civitas. is aimed at law firms and non-profit advice centers that support clients and people seeking advice with their naturalization application. civitas. is not a legal-services provider within the meaning of the Legal Services Act (Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz): what is offered is technical procedural support – no interpretation of individual cases, no legal advice, and no representation before authorities or courts. The standard application is prepared in a structured way; the legal assessment remains with the law firm and the advice center.
Cooperation Models for Law Firms
Structurally, civitas. does not compete with a law firm but complements what the lawyer offers: cases that require legal expertise remain with the firm; cases that only need structured intake are handled by civitas. Several models are envisaged:
- Workflow tool for the firm's own matters – the firm captures standard matters through the wizard and saves processing time.
- Bidirectional case handover – standard matters are referred to civitas., complex cases to the firm. This core form of cooperation is currently in preparation and not yet live.
- A referral link on the firm's website – with no flow of money, purely informational.
The case handover is commission-free in both directions. This keeps the model within the framework of § 49b Abs. 3 BRAO: civitas. pays no commission for referred matters and accepts none for a referral. If the firm takes on a matter, its professional liability as a lawyer applies as usual; civitas. then functions solely as a tool. Further details under For Law Firms.
Benefits for Advice Centers
Non-profit migration advice centers can hand the administrative part of preparing the application over to the wizard. The multilingual intake (DE, EN, TR, AR, RU, UK) makes it easier to work with people seeking advice from a wide range of backgrounds, so that advisors have more time for substantive support. A free supported tariff is available for recognized non-profit organizations. The legal assessment of the individual case – including questions of discretion, unusual biographical circumstances, or appeal proceedings – remains part of the advice center's mandate and, where applicable, that of legal representation brought in to assist.
Multi-tenancy and Data Protection
The same technical basis applies to law firms and advice centers alike:
- Multi-tenancy – each organization is its own, fully isolated tenant; several staff members can work without any mixing of data between files or organizations.
- Hosting in Germany – exclusively with Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg, TLS 1.3 and AES-256, no data transfer outside the EU.
- Data processing on behalf of the controller under Art. 28 DSGVO as standard.
The Partners page offers an overview of all forms of cooperation.