european-union germany citizenship dual-citizenship
Dual Citizenship for Adults in Germany
<p>My sister was born in 1997 as a Bulgarian citizen in Germany. She became a German citizen while she was rather young (5 years old if I remember correctly), while keeping her Bulgarian citizenship. Both my parents are Bulgarians but near the end of 2002, a few months after my sister, me and my parents also became German citizens but had to give up our Bulgarian citizenship, from what I understand between me being born(1994) 1997 there was some law change that allowed my sister to keep both citizenships</p>

<p>She recently tried to get her German passport renewed but was told that they could not just give her a new passport because she was what is called an "Optionsdeutscher" and in a year would have to choose whether to keep her German or Bulgarian citizenship. </p>

<p>Now from what I understand and according to this government website </p>

<p><a href="https://www.bmi.bund.de/DE/themen/verfassung/staatsangehoerigkeit/optionspflicht/optionspflicht-node.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.bmi.bund.de/DE/themen/verfassung/staatsangehoerigkeit/optionspflicht/optionspflicht-node.html</a></p>

<p>she has the right to keep both Citizenship's because while we have lived outside of Germany for a long time she fulfills the 8 years of living in Germany and also the only other citizenship she holds is the citizenship of an EU member country.</p>

<p>My question is whether my understanding of the is right, and if so what legal steps can be taken in order to be able to keep both citizenships? </p>

<p>The law was <strong>changed several times</strong>, and different versions apply to different age groups because certain rules were not changed retroactively. 
The page you link describes the situation for children born after the year 2000.</p>

<p>My advice: citizenship is such a serious matter that you should consult a specialized lawyer, not a random crowd on the web.</p>
