Toolbar Menu

Administrative services A-Z

 

Please enter a town (or postcode) where you are looking for the service

 
Please enter a town (or postcode) where you are looking for the service
search place

Participation in the integration course Admission

Information about the integration course

Your responsible authority

Please enter a town (or postcode) where you are looking for the service search place
  • Forms
  • Detailed description

    Language is a key to successful integration. The aim of the integration course is that you can communicate in everyday life and thus get closer to German society. The course consists of 660 hours. Of these, 600 hours are a language course; 60 hours deal with politics and democracy, history, society, culture and similar topics ("orientation course").

    The integration courses are regulated in Sections 43 to 44a of the Residence Act and in the Integration Course Ordinance. Please inform yourself here if you are unsure whether an integration course is mandatory for you.

  • Requirements

    The Residence Act provides for different forms of access to integration courses. The form of access applies to you depends on when you have received your residence permit, whether you are a late emigrant or an EU citizen, have a certain status under the Residence Act or are German.

    For all groups, you must first receive an authorization certificate before you can participate in an integration course.

    You have obtained your residence status before 1 January 2005

    If there are still places available, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees can allow you to take an integration course. To do so, you must send an application to a regional office of the Office. To do so, please use the application form.

    You may also be required to participate because an authority invites you to participate. Such an obligation to participate is considered if you are a foreigner and

    • you receive unemployment benefit II, the obligation provided for in the integration agreement and the body that pays you unemployment benefit II obliges you to participate, or

    • you are in need of integration in a special way and the immigration authority asks you to participate.

    For more information:

    You have received your residence status as of 1 January 2005

    If you have obtained a permanent residence or establishment permit for the first time after this date (only when issuing a residence permit for the purposes specified in Section 44 (1) AufenthG), you are entitled to an integration course. This requirement does not apply to children, adolescents and young adults who are in education in Germany, if there is a noticeable low need for integration, or if you already speak sufficiently German (you may still take an orientation course).

    If you are unable to communicate in A German in a simple way or receive unemployment benefit II and you ask the body from which you receive the support, you are obliged to take a course.

    For more information,see:

    Late settlers

    You are entitled to participate in an integration course if you have either come to Germany from 1 January 2005 or have already come to Germany before and have not yet taken a language course sponsored by the Federal Employment Agency. Even if you have already taken a language course of the Federal Agency, you can be admitted to the intergation course if places are still available (Section 44 sec. 4 sentence 2 of the Residence Act).

    The course is free of charge for you, your spouse and your children.

    For more information,see:

    EU citizens

    The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees can allow you to take a course if there are still places available. To do so, you must send an application to a regional office of the Office.

    For more information,see:

    German citizens

    If you are not speaking enough German or are in need of integration, you can take a course if there are still places available. To do so, you must send an application to a regional office of the Office.

    For more information,see:

    Long-term patient

    Paragraph 104a of the Residence Act specifies the conditions under which long-term tolerated foreigners may obtain a residence permit with which they can be admitted to an integration course. With a residence permit pursuant to Section 104 a (1) of the Residence Act or Section 23 (1) of the Residence Act, the foreigner can apply to the competent regional office of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees for admission to an integration course. With admission, he can register with a course carrier to participate in the course.

    Long-term patients may be required to participate if they receive unemployment benefit II and the obligation is provided for in the integration agreement.


    Third-country nationals who are long-term residents

    If you can prove that you have been in another EU Member State for more than five years, the Immigration Department will determine your right to take a course. You will then be eligible to participate.

    You are obliged to participate if you speak no or little German or receive unemployment benefit II and the competent authority asks you to participate. If you have a residence permit in accordance with Section 38a of the Residence Act (i.e. your residence permit can be transferred from another EU country) and have already taken part in integration measures in another EU country, you only need to attend the language course, not the orientation course.


    Integration courses in preparation for the naturalisation test

    The integration courses can also be used as preparation if you are on the verge of a naturalization test and need proof of sufficient Knowledge of German. The 45-hour orientation course covers many topics that are part of the naturalization test. However, there are also special naturalisation courses which, on the basis of a framework curriculum, prepare comprehensively and specifically for the naturalisation test.

  • Fees

    One course lesson costs 2.94 euros per participant. Participants usually participate in each lesson with 1.20 euros, while the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees takes over the remaining 1.74 euros. With an hourly volume of 660 lessons, the participant will inuminate a contribution of 792.00 euros.

    Eligible participants who pass the final test within two years of the issuance of the eligibility can receive 50% of the own contribution back.

    Participants may be fully exempted from the own contribution if the payment of the cost contribution is a particular hardship for them. A hardship case shall be affirmed if the applicant is able to submit a cost-exemption decision to another body taken for social reasons. The following decisions are in question here.B.

    • Housing
    • Bafög
    • Child benefit supplement
    • Remuneration under the Asylum Seeker Benefits Act
    • Exemption from daycare fees
    • Exemption from GEZ fees
    • Local social ticket

    Unemployment benefit II and social assistance recipients are exempted from the cost contribution upon request. Please use the BAMF form for your application for exemption.

    Late emigrants are exempt from the cost contribution by law.

    Eligible participants who receive unemployment benefit II and have been obliged by a basic insurance institution to take part in an integration course or have been exempted from the contribution to the costs will be reimbursed the necessary travel expenses if they have participated properly. In principle, the following rule applies: If the nearest course location is less than 3 km away, the participant will not receive a travel allowance. Participants who do not receive unemployment benefit II and have been obliged to participate by an immigration authority because of their special need for integration may receive a subsidy for travel expenses. You can request reimbursement of travel expenses using the BAMF form.

  • Responsible authority

    You can identify course providers and course locations using the information system of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

  • Legal basis
  • More information
  • Approved

    This text has been released by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.

Open all
Print page