To become a German citizen through naturalization (Einbürgerung), you generally need to show that you can support yourself and any family members you are legally required to support from your own means. In practice, the income requirements for German citizenship cause more difficulties than most other conditions, not least because the law does not define what “support” actually covers. Naturalization is only open to people who have already lived in Germany for several years, so the assessment looks at your real financial situation here: your income and assets, your housing costs, and how you provide for illness and old age. This article explains how the requirement is interpreted in practice and which costs typically go into the calculation.

At Schlun & Elseven Rechtsanwälte, our citizenship lawyers assess this requirement with clients before they apply, which is usually the easiest point to close any gaps.

The Legal Basis: Section 10(1) Sentence 1 No. 3 StAG

Under Section 10(1) sentence 1 no. 3 of the Nationality Act (Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, StAG), an applicant must be able to support themselves and their dependent family members without claiming state benefits. This refers to two types of benefits under the German Social Code. Book II (SGB II) provides basic income support for jobseekers, now called Grundsicherungsgeld (formerly Bürgergeld). Book XII (SGB XII) provides social assistance (Sozialhilfe).

The requirement serves two purposes. It protects public funds from additional strain, and it shows that the applicant is economically integrated into German society. Being out of work does not in itself rule out naturalization. What matters is whether the income or assets you actually have, such as savings or a pension, are enough to cover your needs.

When Claiming Benefits Does Not Bar Naturalization

Receiving benefits does not bar naturalization in three situations. These apply if you:

• came to West Germany under a labor recruitment agreement by June 30, 1974, or to the former East Germany as a contract worker by June 13, 1990, or joined such a person as their spouse at the time, and you are not responsible for having to claim benefits
• work full-time and have done so for at least 20 of the last 24 months, or
• are the spouse or registered civil partner of someone who meets that condition, and live with them and a minor child as a family

These exceptions are set out in Section 10(1) sentence 1 no. 3(a) to (c) StAG. The first covers a specific historical group of former guest workers and contract workers. The second and third protect full-time workers on lower wages whose household still needs supplementary benefits.

Which Costs Count toward the Income Requirement?

The calculation is built mainly from two items: the monthly standard rate for each household member, and reasonable housing and heating costs. The law does not define living costs exhaustively, so the assessment follows the structures of German social security law. That does not mean social security rules are applied one-to-one. In naturalization law, the ability to support yourself is treated as a concept in its own right, and it can go beyond what someone would need simply to avoid relying on social assistance.

Standard Rate for Everyday Living Costs

The starting point is the monthly standard rate (Regelbedarf), which covers food, clothing, household costs, and transport. The amount depends on the age and household situation of each person. The rates are reviewed each year and have stayed the same since January 2024. The current standard rate levels (Regelbedarfsstufen) are set out in the Annex to Section 28 SGB XII:

Permanently higher needs (Mehrbedarf), for example due to pregnancy, single parenthood, or a disability, may also be taken into account.

Housing and Heating Costs

Your actual housing and heating costs also count toward living costs, provided they are reasonable. To judge what is reasonable, naturalization authorities generally follow Section 22(1) SGB II. If your rent is well above the local average, the authority can use local benchmark figures to decide how much of your housing costs it will take into account.

If you own your home, your mortgage payments also count. Repayments of the loan itself, however, are treated differently in social security law and naturalization law. In social security law, repayments are generally not covered, because benefits are meant to secure a basic standard of living, not to build up private wealth. The Federal Social Court (Bundessozialgericht) allows only narrow exceptions, for example where the home was bought before the person claimed benefits and is already largely paid off (judgment of December 3, 2015, B 4 AS 49/14 R). Naturalization authorities generally take the opposite view. Because the requirement is meant to show economic integration, repayments count as real ongoing obligations that you must meet from your own resources, so they are included in the calculation. If you own property in Germany or are planning to buy, this means your repayments increase the amount you need to show.

Dependent Family Members

The requirement covers not only you as the applicant but also the people you are legally required to support, such as a spouse or children. The authority includes their needs in the calculation. The scope and limits of that obligation follow general German family law on child support and spousal support. Support you already pay, or that has been fixed by a court order or another enforceable agreement, can be relevant here. So can the question of whether a child is still entitled to benefits in their own right. If you support family members who live outside Germany, how those obligations are factored in depends on the circumstances, and our lawyers can assess this for you.

What Else Do Authorities Consider?

Beyond covering basic living costs, authorities and courts may also look for further evidence of economic integration. This can include:

• adequate health and long-term care insurance, comparable to the coverage German nationals typically have
• appropriate retirement savings, which may need to go beyond the German state pension (gesetzliche Rentenversicherung) if the state pension alone is foreseeably insufficient
• in some occupations with a high risk of accidents, disability insurance that covers you if you can no longer work, or can no longer work in your own occupation
• a record of reliably meeting payments, for example on loans or installment plans

In other words, authorities look beyond a bare calculation to your overall financial stability and planning for the future. This can be particularly relevant for international residents whose insurance or retirement savings are partly held outside Germany, such as a foreign private health policy or pension contributions made in another country. Whether such arrangements are accepted depends on the circumstances.

Can You Meet the Requirement If You Have Debts?

Debts do not automatically rule out naturalization, but they are part of the assessment. Obligations that tie up your income over a longer period, such as loan repayments or unpaid support, can cast doubt on your ability to support yourself. Smaller, occasional payments usually carry little weight, as long as they do not put the overall reliability of your income at risk.

Whether existing obligations stand in the way is rarely clear-cut. At Schlun & Elseven Rechtsanwälte, our citizenship lawyers review your financial situation and assess which evidence the authority is likely to expect in your case.

What Evidence Will the Naturalization Authority Ask For?

You should generally expect to provide evidence of your income, housing costs, insurance, retirement savings, and ongoing obligations, although the exact list varies between authorities. Typical documents include:

• for your income, recent payslips and your employment contract, or tax assessments (Steuerbescheide) and business figures if you are self-employed
• for your housing costs, your rental agreement or mortgage statements
• proof of your health and long-term care insurance
• for your retirement savings, state pension statements and details of any private or occupational pension plans
• for ongoing obligations, records of loan repayments or support payments

The naturalization authority (Einbürgerungsbehörde) responsible for where you live handles your application. This is often a city or district office, and in some places it sits within the same department as the local foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde).

If you have income, assets, or pension entitlements outside Germany, the authority will generally need evidence of these too. Foreign documents may need to be translated into German by a sworn translator, and in some cases legalized or apostilled. It is worth checking your authority’s requirements before you submit.

Keep in mind that the authority assesses your situation at the time it decides on your application, not only when you submit it. Processing times can be long, so a change of job, a period without work, or a move to more expensive housing during the procedure can affect the outcome. If your circumstances change, you should inform the authority and provide updated evidence.

Why the Individual Assessment Is Demanding

Because the law does not clearly define living costs, authorities and courts draw on a range of sources. These run from social security law and family law tables, such as the Düsseldorf Table (Düsseldorfer Tabelle) used to calculate child support, to general constitutional principles on the minimum subsistence level.

For applicants, this mainly means one thing: documenting your financial situation early and in full reduces the risk of your application failing because information about your living costs appears unclear or incomplete. In our experience, applications rarely fail because of the applicant’s financial situation itself. More often, individual items, such as retirement savings or existing loan repayments, are not properly documented at first.

If your application is still refused, a refusal can be challenged through an objection or in court. Our citizenship team can support you at that stage, just as it can with the original application.

Legal Support with Naturalization from Schlun & Elseven

At Schlun & Elseven Rechtsanwälte, our citizenship lawyers assess whether, and to what extent, you meet the requirements of Section 10(1) sentence 1 no. 3 StAG. We help you put together the evidence you need, including proof of income, insurance coverage, retirement savings, and existing obligations, and much of this work can be done remotely. If individual items are disputed, or the authority bases its decision on a different calculation, we represent our clients in objection (Widerspruch) and court proceedings. Whether an objection to the authority is possible before going to court depends on the federal state.

If you are preparing a naturalization application and are unsure whether your income and costs will meet the requirement, contact our citizenship lawyers early in the process.