“I applied for German citizenship and I got rejected,” explains Stephanie Liao, a US citizen from Boston who lives in Berlin, in a video that she recently shared on Tiktok.
Liao goes on to explain that she knows why her citizenship application wasn’t approved, despite her having lived and paid taxes in the country for seven years: She had started receiving a short term unemployment benefit, known as Arbeitslosengeld (ALG), shortly before she turned in her application for naturalisation.
Her case is interesting in that it provides a real world example of how German immigration authorities handle applicants who receive unemployment benefits.
Immigration offices in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich have confirmed to The Local that collecting ALG is not sufficient reason to deny an application for citizenship. But Liao’s experience, along with numerous other accounts shared online, seem to suggest that being granted citizenship while receiving the unemployment benefit is more of a theoretical possibility than a real one.
The Local spoke with Liao to understand why she believes a decision was made against her application, and how she plans to move forward.
Liao moved to Berlin from the US in 2018.
“I wanted to experience living in Europe, and now it’s been seven years and I haven’t left,” she told The Local. “I just liked the vibe and I thought there would be some good work opportunities.”
Since then, Liao has worked in several roles as a copywriter for different companies. More recently, she has gained a significant following on Tiktok, where she shares videos about her experiences in Germany.
At being laid off from her last job – which lasted for about two years and ended at the end of 2024 – Liao qualified for Arbeitslosengeld, the short-term unemployment benefit meant to help sustain workers between jobs.
READ ALSO: How do unemployment benefits affect your eligibility for German citizenship?
She then put in an application for German citizenship.
On paper, Liao appears to be a shoe-in candidate for citizenship: She’s lived and paid taxes in Germany for seven years, she passed the B1 German language test and the citizenship test and has no criminal record.
But five months after submitting her application, Berlin’s Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA) responded to Liao suggesting that her application would not be approved as it was. A message she received from the immigration authority suggested that she could either update the application with proof of income from the past three months, or withdraw it.
“I was kind of surprised to hear that, because for the whole time that I've lived here I've always had full time jobs,” Liao said.
Unclear rules
“There isn’t a lot of information online if you should or should not apply [for citizenship] while receiving ALG…” Liao says in her video on the topic.
But accounts by applicants shared online, such as the comments on this Reddit post show that in many cases people who are currently receiving the benefit are put on hold until their financial situation changes.
READ ALSO: Which social benefits exclude you from German citizenship?
As opposed to the long-term unemployment benefit (Bürgergeld), the short-term benefit is funded directly by contributions that regularly employed workers in Germany pay into. Therefore the benefit is not seen as immediately disqualifying, according to Germany’s immigration authorities.
But a crucial prerequisite for naturalising as German is being able to financially support yourself and any dependents. Liao’s case and others like it show how immigration authorities are unlikely to be convinced of an applicant’s financial security if they are currently receiving unemployment benefits like ALG.
As The Local has reported, being eligible for Bürgergeld is an immediate disqualifier for citizenship, regardless of whether or not an applicant receives the benefit.
In Liao’s case, she would likely be eligible to receive the long-term unemployment benefit after her ALG benefit expires in November of this year. But the decision not to approve her application came months ahead of that point.
She told The Local that she does not plan to apply for Bürgergeld. Instead she says she’s planning to start freelance work.
READ ALSO: 'System feels unfair' - The struggle of getting German citizenship as a freelancer
An immigration lawyer familiar with Liao's application said they thought the LEA would lose this case if it were challenged in court. Liao says she’s not interested in launchindg a legal challenge, however.
“Everything takes so long here,” she said. “It would probably take as long as it would for me to just withdraw my application and reapply when I have proof of income.”
Inconsistencies
Fortunately for Liao, her residency in German is secure. She had applied for, and been granted, permanent residency shortly before her last job ended.
Having seen the writing on the wall about layoffs to come, Liao had moved to secure permanent residency so that she wouldn’t be caught in a rush to find work or else lose her residency status in Germany.
READ ALSO: How long can I stay in Germany if I lose my job?
The requirements for permanent residency and German citizenship are virtually the same since the requirements for citizenship were relaxed when the country’s dual-citizenship law was adopted in June 2024.
Part of Liao’s application for permanent residency was a letter proving her current employment – a letter which did note that the position was set to end on a date in the near future.
“For some reason they accepted me,” Liao said, adding that the decision had surprised her at the time.
“There’s all these inconsistencies, like why did they approve me there, and then in this situation, where I’m technically employed by the Bundesagentur für Arbeit…why is it any different?”
The Local reached out to an immigration lawyer for a second opinion on this case. That lawyer said they had not personally handled a citizenship case involving ALG, but had seen clients rejected due to lack of sufficient funds. They added that having full-time employment appears to be the safest way to obtain citizenship.
Comments shared online suggest that for people who had been receiving ALG, even after obtaining employment, applications are often held until the individual has completed the probation period.
A spokesperson for the immigration authority in Munich previously told The Local that applicants who had been on long-term unemployment would be considered financially independent again after working full-time for 20 of the previous 24 months.
**Note that previously long-term unemployment benefits were known as Arbeitslosengeld II (ALG II). Since January 2023 the benefit has been called Bürgergeld.
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