German Citizenship for Syrian Citizens

Germany allows it: since 27 June 2024 you no longer have to give up your previous citizenship. By the text of the Syrian Nationality Act in the Refworld (UNHCR) English translation, Syrian citizenship is not lost automatically when you become German; it ends only through a decree permitting it. Without that permission you stay Syrian, but the same article makes acquiring a foreign citizenship without permission an offence.

We found no official text amending Legislative Decree No. 276 of 1969 after the change of government in December 2024. That does not prove nothing has changed, so check with a lawyer or the Syrian authorities if this matters for you.

Article 10(2) of the decree, in the Refworld translation, sets 1 to 3 months' detention and a fine of 500 to 2,000 Syrian pounds, or one of them, for acquiring a foreign citizenship without permission. A case can only be brought with the Minister's written recommendation. We found no official source on whether this is applied in practice.

Not for legalisation. The German Embassy in Beirut states that documents issued by the Syrian Embassy in Berlin or the Syrian Consulate General in Bonn cannot be legalised, nor can documents that only carry a certification by a Syrian mission.

Your identity still has to be clarified. The Federal Administrative Court set steps: passport or official photo ID first, then other official documents such as birth certificates, then non-official documents or witnesses, and exceptionally your own credible statements. You move to the next step only if you cannot prove your identity at the earlier one despite full cooperation. If doubts remain, the risk lies with you, according to the federal application guidance.

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 Syrian embassy or Syrian 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.

65,775 Syrian citizens were naturalised in 2025, after 83,185 in 2024 (Destatis). They had lived in Germany for 8.0 years on average, compared with 12.4 years for all new citizens.