I perhaps was mislead by my portuguese instructor, or perhaps we are thinking of different types of classes.
Google says C1 German is ~750 hours. That’s roughly half a year of 5 hour a day classes, so more than I expected, for sure.
I wasn’t talking about the 3 year citizenship thing personally
Yeh, no worries, I would listen to people who have gone through this. Reddit - Dive into anything
I would ignore the hours, they are always off. Portugese A2 seems fairly doable in a few months though! B1 Is similarly doable in a few months.
Yes but they usually enforce the residence time indirectly by making it a requirement of the legal residency. E.g. with Portugal’s D7, if you don’t reside in Portugal the majority of the time, you will have violated the terms of the D7 residency, they will likely refuse to renew your card, and probably also refuse to let you apply for citizenship on the basis of that card.
The GV is a special case since it lets you have the “residency” without much actual residence. I assume there is no German equivalent. For example Absences Abroad – Landeshauptstadt München says
Your residence title expires
- if your reason for leaving Germany is not only temporary (for example to attend school, to work or to marry and settle abroad)
So if you are primarily working in another country, you can’t hold a German residence permit, unlike the GV.
From that link:
- Residence by private reasons (where the successful applicant cannot be employed in the country)
Individuals from developing nations can apply for residence by private reasons by fulfilling the following requirements:
- Prove that they can live off their own financial resources (proof of a regular flow of income of at least EUR 27,000 per year is required; bank savings alone might not be considered sufficient
- Have permanent accommodation in Luxembourg, which includes third-party liability insurance and property insurance for rented or purchased property
This is much cheaper than GV, but with the residence requirement, is really more like Portugal’s D7.
A1 was two weeks in the course I took, A2 another two or three iirc. This was like five hours a day
Sadly, many (most?) of us are not from developing countries I suspect…
That is actually not a requirement according to Luxembourg’s own website: Conditions of residence in Luxembourg for private reasons for third-country nationals — Business — Guichet.lu - Administrative Guide - Luxembourg
It’s just that if you don’t have visa-free access to Luxembourg, you must get a D visa, so I guess the process is slightly more involved.
Hmmm… looks quite do-able… you’ve just about sold me …
Although if you don’t mind my asking, if you don’t mind living in the EU full time, why didn’t you just do Portugal’s D7 in the first place? It’s reportedly always been cheaper and faster processed than GV. And unlike the Luxembourg version, you’re allowed to work on D7.
I didn’t and probably still don’t want to be full-time in a place - at least in the early years of the 5 that become 8 - 9…
I don’t work.
Aaron’s view is fair - I too lived in Germany for a time - Munich would be quite nice …
Peter Starts view above about the 3 C’s & etc of PT is also quite true - I sat on my balcony with a caipirinha overlooking the Tagus in 25 degree balmy weather last night, which I’m sure I couldn’t do in Lux. or München…
It all becomes somewhat conflicting but the current debacle of “delays” compared to the sold vision of 5 years is quite galling.
And it’ll probably all be thrown into further conflict with the EU proposal for 3 year residencies getting up & possibly later changing the passport regimes too.
They just changed the law on this a few weeks ago… Immigration: new restrictions on residence permits for personal reasons - Lexology
Not so easy to walk in anymore.
What a stupid charge
I feel the hand of Ursula in there somewhere (again) …
What do you think about other germanic countries in EU? I have noticed other germanic/culturally neighboring countries such as Austria, Netherlands etc have similar governmental institutions and resemble that of Germany. Is there a chance Netherlands/Austria will follow suit to undo the previous citizenship relinquishment rule?
Curacao residency by investment becomes much more attractive if Netherlands goes the way of Germany.
Absolutely no chance Austria changes its citizenship laws in the next decade. It would be deeply unpopular. Netherlands I don’t know.
Do you think Germany’s institutions are better than e.g. Sweden? Sweden currently allows dual citizenship, only requires 5 years residence to naturalization, and doesn’t even require a language test (although I think they may plan to add one).
Having lived in the Netherlands for a decade in the 2000’s, I don’t think the dual citizenship law will change after the change in 2003. There would be no political advantage to allow dual citizenship via naturalisation and sections of the political class and media (back then) thought that supporting dual citizenship routes via naturalisation would lead to higher benefits fraud.
Like Austria, I would say no chance of law changing to allow dual citizenship in The Netherlands.
Residency requirements have been relaxed. Perhaps a good sign for nationality changes.