Country Update 2022: GERMANY

Contributed by: Daniela Boehme

June 2022

1. Legislative Changes

There were not too many, i.a.:

• July 9th, 2021 (in force since July 15th / November 1st, 2021)

  Law for the development of the Central Aliens’ register

  • centralizing data on aliens

  • more administrations have access to the registry (now about 16,500 administrations)

  • more information is included in the registry, e.g. also sexual orientation, pictures, passports, flight history, asylum- and court decisions (with insufficiently blacked-out passages and insufficient control mechanisms: no possibility for an alien to access, to erase or correct the data)

• August 12th, 2021 (in force since August 20th, 2021)

  4th change of Nationality Law

  • for acquiring German citizenship by birth in Germany (ius soli), the identity of the parent must be clear

  • extremists and especially anti-Semites cannot be naturalized

  • long overdue: possibility for victims of the Nazi regime to obtain German citizenship, valid not only for Jews but to all persons and their descendants who lost over or never got the German citizenship due to persecution by Nazi regime.

2. Business Immigration

Highly Skilled immigration (Blue Card)

The gross annual income thresholds were updated for the Blue card and for the first time ever lower than the year before, for regular professions to Euro 56,400,- and for professions in which there are shortages (such as natural scientists, mathematics, engineers, doctors and IT specialists) to Euro 43,992. These thresholds are tied to the yearly general pension insurance contribution assessment ceiling (jährliche Beitragsbemessungsgrenze der allgemeinen Rentenversicherung) .

Apart from that no relevant news, one has to wait for the results of the coalition treaty.

3. Family based immigration

No relevant news, one has to wait for the results of the coalition treaty.

4. Asylum

• In general: in the first half of 2021 35% of all asylum decisions in 2021 were overruled by court.

  
  

• Afghanistan, February 2nd, 2022: Federal reception program for specially endangered Afghans

  • allowing mostly so-called local staff members and their families (not only core family) to come to Germany for maximum 20,000 persons

  • but there are factual problems hindering the migration to Germany: in case there are no passports or if other documents are missing, where an entitled person can apply for a visa and how the person will get there, alsoe waiting times at the German embassies (India, Pakistan and Iran) are at least a year if not longer just for obtaining an appointment to apply, not enough Embassy staff, etc.

• Ukraine, in 2022 (retroactively from February 24th, 2022 onwards) Federal reception programs for temporary protection for Ukrainian nationals or people with a Ukrainian protection status

  • mostly based on Temporary Protection Directive incorporated into German law (§ 24 Residence Act)

  • visa procedure is not necessary anymore, just registration after 90 days max

  • free choice of residence Germany-wide if finances are secured

  • fixed exchange rate for Ukrainian currency

  • social help for Ukrainian refugees like for Germans, not like for refugees, which is less than the regular minimal living amount for Germans

  • access to integration and language courses

  • right to work employed or self-employed, no consultation of federal labor agency

  • possibility to change from temporary protection into other residence titles

Problematic: third country nationals with a Ukrainian residence right not based on a protection status., e.g. student visa (some regions allow these students to go to a German university, mostly these persons are pushed into the asylum system).

5. Deportation

• Afghanistan: August 11th 2021 - deportation stop

• Dublin

  • no more Dublin-deportations to Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria since February 2022 because of their acceptance refusal based on the Ukrainian refugee situation in these countries

  • no Dublin-deportations to Italy for in Italy recognized refugees (Decisions of Highest Federal Administrative Court from January and February 2022)

  • sometimes no more Dublin-deportations to Slovenia and to Spain

6. Citizenship

See fourth change of Nationality Law mentioned above and the plans in the Coalition treaty.