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Question

Citizens' Office does not want to recognize my statelessness

  • 24 December 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 137 views

hello guys, first of all I would like to thank you guys for publishing such a great site. I have been recognized as a stateless person for almost 2 years. Before that, I was registered as an Unresolved Citizen with the authorities. Now to my problem, I wanted to apply for a registration certificate (Meldebescheinigung) at the German citizens' office, since the registration certificate contains the citizenship, I asked the employee to change this from uncleared to stateless and then presented my travel document for stateless persons. Since the employee was not familiar with this, he asked a supervisor. She didn't want to change it, as other documents have to be presented to prove this. It didn't make any sense to me at all. When asked what documents I have to present, she got angry and expelled me from the building. Is it normal to be treated as if you were a second class person just because you are stateless? With the German naturalization one can prove one's statelessness with the travel document for stateless persons and why not then in the citizen's office? What can you do there ? What can you recommend me to take there further steps

 

Thanks in advance and Merry Christmas

 

 

2 replies

Christiana
Statefree Team
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  • Statefree Team
  • 23 replies
  • December 24, 2021

Hi Reala, thanks for sharing! This sounds really challenging. I remember asking for a Meldebescheinigung approx. 2 years ago. In my case the authorities didn’t add a citizenship status to it at all. I guess what you are applying for is a “erweiterte Meldebescheinigung” which is very detailed, right? Sorry for the way they treated you in the office, this is a very common reaction and I like to think that this is mostly due to the overwhelm and not due to bad intentions, per se. Often times authorities are not educated well enough on statelessness and therefore seem to be unsure about how to respond in a way that it’s comfortable for applicants… 

I’m unfortunately not an expert on this specific case but I would recommend to either get legal support (e.g. from Refugee law clinic) or trying to return to the office once more and hoping to find another employee who is willing to listen to you. I think it’s important to explain to them that your travel document identifies you as a stateless person and that the Meldebescheinigung shouldn’t be contradicting to the status that is noted on your travel document. Another option would be to ask for a basic Meldebescheinigung instead of the “erweiterte Meldebescheinigung”. Keep us posted on this, maybe /or hopefully there is somebody else in the community who has made similar experience.

I’ll also make sure to let you know in case something else comes to my mind in the next couple of days


Sorry you were treated that way.

I know this is a really late reply and I’m necro-posting but no it is not normal to be treated that way just because you’re stateless.

It's also not normal to be treated that way if you hold 7 nationalities.

It’s also not normal to be treated that way if you hold only one nationality.

This is discrimination against nationality or lack of thereof and ought to be illegal. You could make a case of discrimination against people based on what nationality or nationalities they hold (or lack of thereof).


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