German Citizenship for Iraqi Citizens

Yes. Article 10 of the Iraqi Nationality Law No. 26 of 2006 says an Iraqi who obtains a foreign nationality keeps Iraqi nationality unless they declare in writing that they renounce it. Germany has not required you to give up your previous citizenship since 27 June 2024.

We found no such duty in the Nationality Law or the 2014 implementing instructions. Note that Iraqi courts apply Iraqi law to dual nationals, and dual nationals cannot hold a high security or sovereign post in Iraq unless they give up the other nationality.

The Iraqi Embassy in Berlin offers renunciation for people living in Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. You need the application, all original Iraqi documents and your original German ID or naturalisation certificate. It takes effect from the date of the director-general's decision. The 2014 instructions add that minor children of the person who renounces lose Iraqi nationality "owing to their father".

Yes. The Embassy in Berlin issues electronic passports; for adults only on the basis of the national card, with the old passport and in person. The first issue costs $73.06. The national card itself is not available in Berlin; you can apply through the Consulate General in Frankfurt.

It decides itself. German missions stopped legalising Iraqi documents because their authenticity and content cannot be checked. Whether a document is accepted as genuine is at the discretion of the authority, which can also have it examined by the state police.

It depends on your protection status and your case. If you have refugee status or subsidiary protection, ask your Einbürgerungsbehörde, and if you wish a counselling service or a lawyer, before you contact the Iraqi embassy or Iraqi authorities. The authority decides what can reasonably be expected of you in your case. The Federal Administrative Court expects a passport first; other evidence is possible if getting one is objectively impossible or cannot reasonably be expected of you, and the court names refugees' fear that contacting their home country could lead to reprisals against others as one such reason. The federal application guidance says that, in discretionary naturalisation, the procedure should be made easier and faster for holders of a refugee travel document (recognised asylum seekers and Geneva Convention refugees, not people with subsidiary protection), and that difficulties in obtaining documents should be taken into account. Berlin's 2022 guidance, which binds only Berlin's offices, says getting a passport is in principle reasonable even for recognised refugees and people with subsidiary protection. It says you must credibly explain in your own case why it is not, and that refugee status, but usually not subsidiary protection alone, must be taken into account. Berlin's country-by-country annexes were not available to us.

13,792 Iraqi citizens were naturalised in 2025, after 13,545 in 2024 (Destatis). They had lived in Germany for 9.0 years on average, compared with 12.4 years for all new citizens.