Das Einbürgerungsgesuch

Well, we’ve done it.  We’ve taken the first official step in the Naturalization application process.  It wasn’t a big deal really, just a visit to the immigration office (Thursdays only).  No appointment was necessary, nor possible, so we just dropped in, took a number and waited about twenty minutes before being invited into a nice, but sterile office by a pleasant, business like woman in her late-thirties.  After asking us a few quick questions to confirm our eligibility she whisked out a folder of forms and briskly, but efficiently, worked her way through them, high-lighting the documents which we would need to assemble to initiate the process.   It took about fifteen minutes.  She then answered the few questions we had, wished us a nice day and escorted us out so she could move onto the next nice immigrant family sitting anxiously in the waiting room.

On the way home I reviewed the list.  It included nothing surprising or clearly problematic but there was a nested reference sending us to another office, the Zivilstandsamt (Registrar's office), to obtain an extract of information the city had on us.  I wondered what that meant.