Hi All - Im hoping the hive mind here can offer me some helpful advice - apologies for the long post!
Im british. my granny was german - mischling 1st grad. she and her jewish born mother and her sister evacuated during the war due to loss of job because of jewish background and persecution in school etc etc. they nationalised as british. I applied in 2019 under article 116 for german nationality. At this time i was living in dubai so applied via the uk and it was dealt with by BVA in koln. it was rejected after 2 years in april 2021. At that time i was in hospital about to give borth to twins in munich germany so honestly had other things on my mind and beyond being annoyed I didnt look into it in much detail.
This was 4 yrs ago and i finally have time to review. In the meantime since my first application I married my german husband and i now live in germany and work here and my kids are german citizens. Im now trying to sort my citzenship.
The article 116 reasons for rejection are not clear but seem to relate to her being mischling which as far as i can see was not a good reason given they were persecuted and fled. In any event im aware that only afew months later there were some quite big reforms to article 116, but Im not quite clear what that means for me.
Do I reapply now under stag 15? and to my local authority here in germany? I have already tried speaking to them and they have literally no knowledge whatsoever of this provision - i read somewhere that my local authority could send the application themselves on to bva in koln to deal with since they have the experience and history on this matter. I dont really know much about how stag15 should work and am i likely to be approved under this after being rejected under 116? are there any language requirements? (I hope not as Im not quite b1 level!) should it be quicker since 116 was already reviewed? should i suggest to my local authority that they contact bva? any advice would be much appreciated!!
abit more information in case it helps: my maternal grandmother was born 25.03.1919 in Dresden, as a German citizen. Whilst my grandmother was baptized as a Lutheran, she was of Jewish descent. Her mother – my great-grandmother – was born Jewish, to 2 Jewish parents. According to the Nuremberg Laws, my grandmother was therefore "first degree Mischling" and was persecuted as such under the nazi regime. My great-grandmother lost her job due to her Jewish background. My grandmother and her siblings had to leave school, Girls German league due to anti jewish songs and speech, and eventually they all fled to England as refugees in 1936, losing their home and all their belongings. There, they later became British citizens (february 1948). she was 17 when she left for uk by train and 29 when she naturalised in 1948. she married in nov 1950 in kenya. my grandfather was austrian jew but I believe was still stateless due to loss of nationality when they married (id have to check that date)- he also naturalised as british (Im entitled to austrian citizenship but need the german first since I live here and otherwise i lose the austrian if i do that first!) my mum was born in 1953. no probs with the documents as everything was prevsiuoly submitted for 116 application.. i just need to make sure I reapply under the correct new article and that it should be approved this time as I wasted years on the previous application!! Also who to as the local authority have already told me they literally know nothing about these provisions!! I was hoping it could be referred quicker to the same periosn at the bva who revied the 116 application and that might speed it up!