Overview

• The change takes effect immediately, restoring five years as the earliest standard residency period to apply for naturalization.
• Lawmakers voted 450 to 134 with two abstentions, with the CDU/CSU–SPD coalition carrying the measure and the AfD also voting in favor.
• Other elements of the 2024 reform stay in place, including the five-year baseline and acceptance of dual citizenship.
• The Interior Ministry said there is no transition rule and recommended states put pending fast-track applications on hold rather than issue rejections.
• Use of the fast track was very limited nationwide—reported in only a few hundred cases with Berlin an outlier—while Greens and the Left criticized the reversal as a negative signal for integration and economic competitiveness.