Central Naturalisation Centre to start operating in 2023

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  Raed Saleh (SPD), Chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Berlin House of Representatives, Iris Spranger (SPD), Senator of the Interior of Berlin, and Engelhard Mazanke, The Director of the Berlin , State Office for Immigration stand in front of the State Office for Immigration.

• People stand in front of the Berlin State Office for Immigration. At a meeting, the implementation strategy new central naturalisation centre was discussed.

The planned central naturalisation centre in Berlin is to take up its work gradually over the course of the next year.

Until then, a building for up to 200 officials must be found and equipped accordingly, announced Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) and SPD parliamentary party leader Raed Saleh on Monday after a visit to the State Office for Immigration, to which the naturalisation centre is to belong.

Processes to be accelerated and improved

By centralising the naturalisation of foreigners under the responsibility of the state, the process is to be accelerated and improved, and waiting times for future German citizens are to be significantly reduced. Until now, the twelve Berlin districts have been responsible.

Ambitious goal: up to 20,000 naturalisations per year

For more than 20 years, between 6,000 and 7,000 foreigners have been naturalised in Berlin every year. The Senate wants to increase the number to up to 20,000 per year, but admits that this is an ambitious goal. Of Berlin's 3.7 million inhabitants, about 800,000 are foreigners without a German passport, according to the Office of Statistics. According to estimates, about 450,000 of them would have the opportunity to naturalise and become Germans, Spranger said.