Longer Application Processing Ahead; Interim Permit and Resubmission of Fingerprints May be Required

The situation

Internal system updates at several immigration offices in Germany have resulted in the need for immigration officials to contact affected applicants living in Germany via mail or email to schedule an appointment to re-collect fingerprinting data. This will delay the already-slowed processing times during the holiday season.

Impact

• Pending applications. Immigration officials may contact foreign nationals with pending immigration applications to schedule a new fingerprinting appointment. This can take several weeks to schedule and may affect travel times and work start dates.
• Pending permit renewal applications. Those with pending permit renewal applications should obtain an interim travel permit as soon as possible to avoid entry issues. This involves scheduling an appointment with the respective immigration office.

• New applications. Foreign nationals seeking to travel to Germany over the next two months should expect processing delays due to the number of rescheduled fingerprinting appointments mentioned above. Fingerprinting appointments are limited in number and can take weeks to schedule. There may also be additional delays resulting from longer processing times during high travel volume during the holiday season, especially in Munich.
   

Background

Processing during the holiday period is normally delayed, however there has not yet been a similar issue where authorities have had to re-obtain fingerprinting information from foreign nationals. Fragomen is supporting employees to plan and review options.

Looking ahead

Fragomen expects processing times to normalize in January 2020 after the immigration offices have re-obtained fingerprinting information.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].