How can I change my city in the same state after my refugee status with 3-years residency granted

Question

Hello,

I have just get my refugee status in North Rhine Westphalia with a 3-years residency in a small town. I can start to work online as a freelancer with a 1-2 years contract with a non-EU company. If i sign the contract i will also be able to get rid of all kinds of social benefits.

In this case do i have the right to change my city to somewhere in NRW?

To relocate is it a must to work in a Germany-based company in the requested city?

If this is possible where should i apply for this procedure? Auslanderamt? Jobcenter?

Many thanks

Aisha

Answer 1

Hello @aisha

Welcome to our community and thank you for your question.

In general you have to stay in your city/federal state for the first 3 years of your residence as long as you get social benefits from the state. Having a job or starting an apprenticeship/studies allow you to move.

You can move to another city (in NRW or another federal state) if you have a job there. It has to be a job where social security contributions are mandatory. You have to work in this job for 15 hours per week (or more) and earn 710€ net wage (or more).

The usual procedure is that you show your work contract to Ausländerbehörde. They will contact the Ausländerbehörde in the region where you want to move to and come to an agreement whether they allow you to move or not. If they allow it, they will remove the so-called "Wohnsitzauflage" from your documents.

In you case, however, it seems that it could be a problem that your company is not located in the city you want to move to. I coulnd't find a clear statement in this regard, but it looks like "Wohnsitzauflage" only gets removed in order to enable you to start your job somewhere else. Since it's an online job they might deny your request because you can do it from anywhere - including the town where you live right now.

I will link @Marcel in this case because he is a lawyer that is experienced with labour market access for refugees. In addition, maybe @DavidJ from Workeer or @stefan_J4R from Jobs4Refugees know something about the legal aspects of this case as well.

Best regards,
Thorgen

Comments

Hello @Thor,

Thanks for the answer. It is very helpful and completely addresses my case.

There is a little remaining question on my mind. I am married with one child. In this case what should be the minimum salary i need to get to be able to change my location. Is it still 710 Euro for such a family if not how it is calculated?

Kind regards
Aisha

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Hello @aisha - I'm glad to hear that my answer was helpful to you. I tried to take a closer **** at the underlying law, but unfortunately I’m not a lawyer so that stuff is hard to understand for me to ;) In general the calculation for single people goes like this: You have to have an income that is equal (or higher) to the average demand of a person per month (according to SGB II that’s 710€). I’m not entirely sure if you have to earn double the amount + a slightly lower amount for your child in order to be able to move with your whole family or not. Maybe you can ask directly at Ausländerbehörde how exactly this works. Best regards, Thorgen

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Hi @Thor,

Thanks a lot for your insightful guiding.

Best regards,

Aisha

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Thank you for your feedback. I'm always glad if my answers were helpful to someone :)