Source: BUS Sachsen-Anhalt (Linie6PLus)

Applying for an employment permit for persons with tolerated status

Description

If you are a tolerated resident in Germany, you are only permitted to work if this is expressly stated in your toleration permit (certificate of suspension of deportation). If you wish to work, you must therefore apply for an employment permit from the Foreigners' Registration Office. This also applies to vocational training or an internship.

You can be granted an employment permit if you have been permitted, tolerated or have been granted permission to stay in Germany for three months and you have found an employer who would like to take you on.

Tolerated persons who are obliged to live in a reception facility only have access to the labor market after six months.

In order to process your application, the Foreigners' Registration Office usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which examines 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 company-based vocational training (dual training), the employment permit for the specific training position must be applied for individually. Vocational training at school is not subject to approval.

The employment permit will be issued for the maximum duration of your current tolerated stay permit. If the requirements are met, this can be extended accordingly when the tolerated stay is renewed.

The pursuit of gainful employment is generally prohibited if

You have come to Germany to obtain benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act,
your residence cannot be terminated for reasons for which you are responsible or you have violated your duty to cooperate in removing the obstacle to deportation (e.g. insufficient cooperation in obtaining a passport or proof of identity, deception about your identity or nationality),
the tolerated stay was issued with the addition "tolerated stay for persons with unclear identity", or

you are from a so-called "safe country of origin", i.e. 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Montenegro, Senegal or Serbia and have submitted an application for asylum after August 31, 2015, which was rejected or withdrawn, unless the withdrawal was based on a consultation with the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Even without an asylum application, persons from safe countries of origin cannot receive an employment permit.

Prerequisites

You are in possession of a valid tolerated stay permit and have been in Germany for at least three months.
If you are obliged to live in a reception center, you have been in Germany for at least six months.
You do not come from a safe country of origin.
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.

Required documents

Valid certificate of suspension of deportation (Duldung)
Identity document (e.g. passport or passport substitute), if available
Declaration of employment (to be completed in full by the employer)

In individual cases, the foreigners authority may require less or further proof.

Appeal against the decision of the immigration authority
Legal action before the court named in the notice of objection if the objection is not upheld

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 Foreigners' Registration Office in advance and make an appointment at the Foreigners' Registration 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.
If the employment permit is granted, a corresponding entry will usually be made on the tolerated stay permit (under "ancillary provisions") or in an additional sheet.

Further information

The certificate of suspension of deportation (Duldung) is not a residence permit. It is issued if a foreigner is obliged to leave the country but cannot be deported for factual or legal reasons, or if urgent humanitarian or personal reasons or significant public interests require the foreigner's temporary continued presence in the federal territory. The foreigner's stay is therefore not legal, but the enforcement of the obligation to leave the country is temporarily out of the question.
The employment permit can be withdrawn if the foreigner is employed under less favorable working conditions than comparable domestic employees.