Apply for naturalisation as a foreigner entitled to naturalisation

• You have been legally resident in Germany for at least eight years without interruption. Your stay must be permanent.
  The period is reduced to seven years if you have successfully completed an integration course. You must prove this with a certificate from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. The period can be shortened to six years in the case of special integration achievements.
• Your identity and nationality have been clarified.
• You have a permanent right of residence or a qualified residence permit.
• If you are 16 years or older at the time of naturalisation: You are committed to the free democratic basic order of the Basic Law. This also includes a declaration against anti-constitutional or extremist endeavours.
• You finance the living expenses for yourself and your dependants without being entitled to public funds (e.g. social welfare, basic income support for jobseekers). This does not apply if you are not responsible for claiming these benefits.
• You give up your previous nationality. If you have the nationality of another member state of the European Union or Switzerland, you can retain this nationality. The Nationality Act permits multiple nationality in exceptional cases if certain conditions are met.
• You are exempt from prosecution.
  This does not apply: Educational measures or disciplinary measures under the Juvenile Courts Act, fines of up to 90 daily rates, prison sentences of up to three months that have been suspended and remitted after the probation period has expired.
  Convictions for unlawful anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobic or other inhuman offences are never disregarded.
• You have sufficient knowledge of the German language. You fulfil the requirements of the language test for the German B1 certificate of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages or have acquired sufficient knowledge of German by attending a corresponding school or obtaining a school-leaving certificate.
• They have knowledge of the legal and social order and living conditions in Germany. You can prove this either by successfully completing a naturalisation test or by providing a certificate from a German general school (at least secondary school). The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees provides further information on the naturalisation test. Addresses and dates of the adult education centres in Baden-Württemberg where you can take the naturalisation test can be found on the pages of the adult education centres.
• You have accepted the German way of life, i.e. you accept the basic principles of the social and legal order in Germany.

Naturalisation is not possible if there are factual indications that you are pursuing or supporting anti-constitutional or extremist activities or have done so in the past and cannot credibly demonstrate that you have turned away from pursuing or supporting such activities in the past.