A bizarre anecdote from Bergheim: When authorities admit to doing nothing.

It sounds like a satire of everyday German bureaucracy, but it's a bitter reality in the files of German administrative courts. A recent case, brought to light by a fellow lawyer, caused a stir: The district town of Bergheim bluntly stated before the administrative court during legal proceedings that while the legal requirement for inaction regarding a naturalization application existed, it was still not being processed. They explained that they had older cases pending. The unambiguous translation of this official statement is simply: "Yes, we're doing nothing. And we're not going to do anything."

For highly qualified foreign professionals , managers, expats, and academics who have lived in Germany for years, paid taxes, and built lives, this bureaucratic inaction is no minor annoyance. Behind every delayed naturalization lie concrete disadvantages: blocked career opportunities at international corporations, restricted freedom of travel without a German passport , administrative hurdles for family members joining them, and a persistent feeling of legal uncertainty. When a timely application for citizenship gathers dust on the shelves of the authorities, the term "legal certainty" loses its meaning.

Why does the naturalization process often take years with German authorities?

The drastic overload of naturalization offices is noticeable across the board. Staff shortages, high application volumes, and complex review procedures are leading to months—often years—of stagnation in many regions. However understandable the staff's overload may be on a human level, the legal basis for this overload on the authorities is that it cannot lead to the indefinite suspension of civil rights. Unfortunately, administrative practice shows that applications without external pressure often end up unprocessed in the archives. Standardized status inquiries from applicants are usually answered with boilerplate text or ignored altogether.

Anyone who waits in this situation or allows themselves to be fobbed off with form letters risks years of uncertainty. Waiting is not a strategy; it only prolongs the waiting time unpredictably. Even the mere use of simplified legal tech forms reaches its limits at this point: as soon as an authority refuses to process the case or simply ignores it, only professional, legally sound litigation can help.

When is an action for failure to act legally admissible under Section 75 of the Administrative Court Procedure Act (VwGO)?

The legislature has created an effective instrument for cases of administrative inaction. According to Section 75 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure (VwGO) , an action for failure to act is admissible if an application for an administrative act – such as naturalization under Section 10 of the Nationality Act (StAG) – has not been decided on its merits within a reasonable period without sufficient reason. The law stipulates a minimum period of three months from the date of application. If this period has expired without the immigration authority processing the application or providing substantiated reasons for the delay, recourse to the courts is available .

How do administrative courts react to the inaction of immigration authorities?

The fact that authorities openly inform the court that they will not process applications despite demonstrating inactivity reveals a new level of overload. However, the courts do not necessarily let this go unchallenged. In the case described, involving the district town of Bergheim, the responsible administrative court reacted with unusual clarity and set clear limits for the authority.

In legal practice, filing an action for failure to act leads to an immediate shift in priorities within the authority. Once the matter is pending, the authority no longer represents only itself but must justify its actions before the court . If the action for failure to act is well-founded, the authority generally bears the court costs pursuant to Section 161 Paragraph 3 of the German Administrative Court Procedure Act (VwGO) – even if it subsequently issues the naturalization decision during the proceedings. In our firm's practice, this cost pressure and judicial oversight regularly result in a sudden reassessment of priorities in file processing.

Why is professional legal representation the safest way to obtain a passport ?

Courts examine each case very carefully to determine whether there is a "sufficient reason" for the delay. Authorities often attempt to obtain extensions of time under Section 75 Sentence 3 of the German Administrative Court Procedure Act (VwGO) by citing missing security information or staffing shortages. This is where standard knowledge differs from genuine practical experience: We are intimately familiar with the unwritten procedures of the administrative courts and the argumentation patterns of the authorities. We ensure that formal errors are avoided, that all naturalization requirements are irrefutably proven in advance, and that unjustified delaying tactics by the administration are legally prevented.

If your career, family plans, or freedom of travel depend on an unjustified delay by the authorities, you shouldn't accept this inaction without protest. We will enforce your legal rights and bring your naturalization process to a swift conclusion.

Conclusion

The blatant refusal of authorities to process applications reveals a structural problem, but this must not be to the detriment of qualified applicants. An action for failure to act under Section 75 of the Administrative Court Procedure Act (VwGO) is the most effective means of restarting stalled naturalization procedures and legally ending bureaucratic inaction.