Immigration

How Long Does German Citizenship Take?

What the federal government and the naturalisation authorities themselves say about processing times, city by city, and what the law lets you do when nothing happens.

How long does the naturalisation process take?

The federal government's citizenship portal says to expect a processing time of 18 months or longer, depending on the individual case. There is no nationwide statistic. The authorities that publish a figure state between about 12 months and about three years, and they measure different things: some state the whole procedure, others only the wait for an appointment. Berlin states no figure at all. In 2025, 469,597 applications were filed and 372,127 procedures were completed across Germany.

Start Practicing Free

Free telc B1 Modelltest — practise online with answers

Real tasks from every section in the authentic exam format. You see the answer straight after each task — no PDF to download.

What the Authorities State

In alphabetical order. The statements measure different things, so they cannot be ranked against each other. Most city pages show no date. We read them on 12 and 13 October 2026.

City	Statement	What it measures
Augsburg	About 1.5 to 2 years	Processing time
Bochum	About 12 months	Processing time
Bonn	Applications from August 2024 are being processed	Applications currently being processed
Bremen	Applications from the fourth quarter of 2023 are being completed (7 October 2026)	Applications currently being completed
Darmstadt	About 24 months (Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt, 31 August 2026)	Wait until processing starts
Dresden	About three years (September 2026)	Wait from application
Düsseldorf	More than 12 months on average	Whole procedure
Essen	At least 12 months	Processing time
Freiburg	At least one and a half years	Whole procedure
Hamburg	More than 14 months on average	Average processing time
Karlsruhe	About 20 months	Processing time
Cologne	About 12 months	Wait for an appointment
Leipzig	Requests from October and November 2023 are expected to be handled by the end of November 2026	Position in the waiting list
Munich	18 months and longer	Processing time
Nuremberg	Several months	Processing time, no figure given
Stuttgart	At least 21 months	Processing time
Wiesbaden	About 24 months (Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt, 31 August 2026)	Wait until processing starts

Source: Each authority's own page, listed under Sources. Federal portal for comparison. · City pages read on 12 and 13 October 2026

Authorities That State No Time

City	What the authority says
Berlin	Gives no forecast and says longer processing times are to be expected. The Senate has stated that the duration is not recorded.
Mainz	Mentions long waiting times because of the high number of requests, without a figure.
Heidelberg	Two city pages give different statements, over one year and under one year.
Dortmund, Hanover, Duisburg, Bielefeld, Münster, Mannheim, Aachen, Kiel	No processing time on the naturalisation page.

Source: Berlin Landesamt für Einwanderung: Einbürgerung · City pages read on 12 and 13 October 2026

Hesse: Averages Published by the State

Average duration from the start of processing at the regional authorities, for procedures completed in each year. About 56,000 decisions were outstanding in May 2025.

Year the procedure ended	Average duration
2022	17 months
2023	18 months
2024	24 months

Source: Hessian State Parliament, printed paper 21/2155 (28 May 2025) · Procedures completed 2022 to 2024

What You Can Do

Apply with complete documents

The federal portal notes that authorities sometimes ask for further proof, which adds time. Have your B1 certificate and your citizenship test result ready before you apply.

Tip: telc B1 results take four to six weeks, and the citizenship test result takes weeks too. Take both early.

Use the route your authority asks for

Hamburg says that applying by another route than online can lengthen the processing time. Other authorities accept only post. Check your authority's page first.

Know what an action for failure to act is

Under §75 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure you can go to court if an authority has not decided on an application within a reasonable time without sufficient reason. As a rule this is not possible before three months have passed.

Tip: The three months are the earliest point for a lawsuit, not a deadline for the authority. Dresden and Leipzig state that such a lawsuit does not speed up the procedure.

Related Guides

Applying for German Citizenship Online

Documents for Your Citizenship Application

German Citizenship Requirements

German Citizenship Statistics

Which B1 Certificate Counts for Citizenship

Frequently Asked Questions

The federal citizenship portal says to expect 18 months or longer, depending on the individual case. Authorities that publish their own figure state between about 12 months and about three years.

That cannot be answered from official data. The authorities measure different things, most pages show no date, and many cities publish nothing. You also cannot choose: the authority where you live is responsible.

No fixed deadline. §75 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure lets you sue if no decision is made within a reasonable time without sufficient reason, as a rule not before three months have passed.

The law gives you the right to sue. Dresden and Leipzig both state on their pages that it does not speed up the procedure. A lawyer can assess your case.

No national figure is published. In 2025, 469,597 applications were filed and 372,127 procedures were completed. The Federal Statistical Office warns that the two figures cannot be set directly against each other. Hesse reported about 56,000 outstanding decisions in May 2025.

The Berlin authority says it cannot give a concrete forecast, and the Senate has stated that processing duration is not recorded statistically.

Ready for Your B1 Exam?

Practice with AI-generated exercises in the real exam format. Instant feedback and personalized explanations.

Start Free