Cologne's 3-Year Fast-Track Naturalization Was Abolished: What Bezirksrathaus Kalk Does With Pending Cases

The Repeal Itself, in Brief

Germany’s 3-year accelerated naturalization path for “besondere Integrationsleistungen” (exceptional integration achievement) no longer exists. The current, in-force text of the StAG on gesetze-im-internet.de marks Section 10 Absatz 3 and 3a as “(weggefallen)”, formally deleted, following a Bundestag vote on October 8, 2025 (450 in favor, 134 against, 2 abstentions), published in BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 256, and effective October 30, 2025. There’s no Übergangsregelung (transitional clause): applications filed under the old 3-year provision but not yet decided when the repeal took effect are assessed under the current, uniform 5-year rule instead, regardless of the date they were originally submitted.

None of that is Cologne-specific, the same repeal applies from Flensburg to Constance. What’s genuinely local is what Cologne’s own Einbürgerungsbehörde has, and hasn’t, said about it.

What Cologne Hasn’t Published

Berlin’s Landesamt für Einwanderung documented, in a written answer to its own Abgeordnetenhaus, exactly how it handles a pending fast-track case: individual outreach, an optional 2-year suspension, or rejection for anyone who insists on an immediate decision. Search for a Cologne equivalent and you won’t find one. Stadt Köln’s own naturalization FAQ, current as of this writing, covers renouncing a prior nationality, criminal convictions, document renewal, and travel during the process, but doesn’t mention the October 2025 repeal anywhere. The main product page for naturalization doesn’t either.

That silence has a structural reason worth understanding, not just a bureaucratic one. Berlin and Hamburg are city-states, each with its own parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus, Bürgerschaft) that regularly fields written questions from opposition members, which is exactly how both cities’ exact fast-track usage numbers became public. Cologne is a municipality inside North Rhine-Westphalia, governed by a city council rather than a state parliament with that kind of oversight mechanism over a federal law’s local effect. No Cologne-specific figure for how many local applicants used Section 10 Abs. 3 before it disappeared turned up in official sources or press coverage as of this writing, and there’s no equivalent institutional channel likely to produce one on the same timeline Berlin and Hamburg did.

The Office That Actually Handles This

Cologne’s Einbürgerungsbehörde sits inside the Bezirksrathaus Kalk, at Kalker Hauptstraße 247-273, 51103 Köln (0221/221-29835, Monday to Friday, 8am to noon). It’s worth being precise here, because two other offices share enough of the name or address to cause real confusion. Bezirksausländeramt Kalk, which handles residence permits rather than citizenship, carries the same district name but is physically located inside the Bezirksrathaus Mülheim building, at a different address entirely. Bezirksregierung Köln is a third, separate institution again, the state-level supervisory authority over citizenship offices (Aufsichtsbehörde über die Staatsangehörigkeitsbehörden), handling renunciations, Section 5 StAG declaration acquisitions, replacement certificates, and appeals, not standard naturalization applications. If you’re trying to work out where a pending fast-track question should go, it’s Bezirksrathaus Kalk’s Einbürgerungsbehörde, not either of the other two.

Photo by Wolfgang Vrede on Pexels

Getting a Status Update

Absent a dedicated fast-track procedure, what governs a pending case is the same general practice that governs every Cologne naturalization file: applications are worked in the order they were received. If you need to reach the office about your own case, Stadt Köln’s Kontakt Einbürgerung form is the intended channel, not a phone call or a walk-in visit (which requires an appointment and an invitation letter from the office anyway). Select “Nachfrage/Anfrage zu einem laufenden Einbürgerungsverfahren” from the dropdown, and include your Aktenzeichen (file reference number) if you already have one, along with a way to reach you (address, phone, or email; the form requires at least one).

Separately, Cologne’s own naturalization process page notes that the current wait for a first appointment is around 12 months, with the office typically making contact roughly 5 months before a slot opens, while a third-party legal source describes the complete process, application through decision, as taking 18 months or more given existing backlogs. That page also notes that demand for naturalization consultation in Cologne reportedly doubled in the months following the June 2024 reform, the same reform that introduced the fast track this page covers, so today’s queue reflects that broader wave of interest rather than the October 2025 repeal specifically.

Step by Step

1. Check whether you’ve already reached the standard 5-year residence mark. If so, the repeal is largely academic for you, you’re assessed under the rule that already governs most applicants.
2. If you filed specifically counting on the 3-year path and haven’t hit 5 years, don’t expect the kind of individualized outreach Berlin’s LEA has documented. No published Cologne procedure describes proactive handling of this specific situation.
3. Assume your file sits in the same chronological queue as everyone else’s, unless you have a genuinely separate, documented reason for urgency.
4. Use the Kontakt Einbürgerung form, not the phone, if you need to ask about your specific case, and select the “ongoing procedure” option with your Aktenzeichen if you have one.
5. If you’re married to a German citizen, check Section 9 StAG separately, that 3-year spousal path is untouched by this repeal.
6. Don’t confuse Bezirksrathaus Kalk’s Einbürgerungsbehörde with Bezirksausländeramt Kalk or Bezirksregierung Köln, the three offices handle different matters at different addresses.

Compliance Note

This page explains the general legal framework around the repeal of the 3-year accelerated naturalization path, and what Cologne’s own Einbürgerungsbehörde has and hasn’t published about it, current as of mid-2026. It is not legal advice, and how the repeal applies to a specific pending application depends on individual case details. Consult an immigration lawyer, or contact the Einbürgerungsbehörde directly through its own Kontaktformular, if you have a pending application affected by this change.