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IMMIGRATION

How one German immigration office plans to tackle long waiting times

For years, the Darmstadt Immigration Office or Ausländerbehörde has been criticised for poor accessibility and chaotic conditions. Last week, the city’s mayor presented a new plan that could finally solve the problem. What could other cities learn?

Published: 25 July 2022 15:51 CEST
A staff member at a Hamburg immigration office helps a member of the public.
A staff member at a Hamburg immigration office helps a member of the public. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Jonas Walzberg

The city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt in southwest Germany is home to three universities and around 35,000 international residents. In fact, national statistics from 2020 show that internationals make up 20,5 percent of the population in the city.

It’s little wonder then, that problems with the Ausländerbehörder (the international immigration offices) have been widely reported as negatively impacting lots of foreign residents in the city. 

Determined to combat the issues once and for all, last week the city’s Mayor, Jochen Partsch (Greens) presented a new concept for restructuring the service.

What are the problems?

Darmstadt’s immigration office has had a bad reputation for years, due to long waiting times, and problems getting hold of staff or arranging appointments. According to local immigration lawyers, the processing of applications for naturalization currently takes around two years.

READ ALSO: ‘Nothing is easy’: How foreigners struggle to get settled in Germany

There have been numerous reports of foreign residents being unable to renew expired residence permits due to the impossibility of getting hold of the authorities. A report by the German regional news site Hessenschau.de from February included an account of a student calling over 80 times, even during office hours, and never getting a response.

Immigration and asylum lawyer, Sonja Plückebaum, who is based in Darmstadt, said: “We have clients who have lost their apprenticeship or job because they did not get their residence permit extended in time.” Major problems also often arise when people are looking for an apartment or signing a mobile phone contract.

What’s causing the problems?

City officials have claimed that the problems with the immigration office ultimately come down to staffing and workload.

For some time now, there has been a high level of staff turnover and an above-average level of sick leave among employees at the immigration office.

The city’s former Mayor, Rafael Reißer, said earlier in the year that the loss of experienced workers had led to a “continuous reduction” in expertise, while, at the same time, work had piled up. New employees in particular were plagued by “self-doubt and insecurity” due to the “daily pressure to perform,” which in most cases led to them resigning.

READ ALSO: Germany ranked as ‘worst country in the world’ for expat needs

These issues have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. 

An application for a residence permit lies on a desk at the Foreigners' Registration Office in Baden-Württemberg.

An application for a residence permit lies on a desk at the Foreigners’ Registration Office in Baden-Württemberg. Photo: picture alliance / dpa | Wolfram Kastl

What are the new plans?

The first step will be to set up a service team to coordinate the allocation of appointments and be the first point of contact for all issues, to help tackle the problems with reaching staff at the immigration office.

New specialised teams will be put together, which will deal with specific areas affecting foreign residents, such as education, employment and resident rights. 

The electronic filing system in the immigration office is also being fast-tracked and should be operational by the autumn, which will help speed up workflows.

The city also announced 12 new full-time positions to be filled as soon as possible.

The new organisation will also help reduce the workload for individual employees, he said: “All the measures taken now will add up to ensure that people will once again receive the comprehensive service they deserve.”

READ ALSO: Berlin to revolutionise immigration office ‘experience’

Useful vocabulary:

immigration office – (die) Ausländerbehörde

residence permit – (die) Aufenthaltserlaubnis

waiting time – (die) Wartezeit

to reach someone by phone – jemanden telefonisch erreichen

We’re aiming to help our readers improve their German by translating vocabulary from some of our news stories. Did you find this article useful? Let us know.

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WORKING IN GERMANY

Is Germany’s ‘Opportunity Card’ visa too complicated to work?

It's barely been a week since Germany introduced its point-based jobseekers' visa, but some experts are already saying the scheme is destined to fail.

Published: 7 June 2024 14:33 CEST
Is Germany's 'Opportunity Card' visa too complicated to work?

When Germany introduced its new points-based visa for skilled workers at the June, the anticipation was huge: for third-country nationals, it presented a new avenue for accessing Europe’s largest economy, and for the government, a way to attract the workers the country desperately needs.

But barely a week after the Chancenkarte, or Opportunity Card, was introduced, experts have expressed scepticism that the scheme will have the desired effect.

Speaking to the Rheinische Post, migration experts at the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) cast doubt on the visa’s potential to attract a significant number of new workers.

Herbert Brücker, a researcher at the institute, believes that its impact will be “very modest,” compared with similar schemes in countries like Canada and Australia. 

“Unlike the points system in Canada, for example, which paves the way to permanent residency, the German Opportunity Card is only about the possibility of finding a job,” Brücker explained. 

He pointed out that many prospective workers might opt for other routes, such as remote job interviews or job-hunting on a tourist visa, in order to circumvent the bureaucracy involved in applying for the Chancenkarte.

Hans Vorländer, a migration researcher at TU Dresden and the chair of the Expert Council on Migration, took a similar view, arguing that the points-based system was still far too complicated to act as an incentive for foreign workers.

READ ALSO: How many skilled workers will immigrate to Germany with the Opportunity Card?

“German migration law is now so complicated that only a few people understand it,” he said, adding that the government should have “more courage” to simplify the system.

However, the jobseekers’ visa could go some way to broadening access to the German job market and opening immigration routes for target groups, Vorländer added. 

What is the Chancenkarte?

Whether in IT or industry, Germany is struggling to find the workers it needs to prop up the economy, with recent estimates suggesting that at least 400,000 new workers are required per year to plug the shortage.

As part of its package of immigration reforms designed to attract skilled workers, the government introduced the Opportunity Card, or Chancenkarte, on June 1st.

This allows jobseekers to enter Germany for up to a year to look for a job, provided they earn enough points to be eligible for a visa.

Points are awarded for things like German or English language skills, professional qualifications and experience, age and connections to Germany. 

Applicants need to score at least 6 points out of a total of 14 in order to secure their permit. 

READ ALSO: How many points could you get on Germany’s planned skilled worker visa?

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