Why do some US citizens seek asylum in Germany?

The right to seek asylum is protected in Germany’s Basic Law. Accordingly, people who have been displaced from other parts of the world, and particularly those fleeing from violence, war and terror should be allowed to seek protection in Germany. 

There are, however, cases in which people from countries that are considered safe and even prosperous seek asylum in Germany.

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) confirmed to The Local that 40 United States citizens applied for asylum in Germany in 2025. And in the first three months of 2026, five more had arrived to do so.

Since the US is largely considered to be safe, US citizen asylum seekers face some serious challenges in seeing their applications approved, but there have been at least a handful of cases approved in recent years.

So how many US citizens are seeking asylum in Germany, and why?

The numbers

The numbers of US citizens applying for asylum in Germany each year are quite small – especially in comparison to the large number of asylum applications Germany receives annually – but they do appear to have ticked upward in recent years.

A spokesperson for BAMF shared the following figures with The Local on request:

Of the 168,543 applications for asylum that Germany recorded in 2025, the 40 US citizens account for just 0.02 percent of the group.

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In 2025, 50 asylum applications from US citizens were processed, according to BAMF. (Some of these would have been carried over from previous years, which is why 50 were processed when 40 were submitted that year.)

BAMF said the protection rate for these applications was six percent, meaning that three applicants were granted asylum. 

In response to a related request for comment, a spokesperson for the refugee protection organisation Pro Asyl told The Local that of those three approvals, one was granted asylum, another was granted “refugee protection” and another was granted “protection from deportation”.

In the Central Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers in Bavaria, fingerprints are taken by an employee. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Löb

Meanwhile, 28 applications were rejected for asylum in 2025, and 19 resulted in “other procedures”. The BAMF spokesperson added: “These [other procedures] include, for example, the responsibility of another European state under the Dublin Regulation, the withdrawal of the application, or a discontinuation due to inactivity.”

Interestingly, BAMF recorded a higher protection rate for asylum applications by US citizens in previous years, but not a higher number of approvals.

In 2023, 15 percent of applications were approved, but out of the 20 applications processed that year it also amounted to three successful cases. The approval rate and number of successful applications was similar in 2022.

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Why would Americans seek asylum?

Asked why US citizens were trying to claim asylum in Germany, the BAMF spokesperson noted that, “The reasons given by applicants during their hearing are not statistically recorded.”

Pressed for further clarification they added that “applicants’ statements are so multifaceted that it is impossible to reduce them to a single statistical component.” The spokesperson suggested that the same applied to the reasons behind why applications were either granted asylum or rejected.

Following the re-election of US President Donald Trump, there was some speculation that LGBTQ Americans could qualify for asylum in certain cases. Europe is known to protect LGBTQ people fleeing persecution in countries such as Russia or Uganda, which have enacted anti-LGBTQ laws.

But so far, the US is still largely considered a safe country of origin.

A report by Context highlights how the Trump administration has enacted a number of policies that affect certain LGBTQ people’s access to healthcare, legal recognition and education.

A number of cases of transgender Americans seeking asylum in Europe, and primarily in The Netherlands, have made headlines in the past year. But at time of writing, it doesn’t appear that any of these cases have been successful.

Asked for context on why US citizens might seek asylum, a spokesperson for Pro Asyl said that the organisation has “hardly any cases of refugees from the US” and therefore could not speak to their motives.

The BAMF spokesperson told The Local that, “Every asylum procedure is an individual case review. The reasons for persecution presented by each individual are always assessed. Origin from a particular country and a specific reason for fleeing are relevant for examining an asylum application. However, these factors alone do not determine whether a protected status is granted or…rejected.”

Beyond LGBTQ or similar identity-related issues, there is precedent of Americans seeking protection in Germany for other reasons. 

One somewhat famous case is that of André Shepherd, an American soldier who applied for political asylum. Shepherd deserted the US military from his post in Germany in 2008 to avoid being redeployed to fight in Iraq. He argued that the war there was in violation of international law. His case was ultimately rejected in 2011.

According to a report from 2023 by Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which cites BAMF, the few recognised refugees from the US, Canada or similar countries are primarily the children of refugees who had received their Western citizenship by birth.

So, for example, the children of parents from a third country who were born when their parents briefly lived in the US.

If the parents have since come to Germany and been granted refugee status, that protection status is also applied to their kids, regardless of their nationality. 

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