Angela Merkel Finds A Migrant She Doesn't Like

Alexandra Zaitsevas job is to sell dreams. Dreams of an unforgettable time somewhere in the distance. The 37-year-old has at Cologne airport her own travel agency, only they can travel even nowhere, not even in Cologne, their residence, they must leave.

Zaitseva does not have a valid passport, no German, and none of her home country Kazakhstan. She is virtually stateless. "It's a bad situation for me and my family," she says.

Alexandra Zaitseva meets all criteria it for naturalization in the Federal Republic of Germany is required: The mother of two children has a secure income, has no criminal record and is fluent in German. She passed the naturalization test with 33 of 33 possible points. Nevertheless, the Cologne naturalization authority has been around for almost five years. In February 2012, Zaitseva submitted her application to German citizenship. Since then, she has always been asked new questions and asked for proof of salary. For the last two years, Alexandra Zaitseva has really been in trouble. And the authorities seem to take advantage of it.

Almost three years - until December 31, 2014 - Zaitseva's Kazakh pass was still valid when she applied for a naturalization application in February 2012. "At that time, I thought that the whole thing was done within a few months," she says. When she realized that this was not the case, she contacted the Kazakh authorities to extend her passport once more. The problem: Who once applied for naturalization to another state does not get a Kazakh pass. The dual citizenship is not allowed in Kazakhstan. Zaitseva would have had to submit a so-called negative certificate to the German authorities. "This person has not asked for a German nationality," the website of the Kazakh embassy says.

Zaitseva informed the Office in Cologne about this situation, but the officials apparently did not care about it: For almost two years, they asked the woman to submit their valid Kazakh passport, most recently on 19 October 2016.

In the letter Cologne complains that only one fiction certificate has been submitted. This is evidence that a provisional right of residence exists. If the required documents were not submitted in full, "I am unfortunately forced to reject their application for a fee," the Office said. Zaitseva says she is close to despair when she gets a letter like this: "I feel so powerless." She had called to the authorities several times, but she had only been consoling or taking her leave.

The "World" asked the city of Cologne, where Zaitseva had naturalization. Within a week it was said again and again, one was working on an answer of the inquiry. It was then reported that unfortunately the case could not be reconstructed. "I'm not surprised," says Zaitseva. "There is simply no plausible explanation for the fact that I am not yet a German." Meanwhile, the fourth clerk handles her case.

Zaitseva came in 1998 to Germany, then she studied literature in Mainz . She fell in love with Max, she got two children. In 2009 they married. Her husband had come from Russia in 1995 - and got his German passport without problems. He now works as an employee in his wife's travel agency, opened in 2013, with a further employee. "We come themselves for our livelihood on, we are no one on the bag and we pay our taxes in Germany," said Zaitseva.

In addition to her work at the travel agency, she still has a side job. As a sworn interpreter, she serves at the city council of Cologne. Her husband Max speaks perfect German as well, her older daughter soon goes to high school. She has no one in Kazakhstan, she says.

Zaitseva says she misses traveling abroad. She would like to visit tourism again and she is saddened that her husband and the two children without her should go on vacation. This winter it goes for three in Turkey - they themselves will remain in Cologne.