According to Section 25(2) of the Residence Act, both refugees and beneficiaries of subsidiary protection are entitled to a residence permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis). According to Section 26(1) of the Residence Act, the duration of residence permits differs for the various groups:
- Three years for persons with refugee status and for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection, with an extension possible if the protection status remains valid;
- Usually, one or two years for beneficiaries of humanitarian protection, with an extension possible if the humanitarian grounds persist.
Responsibility for issuing and renewing the residence permits lies with the local authorities of the beneficiary’s place of residence. In 2017, the Federal government introduced the Act to Improve Online Access to Administrative Services, following which most of the administrative services were to be made available online by 2022. In the field of Migration inter alia the application for the issuance and renewal of residence permits, the application for citizenship and social benefits for beneficiaries of and applicants for international protection or subsidiary protection shall be made possible.[1] However, the first evaluations on the implementation showed that only very few of the overall administrative services have been moved online and that the online availability sometimes means that a PDF document with the application form can be downloaded but without the possibility of handing in the form and the necessary documents online.[2] The main reason for the delay was supposedly unclear responsibilities between the Federal level, the states, and the municipalities.[3]
Administrative digitalisation has been treated as a long-term task and the legal framework was further developed through the Online Access Act Amendment (“OZG 2.0”), which entered into force on 24 July 2024. According to a website set up by the Federal Government providing information on the progress of administrative digitalisation, applying for a residence permit is available online in many places; in practice, the “OZG project ‘Aufenthalt’” reported in June 2024 that the online services “Aufenthaltstitel” and “Aufenthaltskarten und aufenthaltsrelevante Bescheinigungen” had been rolled out to more than 200 foreigners authorities in 13 Federal States. However, several recent media and NGO reports highlight ongoing problems such as malfunctioning online appointment systems, long processing times and, in some cases, technical breakdowns that temporarily prevent the issuance of residence permits.[4] A recent example is a joint FragDenStaat/taz investigation on Hessen reporting that, since mid‑March 2025, foreigners authorities in Hessen were temporarily unable to complete mandatory security checks due to IT/interface problems (involving the Federal Administrative Office and the Hessen security-check system). This prevented the issuance or renewal of residence permits for potentially thousands of people and led authorities to rely more frequently on “Fiktionsbescheinigungen” as an interim solution.[5]
Renewal of residence permits is generally subject to the same regulations that apply to issuance.[6] Therefore, residence permits have to be renewed as long as the reasons which have led to the first issuance persist. The refugee status, subsidiary protection and the status of the so-called ‘removal ban’ (Abschiebungsverbot), which is the basis of national protection status, have to be formally revoked by the BAMF – otherwise, the residence permit has to be issued and/or renewed.[7]
[1] Federal Ministry of Interior, OZG-Umsetzungskatalog, April 2018.
[2] Deutschlandfunk, ‚Deutschland bleibt offline‘, 16 December 2022, available in German at: http://bit.ly/3JpZZCR.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Taz, ‘Hessische Ausländerbehörden: Arbeit faktisch eingestellt‘, 27 May 2025, available in German here.
[5] taz ‘Hessische Ausländerbehörden: Arbeit faktisch eingestellt‘, 27 May 2025, available in German here.
[6] Section 8(1) Residence Act.
[7] Sections 73a to 73c Residence Act.