Headlines
Germany rescinds fast-track citizenship
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on October 8, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Germany ends its fast-track citizenship program, reflecting changing migration attitudes. The program allowed quicker citizenship for well-integrated individuals.
By Thomas Escritt
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's parliament on Wednesday rescinded a fast-track citizenship programme, reflecting the rapidly shifting mood on migration in Europe's labour-hungry economic powerhouse.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives pledged in this year's election campaign to rescind the legislation, which let the "exceptionally well integrated" gain citizenship in three years instead of five.
"A German passport must come as recognition of a successful integration process and not act as an incentive for illegal immigration," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told parliament.
The rest of the new citizenship law, a signature achievement of previous Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrat-liberal-Green government, will remain intact despite conservative pledges at the time to undo innovations such as dual citizenship and the cut in the waiting period from eight years to five.
The SPD, now junior partners in Merz's coalition, defended their support for the change, saying the fast track was rarely used and the liberalisation's essence remained.
Of 2024's record 300,000 naturalisations, only a few hundred came through the fast track, originally planned as an incentive for the footloose and highly skilled to choose to settle in a Germany which suffers from acute labour shortages.
Candidates must demonstrate achievements such as very good German, voluntary service or professional or scholarly success.
"Germany is in competition to get the best brains in the world, and if those people choose Germany we should do everything possible to keep them," the Greens' Filiz Polat told legislators.
Attitudes towards immigration have soured dramatically, partly because of the strain high migration levels have placed on local services. That shift helped propel the far-right Alternative for Germany party to first place in some polls.
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
Fast-track citizenship allows individuals who meet certain criteria, such as integration and skills, to obtain citizenship more quickly than the standard waiting period.
Dual citizenship is when an individual is recognized as a citizen of two countries simultaneously, allowing them to hold passports and enjoy rights in both nations.
The Interior Minister in Germany is responsible for domestic affairs, including immigration, public safety, and the enforcement of laws related to citizenship.
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