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Berlin Immigration Office

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Berlin Immigration Office
Landesamt für Einwanderung
Agency overview
TypeAusländerbehörde [de]
JurisdictionBerlin government
Employees540 (as of 2020)
Agency executive
  • Engelhard Mazanke, Direktor and head of the Ausländerbehörde since 2011
Parent departmentBerlin Senatsverwaltung für Inneres, Digitalisierung und Sport
Websiteberlin.de/einwanderung/en

The Berlin Immigration Office (German: Landesamt für Einwanderung, or LEA) is the state government agency responsible for immigration in Berlin. It replaced Berlin's Ausländerbehörde ("foreigners' agency") in 2020.[1] It still functions as the Ausländerbehörde of Berlin and is the largest of all such agencies across Germany, with 540 staff and 400,000 clients per year as of 2019.[2] In 2024 it also became responsible for naturalization and citizenship in the state of Berlin, which had previously been handled separately by each of its 12 districts.[3]

The Berlin Immigration Office is under the stewardship of the Berlin Senate's Department for the Interior, Digitalisation and Sports [de].

Foundation

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The entrance of the main building in March 2022.
The entrance of the main building in March 2022.

The Berlin Immigration Office was founded in 2020 from the Ausländerbehörde which was until then a division of the Landesamt für Bürger- und Ordnungsangelegenheiten (LABO).[4] The 2020 reordering gave the Ausländerbehörde independent status as a state-level Landesamt [de], a first among Germany's 16 states.[5] Apart from the former Ausländerbehörde, the Berlin Immigration Office also comprises some staff members who formerly worked for the LABO.[6] An opening ceremony took place on 15 January 2020.

The restructuring was decided in 2019 by the 2016-2021 red-green-red Berlin government coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and The Left.[7][8] The idea for an office for "immigrants" rather than "foreigners" in Berlin had been suggested by the city's Green party as early as 2014.[9]

The renaming was criticised by a Christian Democrat opposition politician as not what immigrants needed, and by one immigrant as "lipstick on a pig".[9]

Responsibilities and departments

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A waiting room at the Berlin Immigration Office.
A waiting room at the Berlin Immigration Office.

The LEA is responsible for migration documents, refugees and asylum, foreign students, deportation, and as of 2024, granting German citizenship.[3] It has seven divisions and 33 subdivisions as of 2024,[10] compared with six divisions and 25 subdivisions as of 2021.[11]

Abteilung A – Asylum

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  • A 1 – Syria: Syrian nationals and stateless persons or persons with unclear nationality from Syria (surname A – C)
  • A 2 – A 4: Asylum matters and Duldung (tolerated stay): all countries (three subdivisions split by client surname, except cases from Vietnam which are all handled by A 3)
  • A 5 – Syria, resettlement (all countries): Syrian nationals and stateless persons or persons with unclear nationality from Syria (surname D – Z); first issue of residence permit for all resettlement refugees

Abteilung B – Special tasks

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  • B 1 - B 4 – skilled workers, training and further education, school attendance, studies, science and other special purposes of residence (four alphabetical subdivisons by client surname)
    • EU Blue Card, residence permits for skilled workers, and holders' family members
    • Students, scientists, teachers and their family members
    • School attendance (including language students and exchange students), vocational training and further education, qualifications programs
  • B 5 – Declaration of commitment, visa extension: Declarations of commitment for short stays with a Schengen visa and certain longer stays with a national visa; extension of Schengen visas
  • B 6 – Business Immigration Service: Immigration for professionals and managers; accelerated procedure for skilled workers
  • B 7 – Entry: Visa procedures from abroad

Abteilung E – Immigration

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Each subdivision is responsible for a subset of countries of immigrants' citizenships:

  • E 1: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran Islamic Republic of, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and stateless persons or persons with unclear nationality from these countries
  • E 2: Countries in Africa, North America, South America, and Israel
  • E 3: Azerbaijan, Fiji, Micronesia, India, Indonesia, Kiribati, Libya, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Vanuatu
  • E 4: Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, China, Cook Islands, Hong Kong, Japan, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, South Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Moldova, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Niue, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and stateless persons or persons with unclear nationality from these countries
  • E 5: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus
  • E 6: Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Switzerland, UK, Vatican; EU and family members of EU and EEA citizens. This department split from E 5 in 2023.[12]

Abteilung S – Citizenship

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The citizenship affairs (Staatsangehörigkeitsangelegenheiten) division opened in January 2024 at a new building on Sellerstraße in Wedding, Berlin.[13] On opening, it took on a backlog of 40,000 applications from Berlin's 12 districts, which had previously had responsibility for issuing German citizenship. By 15 July 2024 it had received an additional 25,000 applications.[14] Various subdivisions deal with applicants for German citizenship depending on their current country of citizenship:

  • S 1, S 2: Syria and Iraq
  • S 3: Countries in Asia except Syria or Iraq
  • S 4: Countries in Africa, Americas, Australia and Oceania
  • S 5: Turkey, Ukraine, Poland
  • S 6: Countries in Europe except Turkey, Ukraine, or Poland

Abteilung R – Crime and repatriation

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  • R 1, R 2, R 3, R 4

Abteilung G – Guiding principles and cross-sectional matters

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  • G 1, G 2, G 3, G 4

Abteilung P – Process and service

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  • P 1

Its service has been criticised by many users as unfriendly, German-only, and non-digitised, much like the former Ausländerbehörde.[9]

Sites

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The Office has a main building at Friedrich-Krause-Ufer in Moabit and a second building at Keplerstraße in Charlottenburg, opened in 2016. Clients are directed to either of the two centres based on the type of visa or residency status they need or hold.[9]

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  • Full text of the 2019 law setting out the rebranding of the Ausländerbehörde as the Berlin Immigration Office

References

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  1. ^ Katarina Heidrich (2020-01-15). "Landesamt für Einwanderung eröffnet". Behörden Spiegel. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  2. ^ Jens Anker (2019-05-29). "Aus dem Ausländeramt wird ein Willkommensamt". Berliner Morgenpost. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  3. ^ a b "Das LEA ist ab sofort auch Berlins Einbürgerungsbehörde". www.berlin.de (in German). Land Berlin. 1 January 2024. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  4. ^ Fahrun, Joachim (2019-09-29). "So soll Berlins Ausländerbehörde umgebaut werden". www.morgenpost.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  5. ^ Nina Amin (2020-01-02). "Wenn aus der Ausländerbehörde ein Einwanderungsamt wird". rbb. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  6. ^ "EinwLAErG BE. Paragraph 4.2". gesetze.berlin.de. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  7. ^ "Plenarprotokoll. 47. Sitzung" (PDF). Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin. 26 September 2019. p. 5652. Wer die Gesetzesvorlage auf Drucksache 18/1945 annehmen möchte, den bitte ich um das Handzeichen. Das sind die Koalitionsfraktionen.
  8. ^ "Gesetz zur Errichtung eines Landesamtes für Einwanderung und zur Anpassung betroffener Gesetze. Vorlage zur Beschlussfassung (Gesetzentwurf) Drucksache 18/1945 S. 1 bis 19 vom 28.05.2019". pardok.parlament-berlin.de. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  9. ^ a b c d Rushton, Elizabeth (2 February 2021). "Berlin's rebranded Ausländerbehörde". Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  10. ^ "Organigramm mit Kontaktdaten" (PDF). berlin.de. Landesamte für Einwanderung. 2024-08-01. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  11. ^ "Leitung und Organisation" (in German). Landesamt für Einwanderung. 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  12. ^ "Umorganisation einzelner Referate zum 01.02.2023". www.berlin.de (in German). 31 January 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  13. ^ Noll, Nora. "Gegen den Bearbeitungsstau: Berlin modernisiert Einbürgerungen". nd-aktuell.de (in German). Retrieved 12 August 2024.
  14. ^ "Kontakt zur Abteilung S (Staatsangehörigkeitsangelegenheiten)". berlin.de. Land Berlin. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
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