Rules between your country and Germany

Dual citizenship, pensions and social security, and child benefit for children who stay at home.

Some rules depend on agreements between Germany and your country, or on your country's own law. Your country's authorities decide on their own law; what they tell you prevails over this page.

Dual citizenship

• Germany has allowed multiple citizenship since 27 June 2024: German law no longer asks you to give up your citizenship when you naturalise (§ 10 StAG, after 5 years). See Already in Berlin?
• Bosnia and Herzegovina allows dual citizenship only with states it has an agreement with. According to the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs there is no such agreement with Germany (Ministry FAQ). Ask the BiH embassy before you naturalise.
• Montenegro: you may lose Montenegrin citizenship if you voluntarily acquire another citizenship and there is no agreement with that state (not confirmed in the text of the law). Clarify this with the Montenegrin embassy before you naturalise.
• Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia: the rules of their citizenship laws were not checked for this site. Ask your country's embassy or consulate in Berlin before you apply for German citizenship.

Pensions and social security

• Germany has social security agreements with all six states (German Pension Insurance, list of agreements). Insurance periods in both countries can, as a rule, be added together for pension entitlement, and pensions can be paid abroad.
• Questions: the German Pension Insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung) and its liaison offices; in your country, the pension fund.

Child benefit (Kindergeld) for children who stay at home

• Children living in Germany, the EU, the EEA or Switzerland: €259 a month per child.
• For children who live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro or Kosovo, the German-Yugoslav social security agreement gives a much smaller amount – but only if the parent works in Germany as an employee subject to unemployment insurance (Family Benefits Office, leaflet KG 52-ju, July 2026):

• Responsible: Familienkasse Bayern Süd, 93013 Regensburg. Forms named in the leaflet: KG 1, Anlage Kind, KG 51, KG 54 (employer) and KG 53 (certificate of family status).
• For children in Albania or North Macedonia we found no comparable rule.