For years, I tried to secure Greek citizenship for my daughters.
I was legally acknowledged as their father.
I followed all necessary steps.
But the missing affidavit, the confiscated passports, and the deadlock between institutions made progress impossible.
Still, I didn’t rush to apply for German citizenship.
I hoped reason would prevail.
The Turning Point: The Custody Decision
Everything changed after the German family court issued its decision in June 2022, which became legally binding one month later, and was officially published at the start of 2023.
This decision didn’t just give me custody — it also made me the legal representative for all administrative matters concerning my children.
That should have been enough. But it wasn’t.
It did not meet Greek requirements.
It did not allow me to travel with the children.
It did not fix their statelessness.
Instead, it trapped us in Germany — without solving the identity problem it legally acknowledged.
From Strategy to Necessity
At that point, I began seriously considering German citizenship as the only viable legal path to protect my children’s future.
It was not a spontaneous choice — I had thought about it earlier. But the legal conditions weren’t yet aligned.
What changed everything was the support of the Greek Ombudsman, who agreed:
→ Since Germany had taken jurisdiction,
→ Since Greece could no longer act,
→ Germany must now provide a solution.
But even then, I saw the risks:
- Long processing times (usually 2 years or more).
- Risks of rejection due to irregularities in the children’s documents.
- The risk that even my own application might be delayed because of their stateless status.
So I made a choice:
👉 Apply for German citizenship for myself first,
👉 And once granted, immediately submit the children’s application as children of a German parent.
It Was Never About Me — It Was Always About Them
I didn’t apply because I needed a passport.
I applied because I needed to give my children legal identity — and I couldn’t do that as a Greek citizen anymore.
Germany, with all its contradictions, was now the only state that could fix what it had helped to break.
🡒 In the next article, I’ll describe how the German citizenship process unfolded — and the questions, documents, and obstacles I encountered.