#356: Immigration office mess, big anti-right-wing demo, dogs on trains
A rotten banana and an alarm clock
Dear 20 Percent,
Recently, Berlin’s immigration office, the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA), got some positive press for a change: Last year its naturalisation department surpassed its target of 20,000 new German citizenships, partially thanks to a new all-digital application process. 👏 👏 👏
And yet, according to the newspaper taz, the rest of the LEA is a dumpster fire of endless backlogs. In the autumn, the agency shut down its online appointment booking system because enterprising individuals were harvesting appointments and selling them to people who desperately needed to renew their residency permit — apparently, up to 80% of appointments ended up on this shady online market.
And while the LEA says it wants to move all of its services onlinme by the end of the year, for now, depending on the service you need, you have to either use their online application tool (available for 17 services) or else fill out the contact form of the appropriate department — and hope for the best.
In theory, this sounds like it could work, but the Greens' migration policy spokesperson, Jian Omar, told taz that he “confronted the authorities in a committee meeting with the statement from official circles that between 6,000 and 7,000 such inquiries were lying unprocessed at the LEA. It neither confirmed nor denied this.”
“Sometimes applicants receive an answer after just two weeks,” he said. “In other cases, they wait for months without finding out whether their request is being processed at all.”
It’s no way to run an important government department. While the public mood in this country is shifting in favour of tougher immigration policies, Germany also desperately needs immigration to fill the approaching demographic void that will open up when millions of baby boomers enter retirement. A slow, Kafkaesque, semi-functioning immigration apparatus isn’t going to help attract the well-educated specialists German industry desires.
Have any of you interacted with the LEA lately? We’d love to hear from you in the comments — or in an email.
More (mostly absurd) news stories below.
Maurice
Airport access
The Bundespolizei, the federal police responsible for airport safety, said a 45-year-old homeless man managed to enter BER’s high security area on January 22 via the S-Bahn train tunnel that runs under the terminal. Police conducted a search after an alarm was triggered. The man was discovered in a hangar. He posed no threat to airport security, police said.
Banana bomb
Monday evening a man called the cops about a backpack containing a squished banana, an alarm clock and a cable on Putlitz bridge in Moabit. The man feared he had identified a bomb. The bridge was closed for an hour and a half while police checked out the backpack. Better safe than sorry.
Autobahn lights on again
At the beginning of the month, the federally-owned company running Berlin’s innercity freeways, Autobahn GmbH, turned off all the streetlamps on the A100 ring road — without consulting the Berlin authorities. Supposedly, to save energy and CO2 emissions, which felt like some laughable green-washing considering the environmental impact of the cars on the autobahn. Berliners were not amused — and now the lights are back on again.
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
🎹 CTM Festival
Until 02.02. Venues: Volksbühne, Berghain, Radialsystem, MONOM, Alte Münze, RSO.Berlin, Silent Green, Morphine Raum, Sonnenraum, Oxi. Tickets: Free admission to €190 (festival pass)
CTM festival brings 10 days of bold music and art to Berlin. The festival is the crème de la crème for those who enjoy adventurous music. You can explore our tips for this edition here.
🎨 A World in Common . Sam Youkilis . Silvia Rosi
Opening: Friday, 31.01, 8 pm – 12 am. C/O Berlin, Hardenbergstrasse 22-24, 10623 Berlin. Free admission. Exhibition runs until 07.05. Tickets: €6-12. Artist tours take place on Saturday and Sunday - 2 pm (DE) and 4 pm (EN).
A World in Common brings together 23 artists from Africa and its diaspora, rethinking global narratives. Protektorat by Silvia Rosi reflects on colonial legacies, while Sam Youkilis’ Under the Sun captures everyday beauty. From 9 pm, DJ Nomi brings the party to life.
📻 Refuge Worldwide 4th Birthday
Saturday, 01.02, 7 pm - 2 am. Secret venue near Jannowitzbrüke. Tickets: €15 + €1.95.
Let’s celebrate the 4th anniversary of our beloved community radio station, Refuge Worldwide. It will be a night of music, connection, and community in a special space. 🎧 Move 78
🤖 ROAD RUNNER: Cemile Sahin
Opening: Saturday, 01.02, 4 – 7 pm. Esther Schipper, Potsdamer Str. 81e/Top floor / Obergeschoss, 10785 Berlin. Free admission.
Cemile Sahin’s new art exhibition explores drones, digital disembodiment, and political oppression. The show includes a film, AI-generated panels, and punching bags, reflecting on contemporary tech and its effects on our lives.
🎉 Roda de Feijoada - Dia de Iemanjá
Sunday, 02.02, 2 - 10 pm. Festsaal Kreuzberg, Am Flutgraben 2, 12435 Berlin. Ticket: €15 with €3 discount using the code THENEXTDAY.
Celebrate Iemanjá, the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the sea, with samba, feijoada, and a vibrant atmosphere. Enjoy live music from Roda de Samba, Samba de Sarjeta, and DJs. A day of food, culture, and community—perfect for families, with a kids’ zone included.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
😥Auschwitz survivors mark 80th anniversary of camp’s liberation
🛂 Skepticism about Friedrich Merz’s immigration plans
☀️ Germany solar power installations reach 100GW
💰 Germany’s AAA credit rating could be under threat
📯 Postkutsche 📯
Reader Deborah wrote to us about a new campaign she’s involved in: Deutsche BarkBahn, which is calling for cheaper train tickets for dogs while kids ride for free. In an open letter to the transport ministry, the campaigners claim dog-lovers are getting ripped off: “Germany’s cherry picking policy of overcharging dog owners for train travel is simply baffling. If the Deutschland-Ticket was designed to champion climate-friendly public transport for all, then excessively squeezing pet owners for extra cash is a masterclass in dismantling equity. The real estate prices for a pet to occupy a patch of floor space reeks of opportunism, not logic.” Here’s the Deutsch BarkBahn petition.
Factoid
Short-term parking at the airport is free for the first 10 minutes, then it costs €23 per hour, or €552 euros per day, which can really add up. A driver parked their car there a year ago and currently faces parking fees of around €200,000 (and climbing). The VW Golf’s license plate suggest the car is from Hanover, but car park operator APCOA is having trouble identifying the owner, thanks to German bureaucratic complexity: Neither the federal police, the state police nor the town of Schönefeld say they are responsible. An APCOA spokesperson said: “Whether parking fees owed can be collected in cases like this depends on whether the debtor can be identified and has the necessary financial resources.” 🤷
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🔗 🔗 🔗 Useful links 🔗 🔗 🔗
I sent in all my paperwork to the LEA for my Niederlassungserlaubnis in July 2024, only to be given a 7 am appointment in January 2025. When I didn't bring my husband with me (why would I?), I was told I had to return with him two days later, also before dawn, so he could sign a document attesting that we really do live together. When all this was over, I was told I could come pick up my new Ausweis on March 30, which happens to be my due date for giving birth. This process has taken as long as it takes to gestate a human and is somehow more painful😭
The LEA is an absolute mess. My partner and I applied for a renewal of our Blue Card residence permits in July last year. We got an appointment in reasonable time, the LEA officials were nice, and all was in order. We were handed temporary extensions while we wait for our new physical cards to arrive in the mail. Huzzah.
From that point, a downward spiral. We knew they are swamped and gave them ample time. After five months of waiting, we reached out via their contact form to follow up on the absence of our new permits. Nothing. In late January, the temporary papers they gave us were set to expire. Two weeks before this, we reached out again, this time selecting the "emergency" option in the contact form. We send another emergency the day before it expired. Nothing!
For us it's a privilege to live here, so we made extra sure to do everything perfectly. Beyond the existential stress caused, health insurers and employers have started asking questions.
The urgency and radio silence, and absolutely no other way to contact them (all tel nrs go to prerecorded messages, their offices basically have bouncers that demand to see an appointment confirmation to let you inside) gave us no choice but to pay a significant sum for legal representation and are now hoping for the best.
Reading your newsletter made me feel at least a little bit better, knowing we're not alone in this. Thanks for that. As for waiting 7 months for the LEA to send us a piece of plastic... I never thought I'd miss South Africa's openly corrupt barely-functioning government offices!