New Paternity Rule for Mixed Families

A new paternity rule aimed at stopping sham recognitions of fatherhood took effect in Germany on 29 July 2026, one day after it was published in the Federal Law Gazette as BGBl I Nr. 221. The paternity rule requires an Auslaenderbehoerde, the local immigration office, to give its consent before a paternity acknowledgment is legally valid, but only in specific situations where the parents have different residence statuses. For most binational couples, the acknowledgment process stays exactly as it was.

What the paternity rule targets

The law tackles what German authorities call Scheinvaterschaften, or sham paternities. In these cases a man with German citizenship or a secure residence status acknowledges fatherhood of a child who is not biologically his, so that the child gains German citizenship and the child’s foreign mother can more easily obtain a residence permit through family reunification. Because acknowledging paternity is a simple declaration, it had become an occasional route around immigration rules.

A Vaterschaftsanerkennung, a formal acknowledgment of paternity, is how fatherhood is legally established when parents are not married to each other. The government says only a small share of these acknowledgments are abusive, but the new paternity rule is meant to let authorities intervene in the suspicious minority without disrupting the honest majority.

When the Ausländerbehörde must approve

The consent requirement only kicks in when there is what the law calls an aufenthaltsrechtliches Gefaelle, a gap in residence status between the people involved. A typical example is a father who is German or holds a settlement permit acknowledging a child whose mother holds only a Duldung, a temporary suspension of deportation that is not a residence permit, or the reverse situation. It is precisely this status gap that can make a sham acknowledgment attractive, which is why the paternity rule focuses there.

Crucially, no approval is needed if the man is the proven biological father of the child, and none is needed if the parents are married to each other, since marriage already establishes legal fatherhood without an acknowledgment. Genuine fathers who can show their biological link therefore fall outside the consent process entirely.

How the approval process works

Where consent is required, the Auslaenderbehoerde has four months to decide on the application, according to migrationsrecht.net and AnwaltOnline. If the office does not respond within that period, the law treats its silence as approval, so a slow authority cannot leave a family in limbo indefinitely. The four-month clock can be paused in certain cases, for example if the parents ask to suspend the proceedings or fail to supply requested evidence.

The office refuses consent only where it concludes the acknowledgment is abusive, meaning it was made specifically to secure entry, residence or citizenship rather than to reflect a real parent-child relationship. A refusal blocks the acknowledgment from taking legal effect, which is the point of the mechanism.

The balance the law tries to strike

Supporters argue the paternity rule closes a genuine loophole while sparing ordinary families, because it applies only in the narrow set of cases with a residence-status gap and no proven biological link. The automatic-approval-after-four-months provision is meant to stop the extra check from turning into an open-ended delay.

Critics counter that any additional consent step adds bureaucracy and uncertainty for honest binational couples who happen to fall within its scope. Waiting up to four months for an office to sign off on fatherhood, at a moment when a family is trying to settle a newborn’s status, is a real burden, and the outcome depends on how strictly individual offices interpret the rules. The law’s fairness will be judged largely by how it is applied in practice.

What this means for expat families

If you are an unmarried couple in Germany and the father is the biological parent, the practical advice is to be ready to document that link, since proven biological fatherhood removes the need for immigration-office consent. Married couples are unaffected by the acknowledgment process. The families most likely to encounter the new step are unmarried couples where one partner has a strong residence status and the other has an insecure one such as a Duldung.

If your situation falls into that category, it is worth preparing for a possible four-month review and keeping copies of all paperwork you submit. For help with residence questions tied to family status, see our overview of immigration and visa assistance, and if a case becomes contested, our guide to legal services for expats explains how to find qualified support.