Hello All,
The Standesamt in Mannheim did not allow me to apply for my GF birth certificate via online and would not provide it after I mentioned the over 30 year rule that the Reddit posters here advised. I had to send in copies of all the documents I had proving my grandfather was who was listed on my fathers birth certificate to Germany. Thankfully they accepted the USCIS paperwork I had showing GF listed aliases in the US and that it matched my Dads birth certificate.
I did not have to get these documents translated thankfully as there were 12 pages. I am now waiting to receive the birth certificate for him and his family register. Does anyone know if it is easier to apply via mail or consulate in America for German citizenship? And what form I would need to use? Can anyone direct me to a post on this and if I have to pay to apply and how I would do that via mail?
Previous post:
Hello All,
I have a question on whether it is worth it to try and proceed with German citizenship application on my own or to use a lawyer.
Essentially, one of my grandfathers was a German immigrant who came to Canada legally and then the US illegally after WWII as a refugee. He married my grandmother and had my Dad in 1967 under an alias and false citizenship card for US and my grandmother divorced him before he was deported. He was later deported back to Germany in 1968 for being in the US illegally and my dad never claimed citizenship because he didn't have the proper documents to prove his father was German.
I received his deportation documents recently from USCIS and have his death certificate from the Marchivum which lists his second wife he married in the same city as my grandmother his first wife. The USCIS documents also list the alias and the fake state of citizenship he used to sign on my Dad's birth certificate.
I am only missing his birth certificate which I need to request from the registry office but not sure if they will accept the form stating his true name and aliases and then my father's and I's birth certificates. Since I have documents from 2 states and the US gov how do I get an apostille to prove these documents are authentic and would it just be worth it to pay a German lawyer and hand over the documents I do have so I don't have to do the paperwork? I just want it done right and don't know German.
Any recommendations on lawyers and would I be eligible to claim citizenship even if I and my siblings were born before 1999 in the 90's? Any advice is appreciated!
Edit: Forgot to mention the deportation documents list him also confessing to using the fake citizenship state and claiming it since a certain date very specific information. I also have a news article listing his arrest in the town my father was born in and that he was an illegal German immigrant picked up by immigration. My grandmothers divorce documents also list him being here illegally I believe as well.