A German male national can secure the residence of a foreign mother if he acknowledges the paternity of her child. But what if the alleged father is not the real one?

To prevent such fraud in the future, Germany's governing coalition says it wants to take stronger action against so-called fictitious paternities.

On Wednesday (June 12), a draft bill to this effect was agreed upon by the Federal Cabinet, which is made up of the Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the 16 federal ministers.

The German parliament will still have to vote in favor of the bill for it to become law.

Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said the bill would introduce a stricter screening procedure that should make it impossible for a child to be recognized without the consent of the immigration authorities.

"Acknowledgments of paternity are misused to obtain a right of residence for someone who is not entitled to it. Our bill also ensures that the numerous legitimate paternity acknowledgements are not blocked or delayed," Buschmann said after the cabinet decision.

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How will paternity rules change?

If a German acknowledged being the father of a foreigner's child, that allows the child to obtain German citizenship. The mother and any siblings can obtain a right of residence and thus a claim to social benefits in Germany. With the new law, the government wants to prevent people from fraudulently claiming that a child is theirs -- which reportedly sometimes happens in exchange for money.

If the new bill is passed into law, there would be more hurdles in cases where German nationals or people with a secure residency status want to be recognized as parents of a child whose other parent has a less secure residency status.

For migrants and refugees in Germany, this essentially means three things:

• In future, foreigners' offices have to sign off on the recognition of the paternity when one parent has a less secure residency status (e.g. a suspension of deportation or travel visa).
• If the man can prove he's the biological father, the control for possible fraud isn't carried out.
• If there's clear indication that the man takes responsbility for the child, or when he has, for instance, been living with the mother for more than six months, the foreigners' offices are to assume he's the father as a general rule.

Wednesday's introduction of the draft bill was the third time lawmakers tried to prevent fictitious paternities. The first reform from 2008 was denied by Germany's constitutional court due to the possibility that children can become stateless as a result. The second reform attempt failed as it wasn't forceful enough, news agency epd reported.

Preventive and subsequent control

According to the justice and interior ministries, the immigration authorities processed 1,769 possible cases of fraud between January 2018 and December 2021. Around 290 of these were considered actual cases of fraudulent paternity acknowledgement. A further 1,800 cases were examined at German diplomatic missions abroad, news agency AFP reported. Both ministries also believe that there is a high number of unreported cases of fictitious paternity.

According to AFP, the draft bill would allow for recognition proceedings to already be suspended if there are concrete indications of abuse. At present, such cases are often not recognized early enough, the ministries said. This is due to the fact that it is mainly the responsible authorities like youth welfare offices or notaries that certify the acknowledgement of paternity.

In practical terms, this means that the registry office (Standesamt in German) would be able to decide whether there is a potential test case for the foreigners' offices, according to AFP. This would automatically apply if the parents have different residence statuses -- for instance, if the father has German citizenship and the mother only has a tourist visa.

At present, it is difficult for the authorities to obtain information relevant to fraud, according to the ministers. What's more, a subsequent correction of a recognized paternity is not possible at present, AFP reported citing the ministers.

With the bill in effect, however, foreigners' offices would be able to revoke their consent if it turns out that it was obtained, for example, on the basis of bribery, threats or deliberately false statements of fact, the immigration authority, according to a joint press release by the ministries. This would retroactively invalidate the paternity.

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with AFP, dpa, EPD