Dear @Armstrong68,
Welcome back to the Wefugees Community and thank you for reaching out to us again.
A "Duldung" is a "temporary suspension of deportation" (please follow the link for more details) and the immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) usually issues this type of paper after a negative decision on the asylum application. However, a Duldung can also be issued without a prior asylum case. Based on the information you have/gave, it is a bit difficult to tell if they decided already negative on your residence permit application, or they issue a kind of "Fiktionsduldung" for the time being, as long as they are still in the decision-making procedure.
Do you agree, dear @mbeon-fardeen?
All the best,
Meike