Digitalization for your Naturalization authority.
civitas. reduces processing time, lowers Rückfrage (query) rates, and relieves your Sachbearbeitung (case-handling) team — without intervening in existing Fachverfahren.
Six challenges we have identified.
The StAG reform of 27 June 2024 lowered the legal hurdles to naturalization — without modernizing the administrative structures accordingly. The figures below are estimates based on public data from the Statistisches Bundesamt (Federal Statistical Office), media reports, and conversations with Einbürgerungsbehörden (naturalization authorities).
Increase in application numbers since the reform.
The 5-year period and the elimination of the obligation to give up one's previous citizenship have massively expanded eligibility. Municipal authorities report up to 38 percent more incoming applications — staffing capacity is not keeping pace.
Query rate for traditional applications.
Paper applications and monolingual online forms lead to a follow-up rate of around 47 percent. Each follow-up extends processing time by an average of three to six weeks — and ties up capacity twice.
Eligible persons whose native language is not German.
Monolingual forms create misunderstandings that come back as follow-up questions. Interpreters are expensive and not always available. The authority bears the cost of a structural language barrier.
Manual data transfer into the Fachverfahren (specialized case-management system).
Application data is often manually transferred from paper or PDF forms into the specialist system (AKDB, Infoma, in-house solutions). Time-consuming, error-prone, not audit-proof.
Processing times publicly discussed.
Local media and municipal political bodies regularly request information about processing times. Without reliable statistics and evidence of optimization, the administration lacks an argumentative basis for its statements.
No headcount growth despite rising workload.
Municipal budgets rarely allow new hires in Einbürgerungsbehörden (naturalization authorities). The only option is efficiency gains — more cases per Sachbearbeiter (caseworker) per month, without loss of quality.
How civitas. addresses each of these challenges.
civitas. is not an island solution, but a layer between applicant and your Fachverfahren. The structured intake replaces the informal inbox — without your team having to switch from the tools they are used to.
Structured Antragserfassung (application capture).
83 mandatory questions in 14 thematic sections. Applicants go through a digital wizard with automatic validation. The output is an authority-ready application — complete, formally correct, with all mandatory documents.
In comparable digitalization projects, follow-up query rates drop significantly. The total volume can be processed with the same staffing level.
Six languages with German output.
Applicants fill out the wizard in their native language — German, English, Turkish, Arabic, Russian or Ukrainian. The authority-ready application is automatically generated in German.
Your case officers continue to work exclusively with German documents. No interpreter appointments, no translation costs.
API handover into the specialist case-management system — planned for pilot projects.
Structured handover to AKDB OK.VORFAHRT, Infoma newsystem, d.velop documents and FIT-Connect is planned for pilot projects. Today, civitas. delivers authority-ready application bundles via email, postal instructions or portal upload.
For the BZR Führungszeugnis (police clearance certificate), civitas. provides checklists and reminders — the request is made by the applicant or the authority.
Automatic completeness check.
Before handover to your Behörde (authority), civitas. automatically checks: Are all 14 mandatory sections filled in? Are the required documents attached? Do dates and signatures match?
Incomplete applications are returned to applicants before they reach your inbox — with concrete notes on what is missing.
Reliable statistics for council, administration and press.
The admin dashboard delivers daily-updated figures: processing times in quarterly comparison, follow-up query rates, team workload, country-of-origin distribution, approval rate.
Exportable as CSV or as a PDF report. A suitable basis for statements to the council, administrative leadership and the public.
Transparent team utilization.
Automatic assignment based on workload (optional), four-eyes principle for rejections, overview of open queries and overdue deadlines. Office heads see the overall picture, Sachbearbeiter:innen (case workers) see their own workload.
Goal: measurably more cases processed per Sachbearbeiter:in (case worker) per month — without extra work, through elimination of redundant steps. Concrete targets are defined in the pilot.
What your team would see daily.
The following depiction shows an example scenario with a fictitious tenant and expected target values. Each municipality is technically its own tenant with isolated data. The interface is intuitive enough that no training is required — and detailed enough for office leadership, caseworkers and IT to find the information they need.
| File reference number | Applicant | Inbox | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| EB-2025-00147 | Andriy Melnyk Ukrainian · § 10 StAG | 18 Feb 2025 | New |
| EB-2025-00142 | Aylin Yıldız Turkish · § 10 StAG | 16 Feb 2025 | Query |
| EB-2025-00138 | Al-Hassan family Syrian · 4 people · § 10 + § 9 | 14 Feb 2025 | In progress |
| EB-2025-00135 | Maria Kovalenko Ukrainian · § 10 StAG | 12 Feb 2025 | To the decision |
The expected effect at your authority.
Target values based on a model calculation using publicly accessible procedural data from comparable digitization projects in the municipal administration environment. We collect your concrete figures together with you in the pilot project.
Expected reduction in the follow-up enquiry rate through structured pre-capture. Measurable in the pilot from week 4.
Projected shortening of the average processing time through elimination of Medienbruch (media discontinuity) and structured data handover.
Expected increase in cases processed per case officer per month — with the same staffing level and the same working hours.
No structured training is planned. The interface is usable from day 1. Onboarding guide is 2 pages.
Three ways to introduce civitas.
Depending on the maturity of your digital infrastructure and the available project scope, we jointly choose the right entry point. All three models can later be transitioned to white-label.
Pilot project
Individual municipalities or counties can introduce civitas. as a time-limited proof-of-concept — for one specialist area or a subset of applicants.
Includes onboarding, training of case officers, and accompanying measurement of throughput-time effects over 6 to 12 months. Cancelable after pilot.
API integration
Integration with existing specialist systems via standardized interfaces. civitas. complements the existing system, it does not replace it — no parallel system, no duplicate data maintenance.
Interoperability with AKDB OK.VORFAHRT, Infoma newsystem, d.velop documents, MACH, FIT-Connect and proprietary specialist procedures is checked in advance.
White-Label
Dedicated branded instance for counties, cities or state authorities. The application process runs under the municipal brand, while the technical platform remains civitas.
Suitable for administrations that operate citizen contact points under their own brand but do not want to develop software themselves.
Interfaces to existing administrative systems.
No island solution, no parallel world. civitas. complements your municipality's existing administrative infrastructure — via standardized interfaces or custom adapters for proprietary specialist systems.
Fachverfahren Einbürgerung (specialized naturalization case-management system) — adapter for structured application data transfer and a return channel for decisions.
In preparation / In pilotERP/specialized case systems — adapters for case-number assignment, fee billing and document archival.
In preparation / In pilotCentral federal gateway for digital administrative services — OZG-compliant application intake.
In preparation / In pilotAudit-proof archiving (revisionssicher) — adapter for automatic filing, 10-year retention.
In preparation / In pilotChecklist and reminder support for the extended Führungszeugnis (certificate of good conduct) — the request is made by the applicant or the authority; issued directly to the authority.
In preparation / In pilotEnterprise Content Management & Fachverfahren (specialized case-management system) — standard adapter for the MACH-Suite.
In preparation / In pilotQualified electronic signature in accordance with eIDAS — for digital Bescheid (administrative decisions) without paper process.
Q3 2026 plannedSecure email communication with Antragsteller (applicants) — end-to-end encryption, DSGVO-compliant.
In preparation / In pilotProprietary Fachverfahren (specialized procedure systems) or in-house municipal developments — adapters are developed during the pilot.
On requestFramework conditions that apply to you.
Public procurement law, the DSGVO and the RDG (Legal Services Act) set clear guardrails for cooperation with a private software company. civitas. is structurally designed for this.
Server location Germany.
Exclusively Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg. TLS 1.3 end-to-end, AES-256 at storage level. No data transfer outside the EU. AVV (data processing agreement) under DSGVO Art. 28 as standard.
Strict data separation.
Each municipality is its own tenant with full isolation. No data mixing, no cross-access, granular role and access rights — auditable via export.
No vendor lock-in.
Export of all data as JSON possible at any time. XÖV output and FIT-Connect integration are in preparation; API documentation on request. You remain technically sovereign.
No Rechtsberatung (legal advice).
civitas. provides purely technical procedural support. No interpretation of individual cases within the meaning of the RDG (Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz). Legal assessment and decision remain 100 percent with your authority.
What heads of authorities (Amtsleitungen) typically ask.
Answers to the five questions that regularly come up in exploratory conversations. We clarify further topics in personal exchange.
Exploratory call about cooperation.
In an initial conversation of about sixty minutes, we discuss with you the concrete needs of your authority, the existing infrastructure, and the possible rollout paths. The conversation is non-binding and serves solely to clarify needs. You decide on next steps afterwards.