Senators passed a bill to simplify the naturalization process.
German lawmakers have passed legislation to ease the citizenship process and move to simplify repatriation.
The naturalization reform, approved by the upper house of parliament on Friday, will allow people to become German citizens while retaining their original citizenship.
People will be able to apply for citizenship after living in Germany for five years instead of eight. Children of foreign-born parents will also be granted German citizenship at birth if one parent has legally resided in Germany for five years instead of eight.
If applicants demonstrate “exceptional integration achievements” by performing particularly well in school, work, or civic life, they may be able to naturalize after just three years.
One important aspect of the new law is that people who acquire German citizenship will no longer have to renounce their home country citizenship, which was previously only allowed for German residents from other EU countries .
This would allow tens of thousands of German-born Turks to become voters.
Similarly, Germans who wish to become citizens of another country will no longer need special permission from German authorities.
The bill was proposed by a coalition of social liberals led by centre-left Prime Minister Olaf Scholz. A coalition of the main centre-right opposition parties criticized the plan, saying it would make German citizenship cheap.
The bill was approved by Germany's lower house of parliament two weeks ago. At the time, Scholz welcomed the bill, saying it was for people who had lived and worked in Germany “for decades.”
“With the new citizenship law, we want to say to all those who have lived in Germany for decades, worked in Germany, obeyed the laws and felt at home here: 'You belong to Germany. ''' Scholz said.
Green Party immigration expert Phyllis Porat welcomed the possibility of dual citizenship and accused parties opposed to the law of not understanding “the modern immigrant society that has existed in Germany for a long time”. .
Al Jazeera's Dominic Cain, reporting from Berlin, said there were “some speeches for and some speeches against” the bill in state parliament.
“But in the end, the House decided not to vote yes, but it also decided not to vote against it,” Kaine said. This means that laws are passed based on the German constitution.
“The elected parliament had already voted in favor,” he explained.
For the bill to become law, it must be formally approved by the upper house of the German parliament and the president.
Cain said it would take effect by mid-May at the earliest.
With hundreds of thousands of people already on the system, there is likely to be a large backlog before new applications are processed, the correspondent added.