Germany tightens paternity laws to curb illegal immigration and fraud

The German government is taking action to prevent fraud in paternity recognition and limit illegal immigration. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser highlighted that the government is firmly saying no to fraud and the misuse of law for obtaining residence rights in Germany.

As a measure against this, the Justice and Interior Ministries have put forward a bill to tighten the procedures for acknowledging paternity. Under the proposed legislation, German citizens cannot acknowledge a foreign child without the consent of immigration authorities. The government plans to adopt these new regulations before the summer holidays commence.

This initiative targets scenarios in which women from Asian and African countries pay Germans to recognize the paternity of their children. This process enables the women and their children to gain citizenship and ease their immigration to Germany. The ministries note this strategy is purely to secure residence rights for individuals not legitimately entitled to them.

Such practices have implications for the child the mother, and potential siblings, who may gain the right to stay and access social benefits in Germany.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann explained that the rationale behind the bill is that the misuse of paternity recognition opens the door to unchecked migration and illegal entry into the social security system. Every year, false paternity claims cost the social system vast sums of money.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser reiterated that the government is unequivocally stopping the fraud and misuse of law to gain residence rights in Germany—the planned actions are to make such fraud easier to spot before recognition and to punish it decisively.

Between January 2018 and December 2021, immigration authorities investigated 1,769 suspicious cases of paternity acknowledgement by Germans for foreign children, identifying about 290 of these as fraudulent.

Additionally, German diplomatic missions abroad reviewed another 1,800 cases. Nevertheless, the ministries believe there remains a significant number of undetected fraudulent cases regarding "fatherhood."

Currently, the process for paternity acknowledgement can be halted if there are specific suspicions of fraud. However, these instances are often not identified promptly. Verification currently falls under youth welfare or notarial offices' jurisdiction, which may find it challenging to access pertinent information. Once paternity has been legally acknowledged, revoking it is impossible.

One proposed revision will instruct civil registry offices to involve immigration agencies automatically if the prospective father and mother have different residence statuses, such as one being a German citizen and the other holding a tourist visa. Minister Buschmann announced that whenever there would be even a slight suspicion of abuse in paternity recognition, immigration offices must consent.