General Terms and Conditions

(1) These General Terms and Conditions (AGB) apply to all contracts for the digital services of civitas. that are concluded via einbuergerungsservice.de. The contracting party is Civitas UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Breite Straße 22, 40213 Düsseldorf, registered in the commercial register of the Amtsgericht Düsseldorf under HRB 113539, represented by the managing director with sole power of representation, Tim Refäuter (hereinafter "civitas."), reachable by e-mail at kontakt@einbuergerungsservice.de.

(2) civitas. is a private service provider — not a public authority, not a law firm.

(3) The contract language is German. Translations of the website and these Terms are provided for ease of understanding; the German version prevails. These Terms are available at any time at einbuergerungsservice.de/recht/agb and can be saved and printed there.

(4) civitas. does not provide legal services within the meaning of § 2 RDG; the decision on the application rests solely with the competent authority.

(1) civitas. offers applicants for German citizenship digital self-service form-filling assistance for preparing and formally creating the naturalization application. The service is standardized software: a question-and-answer system with embedded form logic, comparable to a digital form handbook.

(2) The service comprises the systematic collection of the data required for the application via an online questionnaire, the algorithmic transfer of this data into the official application forms (EB and EBK) of the Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt), the automatic completeness check of the entries, and the creation of an individual checklist of the required supporting documents. The service is provided entirely digitally and in multiple languages (German, Arabic, Turkish, Russian, English, Ukrainian).

(3) The following, in particular, are not part of the service: legal services within the meaning of § 2 RDG, the individual legal assessment of the case, the evaluation of the application's prospects of success, personal advice by telephone, video or on-site, representation before authorities or courts, the pursuit of objections or the filing of lawsuits, and the assessment of preliminary questions of criminal or social-security law.

(4) The customer is responsible for submitting the completed application to the competent citizenship authority. civitas. handles neither the postal dispatch nor the communication with the authority on behalf of the customer.

(5) The decision on the application rests solely with the competent citizenship authority. civitas. owes the software service, not the outcome of the procedure.

(1) civitas. offers holders of a residence permit digital self-service form-filling assistance for preparing and formally compiling the application to extend their residence permit. § 2 (1) sentence 2 applies accordingly.

(2) The service comprises the systematic collection of the data required for the application via an online questionnaire, the algorithmic transfer of this data into the official form of the competent foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde) or the preparation of that data for the authority's online portal, the automatic completeness check of the entries, and the creation of an individual checklist of the required supporting documents. The service is provided entirely digitally.

(3) The following, in particular, are not part of the service: legal services within the meaning of § 2 RDG, the individual legal assessment of the case, the evaluation of the prospects of success or of the entitlement to an extension, the selection of the applicable residence permit or the relevant legal basis, the monitoring of official deadlines, personal advice by telephone, video or on-site, representation before authorities or courts, and the pursuit of objections or the filing of lawsuits.

(4) The customer is responsible for submitting the completed application and for arranging the appointment with the competent foreigners authority. civitas. handles neither the postal dispatch, nor the appointment booking, nor the communication with the authority on behalf of the customer.

(5) The decision on the application rests solely with the competent foreigners authority. The service is provided as a one-time service for a one-time payment (not a subscription); the price shown in the checkout applies (§ 7).

(1) civitas. offers holders of a residence permit digital self-service form-filling assistance for preparing and formally compiling the application for the grant of a settlement permit (an unlimited residence permit under § 9 AufenthG). § 2 (1) sentence 2 applies accordingly.

(2) The service comprises the systematic collection of the data required for the application via an online questionnaire, the algorithmic transfer of this data into the official form of the competent foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde) or the preparation of that data for the authority's online portal, the creation of a cover letter to the authority formatted in accordance with DIN 5008 and of a supplementary sheet for additional information that does not fit on the official form, the automatic completeness check of the entries, and the creation of an individual checklist of the required supporting documents. The service is provided entirely digitally.

(3) The following, in particular, are not part of the service: legal services within the meaning of § 2 RDG, the individual legal assessment of the case, the evaluation of the prospects of success or of the entitlement to the settlement permit, the selection of the applicable legal basis (e.g., between § 9 AufenthG and overriding or more specific provisions governing the grant of the permit), the monitoring of official deadlines, personal advice by telephone, video or on-site, representation before authorities or courts, and the pursuit of objections or the filing of lawsuits.

(4) The customer is responsible for submitting the completed application and for arranging the appointment with the competent foreigners authority. civitas. handles neither the postal dispatch, nor the appointment booking, nor the communication with the authority on behalf of the customer.

(5) The decision on the application rests solely with the competent foreigners authority. The service is provided as a one-time service for a one-time payment (not a subscription); the price shown in the checkout applies (§ 7).

(6) The statutory right of withdrawal applies to this service: the customer may withdraw from the contract within 14 days of the conclusion of the contract without giving reasons; the details, in particular regarding the premature expiry of this right upon complete performance of the service, are governed by § 8. Before submitting the order, the customer is informed of the right of withdrawal and the further mandatory information pursuant to § 312d BGB in conjunction with Art. 246a EGBGB. The right of withdrawal expires upon complete performance of the service only if the customer has expressly agreed that performance would begin before expiry of the withdrawal period and has confirmed their awareness that they lose their right of withdrawal upon complete performance of the contract (§ 356 BGB).

(1) The tracker is a digital subscription product for accompanying the ongoing application procedure. It offers structured status tracking, deadline reminders and the translation of official letters for better comprehensibility.

(2) The status tracking is based on the customer's information and documents; civitas. does not obtain any data directly from authorities. Reminders are a technical aid — responsibility for complying with official deadlines remains with the customer. Translations are provided for ease of understanding and contain no legal assessment of the content. § 2 (3) applies accordingly.

(3) The subscription is offered with monthly or annual billing and runs for an indefinite period. The customer may cancel it at any time without observing any notice period, in text form (e.g. by e-mail to kontakt@einbuergerungsservice.de) or via the cancellation option on the website; the cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period already paid for. The statutory right of withdrawal (§ 8) and the right to extraordinary termination remain unaffected.

(1) All services of civitas. are standardized software and support services. They are not a legal service within the meaning of § 2 RDG and do not replace advice from a lawyer.

(2) For the individual legal assessment of a case — for example in the case of preliminary questions of criminal law, an unclear residence status or particular case scenarios — civitas. refers customers to lawyers and recognized advice centers (e.g. migration advice).

(1) The presentation of the services on the website is not a binding offer, but an invitation to place an order.

(2) The customer submits their offer by going through the ordering process in the checkout and clicking the order button entailing an obligation to pay. Immediately before the order, the essential characteristics of the service and the total price are displayed; the customer can review and correct their entries up until the order is submitted.

(3) The contract is concluded when civitas. accepts the order — by confirmation via e-mail or by activation of the service. This applies to all services: the naturalization packages (§ 2), the residence-permit extension (§ 3), the settlement permit (§ 3a) and the tracker subscription (§ 4).

(4) civitas. sends the customer a contract confirmation by e-mail (§ 312f BGB). These Terms, in the version valid at the time of the order, are part of the contract and can be retrieved and saved at einbuergerungsservice.de/recht/agb.

(1) The prices shown in the checkout at the time of the order apply. All prices are total prices in euros and include the statutory value-added tax, insofar as it applies.

(2) Payment is made in advance via the payment service provider Stripe; the available payment methods are displayed in the checkout. For the tracker subscription, the fee for each billing period (monthly or annual) falls due in advance and is collected via Stripe.

(3) Official fees (e.g. for naturalization or the extension of the residence permit) are not part of the price and are to be paid by the customer directly to the authority.

(1) Consumers have the statutory right of withdrawal: they may withdraw from the contract within 14 days of the conclusion of the contract without giving reasons. The withdrawal can be declared without any particular form by means of an unambiguous statement, e.g. by e-mail to kontakt@einbuergerungsservice.de.

(2) The right of withdrawal expires prematurely only in accordance with the statutory rules: in the case of services, when civitas. has fully performed the service and only began performance after the customer expressly agreed that performance would begin before expiry of the withdrawal period and confirmed their awareness that their right of withdrawal expires upon complete performance of the contract (§ 356 Abs. 5 Nr. 2 BGB); in the case of digital content not supplied on a physical data carrier, under the conditions of § 356 Abs. 6 Nr. 2 BGB.

(3) This consent and confirmation of awareness is given not by these Terms, but exclusively by a separate, active declaration of the customer in the ordering process. Without this declaration, civitas. does not begin performance before expiry of the withdrawal period, and the right of withdrawal remains fully intact.

(4) If the customer requests that performance begin before expiry of the withdrawal period and subsequently withdraws, they owe compensation for the value of the service performed up to the withdrawal (§ 357a Abs. 2 BGB). For the tracker subscription, the right of withdrawal does not expire merely upon commencement of the service; here, too, the statutory rules are decisive.

(1) The customer provides complete and truthful information and makes available the required supporting documents.

(2) civitas. checks the entries automatically for completeness and points out recognizable gaps. The customer is responsible for the substantive accuracy of the information and is responsible, vis-à-vis the authority, for the consequences of incorrect or incomplete information.

The statutory provisions on consumer contracts for digital products (§§ 327 ff. BGB) apply to the services of civitas., including the obligation to provide updates (§ 327f BGB). The customer's statutory rights in the event of defects — supplementary performance, termination of the contract or price reduction, and damages — are not restricted by these Terms.

(1) civitas. is liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence — including that of its legal representatives and vicarious agents — for damages arising from injury to life, body or health, under the Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz), and to the extent of an expressly assumed guarantee.

(2) In the case of ordinary negligence, civitas. is liable only for the breach of material contractual duties, that is, duties whose fulfillment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance the customer may regularly rely; in this case, liability is limited to the damage typical for the contract and foreseeable at the time the contract was concluded.

(3) In all other respects, liability is excluded. The limitations of liability do not apply in the cases of paragraph (1); the customer's rights under §§ 327 ff. BGB remain unaffected.

The processing of personal data is carried out in accordance with the privacy policy, available at einbuergerungsservice.de/recht/datenschutz.

civitas. is neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board within the meaning of the Consumer Dispute Resolution Act (Verbraucherstreitbeilegungsgesetz, VSBG).

(1) The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies. If the customer is a consumer, the mandatory consumer-protection provisions of the state in which they have their habitual residence remain unaffected.

(2) If the customer is a merchant, a legal person under public law or a special fund under public law, or has no general place of jurisdiction in Germany, the place of jurisdiction is Düsseldorf.

(3) Should individual provisions of these Terms be invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected; the statutory provision (§ 306 BGB) takes the place of the invalid provision.