Problem with Work Permit of a legal student

Question

I need a help with Auslanderbehorde problem. I am an international student in Germany. I didn’t get my work permit (16b) with my initial student visa. So, I heard that everyone gets it during the first visa Extension appointment. I got my visa extension date after 2 months of coming to Germany. But during visa extension appointment he didn’t give me the work permit. Instead he gave me a bescheinigung of 6 months validity. There is written 'No permission to work'. When I asked him about this he told me he didn’t get my documents from the other city yet. Please note: My initial visa was issued from other city. Then I asked him if he gets my documents from that city, will he give me the student work permit? He told me he will send this via Post mail then. For that reason, on that day after the appointment I sent an email to the other city immigration office explaining my situation and send my documents as soon as possible to my current city immigration office. On the next day I got a reply stating that they sent the documents after seeing my email. Then I again emailed my Auslanderbehorde to inform him about this and requested him to issue me the work permit. It has been 2 weeks and he still didn’t reply. Then I went to the Auslanderbehorde. Please note: as my visa extension interview already has been done, there is left option to take appointment for me. When I tried to approach him he was rude to me. He told me to leave because he will not talk to me without an appointment. As he was not interested to talk to me, I tried to get help from another lady from that office and she was about to help me but suddenly that officer came to her and was saying something in German(I don't know german). Then he was telling me something rudely in German. When he was gone the lady was explaining what he told. He was telling her that I don't have appoitment. So, she should not help me. He was also telling me to leave the office at once. That is what the lady explained. She assured me that she will talk to him why he didn't give me the work permit. Because it is written in the Law. Meanwhile, she told me to mail him again.Yesterday, I again emailed him but still he is avoiding my email. I am pretty sure that he will not give me the student work permit in this way.

Lastly, I had a hope that I would get back my right to work with residence permit. I am also afraid that he will not give me the residence permit within normal period like others. Everyone in my city gets the residence permit within 3 weeks. But mine is taking long. I believe he is delaying it intentionally. In this situation what should I do? It has been nearly 3 months I came to Germany with student visa and still don't have the right to work. Please help me.

Answer 1

Hi @Nigad

Firstly to clarify between permits and visas. In Germany, there are different types of immigration documents. The general term is ‘Aufenthaltstitel’. One type of Aufenthaltstitel is a visa (Visum), another is a resident permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis).

Students cannot work with a visa, only once they get their residence permit. You had a visa and now have a temporary Bescheinigung (I presume the full name of what you have is ‘Fiktionsbescheinigung’). The Bescheinigung extends the validity of your visa and so you are still not allowed to work.

There is unfortunately little help we can offer here on this matter. Your university will have some sort of student support services (probably called something like ‘Studentenwerk’) that can assist international students in dealing with the authorities. You do need to allow some time for things to be processed. You mention everyone in your city getting their permit within three weeks. But you have moved cities and as you wrote, one delay was the previous city not forwarding the application. You also write ‘Yesterday, I again emailed him but still he is avoiding my email’. You need to allow some more time than this before you can consider an email being ignored. I understand the situation is frustrating, especially if you need to work to support yourself. I can only advise to follow the procedures of the local immigration office. If it is not possible to go and speak to someone without an appointment, then I would not go and attempt to do this. It would be much preferable to get support from your university student support services to speak with them on your behalf.

Best,

Éanna