Thanks to new digitised and streamlined processes implemented at the beginning of this year, Berlin is now processing new citizenship applications up to three times faster, Tagesspiegel reports. 

Berlin has already naturalised 6.500 people this year

Up until now, anyone who applied for German citizenship in Berlin could reckon on a lengthy, lengthy wait. At the beginning of this year, however, the State Office for Immigration (LEA) centralised and digitised the application process to get things moving faster, and it seems that the new approach is paying off. 

LEA told Tagesspiegel that, as of July 14, 2024, it had already naturalised 6.534 people this year, 5.900 of them since April 1 alone. It has processed almost as many applications in the last three months as it did in nine months in previous years, meaning applications are proceeding three times more quickly. The LEA has also completed the mammoth task of digitising 40.000 unprocessed applications, the oldest of which dates back to 2005. 

LEA expects to process 20.000 German citizenship applications in 2024

Since the beginning of this year, the LEA has been the central processing point for citizenship applications submitted in Berlin. Before this, district offices were responsible and were struggling to keep up with the volume of applications, with the backlog swelling.

The rejig of the process has therefore come at just the right time as the number of new applications has surged in the wake of the dual citizenship law being passed in Germany. According to Tagesspiegel, LEA received over 24.000 naturalisation applications from the start of this year to mid-July, and processed an average of 139 applications per day in the second week of July. It expects to hit its target of processing 20.000 this year. 

It explained that applications submitted since the beginning of the year have been processed faster; older applications are taking longer. If you are waiting on an old application, it is possible to submit a new digital application - which should be processed more quickly - but at a cost of 255 euros.