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Applying for an employment permit for persons with a residence permit
If you are in an ongoing asylum procedure, employment is only permitted if this is expressly stated in your residence permit. If you wish to work, you must therefore apply for an employment permit from the Foreigners' Registration Office.
The foreigners authority should allow an asylum seeker to take up employment (including training) after three months of residence if they are no longer obliged to live in an initial reception centre. The immigration authority can refuse permission in atypical circumstances. Criteria that are taken into account here are, for example, clarification of identity, involvement in the asylum procedure or criminal offences committed by the foreigner.
If the asylum seeker is still obliged to live in an initial reception centre and the asylum procedure has not been completed within six months, there is a right to be granted an employment permit under certain conditions.
In order to process your application, the foreigners authority usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which checks the working conditions. After more than four years of uninterrupted residence in Germany, the Federal Employment Agency no longer needs to be involved.
If you would like to complete an in-company vocational training programme (dual training), you must apply individually for an employment permit for the specific training position. Vocational training at school does not require authorisation.
The employment permit is issued for the duration of the approval of the Federal Employment Agency, at the longest until the residence permit expires.
The following restrictions apply:
If you are from a so-called "safe country of origin", i.e. from a member state of the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (North Macedonia), Montenegro, Senegal or Serbia, and have submitted your asylum application after 31 August 2015, you cannot obtain an employment permit during the asylum procedure. This also applies if you come from Georgia or the Republic of Moldova and have applied for asylum after 30 August 2023.
Even if the asylum procedure was rejected as manifestly unfounded or inadmissible and no suspensive effect was ordered by legal action, there is no access to the German labour market.
Responsible authority
You should submit your application for an employment permit to the foreigners authority in whose district you usually reside. The foreigners authority is, if you
- live in an urban district or a large district town: the municipal administration
- if you live in a town or municipality belonging to a district: the district office
Details
Prerequisite
- You are in possession of a valid residence permit.
- You are not obliged to live in a reception centre and have been permitted to stay in Germany for three months.
- You are obliged to live in a reception centre, but your asylum procedure has not been conclusively concluded within six months and you do not come from a safe country of origin.
- Although you come from a safe country of origin, you submitted your asylum application before 31 August 2015 or 30 August 2023.
- An employer has offered you a specific job and completed the "Declaration of employment" form.
- The conditions under which you will work in the future are comparable to those of German employees.
- Your salary corresponds to the salary of German employees.
Procedure
- Find out whether your foreigners authority allows you to apply online or has a special application form.
- If the application can only be submitted in person, send the "Declaration of employment" form completed by your employer to the immigration office in advance and make an appointment at the immigration office. If you apply online, the Foreigners' Registration Office will contact you after receiving your application to arrange an appointment.
- During the appointment, your identity and documents will be checked (please bring your documents to the appointment, in the original if possible).
- As a rule, the foreigners authority will ask the Federal Employment Agency for approval.
- The authorisation for employment will be noted in the residence permit.
Deadlines
There is no application deadline. However, it is recommended that you apply for an employment permit before concluding an employment contract.
Required documents
- Valid residence permit
- Identity document (e.g. passport or passport substitute), if available
- "Declaration of employment" form (to be completed in full by the employer)
- In individual cases, the foreigners authority may require less or further proof.
Costs
None
Miscellaneous
Employment does not give asylum seekers the right to stay or any other secure residence status beyond the asylum procedure, even if their livelihood is secured through employment.
Since 1 March 2024, it has been possible to switch from the asylum procedure to a right of residence in accordance with Sections 18a, 18b or Section 19c (2) of the Residence Act (AufenthG), provided that the applicant has entered the country by 29 March 2023 and the asylum application has been withdrawn.
Legal basis
Asylgesetz (AsylG):
- § 61 Erwerbstätigkeit
Verordnung über die Beschäftigung von Ausländerinnen und Ausländern (Beschäftigungsverordnung -BeschV):
- § 32 Beschäftigung von Personen mit Duldung oder Aufenthaltsgestattung
Release note
Machine generated, based on the German release by: Justizministerium Baden-Württemberg, 09.03.2026
