Administrative services A-Z

Forms available: Yes

Written form required: Yes

Informal application possible: No

Personal appearance necessary: Yes

If you are in an ongoing asylum procedure, employment is only permitted if this is expressly stated in your residence permit. If you wish to work, you must therefore apply for an employment permit from the Foreigners' Registration Office. This also applies to vocational training or an internship.

If you have been permitted to stay in Germany for three months, are no longer obliged to live in an initial reception center for asylum seekers (also known as a reception center, arrival center or anchor center) and have already found an employer who would like to employ you, you may be permitted to work.

To process your application, the foreigners authority usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which will check the working conditions. After more than four years of uninterrupted residence in Germany, the Federal Employment Agency no longer needs to be involved.

If you would like to complete company-based vocational training (dual training), the employment permit for the specific training position must be applied for individually. Vocational training at school does not require approval.

The employment permit is issued for the duration of the approval of the Federal Employment Agency, at the longest until the residence permit expires.

The following restrictions apply:

You are generally prohibited from taking up gainful employment as long as you are obliged to live in an initial reception center. You may only be permitted to work if your asylum procedure has not been completed within nine months.

If you are an asylum seeker from a so-called "safe country of origin", i.e. from a member state of the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (North Macedonia), Montenegro, Senegal or Serbia, and have submitted your asylum application after August 31, 2015, you cannot obtain a work permit during the asylum procedure.

Asylum seekers whose asylum procedure has been rejected as manifestly unfounded or inadmissible and whose appeal has not been granted suspensive effect also have no access to the German labor market.

• You are in possession of a valid residence permit.
• You are not obliged to live in a reception center and have been permitted to stay in Germany for three months.
• You are obliged to live in a reception center, but your asylum procedure has not been concluded incontestably within nine months and you do not come from a safe country of origin.
• Although you come from a safe country of origin, you submitted your asylum application before August 31, 2015.
• An employer has offered you a specific job and completed the "Declaration of employment" form.
• The conditions under which you will work in the future are comparable to those of German employees.
• Your salary corresponds to the salary of German employees.

• Valid residence permit
• Identity document (e.g. passport or passport substitute), if available
• "Declaration of employment" form (to be completed in full by the employer)
• In individual cases, the foreigners authority may require less or further proof.

The employment permit is issued free of charge.

• Find out whether your foreigners authority allows you to apply online or has a special application form.
• If the application can only be submitted in person, send the "Declaration of employment" form completed by your employer to the immigration office in advance and make an appointment at the immigration office. If you apply online, the Foreigners' Registration Office will contact you after receiving your application to arrange an appointment.
• During the appointment, your identity and documents will be checked (please bring your documents to the appointment, in the original if possible).
• As a rule, the foreigners authority will ask the Federal Employment Agency for approval.
• If the employment permit is granted, a corresponding entry will usually be made on the residence permit (under "ancillary provisions") or in a supplementary sheet.

Permission to work should be applied for before concluding an employment contract.

The epermit is limited in time for the duration of the approval of the Federal Employment Agency, at the longest until your residence permit expires.

The foreigners authority responsible for the applicant's place of residence is responsible. In the state of Brandenburg, the immigration authority is, if you

• live in the initial reception center for refugees: the Central Aliens Authority of the State of Brandenburg,
• if you live in a district town or municipality: the district administration,
• if you live in an independent city: the city administration.

Directory of authorities and municipalities in the state of Brandenburg: https://maisred.lvnbb.de/service/de/adressen/

• § Section 61 Asylum Act (AsylG)
• § Section 32 Employment Ordinance (BeschV)

• Information from the BAMF on asylum and refugee protection and access to the labor market for refugees
• Information from the Federal Employment Agency on labor market access for people from abroad (e.g. migration check for employees, information sheet on employing foreign workers in Germany)
• Information from the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on employment promotion
• Central International Placement Services (ZAV)
• Information portal on the recognition of foreign professional qualifications

Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs of the State of Brandenburg