German/Irish passport?

banjobongo

My guys
I dont know if you can answer this query as its pretty specialised....maybe I shold post this in the legal forum....Ill try here first....
Im Irish, my wife is German and our kids have German passports. The kids are aged from 5 - 12 yrs old. We all live here in Ireland. My wife is of the opinion that our children can only have a German OR an Irish passport, not both.
I dont see why a child born in Ireland cant have an Irish passport and a German passport.
Any ideas/feedback?

storm2811

I've a belgian passport because my mams from there and have been wondering the same thing?don't really see the need to have both though?
like what advantages would there be?

banjobongo

advantage is that we need to get new passports for our kids, and its a nightmare getting german ones, the german embassy is in Dublin, we live in Limerick, so its very difficult getting up to Dublin for passport renewal.
Plus I would kind of like my kids to have an Irish passport!

storm2811

ohh right,i think we can post ours to get them renewed though?but not sure because i havent done it in a while!i think you can get both though because your children would be irish citizens?

taram

You need to apply for a special permit before you can become a citizen of another country if you're German while retaining your German citizenship which might be what she's thinking of? Shouldn't be an issue for your kids anyway as you're Irish.

GerardKeating

banjobongo wrote: »

My guys
I dont know if you can answer this query as its pretty specialised....maybe I shold post this in the legal forum....Ill try here first....
Im Irish, my wife is German and our kids have German passports. The kids are aged from 5 - 12 yrs old. We all live here in Ireland. My wife is of the opinion that our children can only have a German OR an Irish passport, not both.
I dont see why a child born in Ireland cant have an Irish passport and a German passport.
Any ideas/feedback?

Some countries (not Ireland) do not permit dual nationality, Singapore automatically revokes citizenship if one applies for second citizenship, even for native born persons. I think Australia might also this. So while Irish law may permit it's citizens to hold another passport, maybe Germany does not.

Are your kids Male or Female, Germany has conscription...

cbyrd

My brother is irish my sister in law is american, my nephew has both irish and american passports, just for coming in and going out of the country is easier for filling out less paperwork. they come home about 6 times a year:)

metrovelvet

How are the germans ever going to know if you get an Irish passport?

CoalBucket

My sister has two passports because she was born in a different country to Irish parents so it is possible to have two passports. With the hold up in the passport office my advice would be to contact the isreali embassy if you want an irish passport

Popel

oooh, a question I can answer with absolute confidence. I´m irish, living in germany with a young child who is entitled to both a german and an irish passport at the same time.

In general Germany does not allow dual citizenship, one has to choose either the german passport or the foreign passport, however there is a special agreement between germany and ireland because Ireland allows german citizens to keep their german passport when they take on irish citizenship. This means that a german/irish child can have both.

Furthermore, I believe the risk of your male children having to do the (now only 6month) time in the army is very low seeing as they only ask limited numbers of german youths to do it nowadays and your children are resident in Ireland.

My advice is to get onto the Irish embassy in Friedrichstr. in Berlin and they should send out the information that they sent us, telling you basically what I just said, only better

Tabnabs

I have duel citizenship with a country that has conscription (not Germany BTW) and the issue never arose. I would imagine that they would not be overly keen to have a "foreign national" (even a half one ) serving in their military and coming into contact with sensitive information.

DubDani

Our daughter has 3 passports, two of them Irish and German.

According to german law kids are allowed to have multiple citizenships, but depending on the countries involved they might have to choose between them when they turn 18. Germany also allows multiple citizenship as an adult under certain circumstances, but you have to apply for permission.

In theory I can't see any country being aware of a person having another citizenship, especially when they have them from birth.