted son and we hope that all we need to do is show his notarized or apostilled adoption papers to take care of this final piece of red tape. We did not bring his adoption papers to Germany because he has a U.S. passport and birth certificate. The only assistance Frau Mittag gave me was to write down the name of the office where I need to go next: Amtsgericht Schoeneberg.
I’d like to post a picture of our smiling family on the steps of Rathaus Schoeneberg holding our citizenship papers, but that picture will have to wait. After a 16 month struggle to obtain my German citizenship, I hope the next wait is not that long.
Donna Swarthout 
Frau Mittag would fit in at our local US Post Office, in Salem Oregon.
On the other hand in Germany vs, the US: I have been told: The trains run on time…..
Yes, the trains are wonderful and usually do run on time!
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I’m so sorry Sammy has not yet been granted his rights as a German citizen. I hope that hurdle is jumped and he gets his citizenship papers tout de suite.
I do remember the bureaucracy of getting things approved in Berlin. I knew some of the ins-and-outs before arriving a second time, so arrived pretty well-prepared. I few things I knew then (or in the case of bank accounts, know now):
1) Get everything you may need to support you (evidence of funding, or whatever) notarized a hundred times (even if a notary is not required). The more stamps the better. Germans like that official stuff…
2) Bring extra personal ID even if you can’t possibly imagine why you would need it. A Costco photo ID served as corroborating evidence of my identity once because it had a photo on the back.
3) Always register right away wherever you live and be sure to update it fairly quickly after moving. I don’t know if there is a penalty for not doing it (fine or potential arrest?), but I had the impression there was.
4) Always officially close your Bank Konto when you leave. Mine was still there years later and I was treated as if I were some uncouth person for not having dealt with it properly. I was told I could not open a Konto because I already had one at another bank.
5) Always carry your passport with you wherever you go. My memory was that you could be arrested or otherwise detained for not having it on your person.
I don’t know if things have lightened up in the past 20 years, but I remember feeling as if I were in a police state with all of these restrictions on my movement without official documentation in hand. Of course, I was younger then so things scared me more easily than they do now. The requirements that I be ID’d up the wazoo or risk arrest certainly made an impression on me. Also the policemen with submachine guns at the end of the block (it was a courthouse). I was treated well when I went through getting visa extensions, but I saw others who were treated very poorly – mostly those with poor language skills or non-European/N. American passports. Back then, immigration was notorious for shipping people back to their home countries in the middle of the night if there visas were not approved. A Turk who was seeking political asylum jumped out of the window to keep from being shipped back where he was assured to be tortured (again). Kind of reminds me of some of our southern border immigration problems in the US.
Does this thing have autocorrect? I don’t how ‘their’ became ‘there’ — I hate typos!
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