What can I do if I don't receive an answer to my application for a residence permit from the "Ausländerbehörde"?

Question

I applied for aufenthaltsgesetz 16g on February 22. But till date I haven’t gotten a response. They messaged me beginning of March to request more documents and ask questions which i submitted. I messaged them in April the week of Easter to ask them how much longer should I wait and they said I should be patient they are still processing. But now it’s end of May and they still haven’t gotten back to me. Is it suppose to take this long? Or what is happening?

Answer 1

Dear @Jessica27,

Welcome back at Wefugees and thank you for reaching out to us again.

I am sorry to hear that you have to wait for such a long time. Generally speaking (as my colleague explained here before), "if the Ausländerbehörde is taking a long time to deal with an application, you can file a lawsuit of inactivity ("Untätigkeitsklage"). This is possible after three months of having made the application. The authority can only be allowed more time if there are sufficient reasons for the delay. Such reasons have to be related to the application itself, for example there are still documents missing or some documents needed to be additionally checked by another authority. Organisational reasons like not having enough staff to process the application in time are not acceptable.

If the authority has everything it needs for the application and it has been over three months, then this could be an option for you. You should first again ask the Ausländerbehörde about the status of your application. You can file the Untätigkeitsklage with the administrative court (Verwaltungsgericht). As this is a legal procedure, however, I recommend you get legal advice if you intend to do this. We cannot provide legal advice here."

It is generally advisable to apply for a residence permit retroactively (i.e. from the date of application). It is also advisable to make it as easy as possible for the authorities. This means explaining your claim (i.e. the reasons why you should be issued this residence permit) in simple terms and, ideally, quoting the relevant sections of the law. After the first application, you should wait at least 4 weeks and then possibly write another reminder in which you again set a processing deadline of 4 weeks. If there is still no response, you could send a second reminder and possibly threaten to file an action for failure to act (perhaps even a so-called ‘Dienstaufsichtsbeschwerde’). In most cases, the authorities should then respond.

I can highly recommend to get support by a migration counselling office. You may use this search engine to find a counselling service in your area.

I hope this helps and good luck with your application!

Best,

Meike