Administrative services A-Z

Forms available: Yes

Written form required: Yes

Informal application possible: No

Personal appearance necessary: Yes

If you are a tolerated resident in Germany, you are only permitted to work if this is expressly stated in your toleration permit (certificate of suspension of deportation). 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.

You can be granted an employment permit if you have been permitted, tolerated or have been granted permission to stay in Germany for three months and you have found an employer who would like to take you on.

Tolerated persons who are obliged to live in a reception facility only have access to the labor market after six months.

In order to process your application, the Foreigners' Registration Office usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which examines 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 is not subject to approval.

The employment permit will be issued for the maximum duration of your current tolerated stay permit. If the requirements are met, this can be extended accordingly when the tolerated stay is renewed.

The pursuit of gainful employment is generally prohibited if

• You have come to Germany to obtain benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act,
• your residence cannot be terminated for reasons for which you are responsible or you have violated your duty to cooperate in removing the obstacle to deportation (e.g. insufficient cooperation in obtaining a passport or proof of identity, deception about your identity or nationality),
• the tolerated stay was issued with the addition "tolerated stay for persons with unclear identity", or

you are from a so-called "safe country of origin", i.e. 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Montenegro, Senegal or Serbia and have submitted an application for asylum after August 31, 2015, which was rejected or withdrawn, unless the withdrawal was based on a consultation with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Even without an asylum application, persons from safe countries of origin cannot receive an employment permit.

• You are in possession of a valid tolerated stay permit and have been in Germany for at least three months.
• If you are obliged to live in a reception center, you have been in Germany for at least six months.
• You do not come from a safe country of origin.
• 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 certificate of suspension of deportation (Duldung)
• Identity document (e.g. passport or passport substitute), if available
• Declaration of employment (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 authority in advance and make an appointment at the immigration authority. 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 tolerated stay permit (under "ancillary provisions") or in an additional sheet.

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

The employment permit is issued for the maximum duration of the current tolerated stay permit. If the requirements are met, this will be extended accordingly when the tolerated stay is renewed.

The foreigners authority responsible for the applicant's place of residence is responsible.

• § Section 4a (4) Residence Act (AufenthG)
• § Section 60a (6) Residence Act (AufenthG)
• § Section 42 (2) no. 4 Residence Act (AufenthG)
• § Section 32 Employment Ordinance (BeschV)
• § Section 61 (1) sentence 2 half-sentence 2 Asylum Act (AsylG)

• The certificate of suspension of deportation (Duldung) is not a residence permit. It is issued if a foreigner is obliged to leave the country but cannot be deported for factual or legal reasons, or if urgent humanitarian or personal reasons or significant public interests require the foreigner's temporary continued presence in the federal territory. The foreigner's stay is therefore not legal, but the enforcement of the obligation to leave the country is temporarily out of the question.
• The employment permit can be withdrawn if the foreigner is employed under less favorable working conditions than comparable domestic employees.

• 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