I’ve just received a message from a reader:

Hi Mathew Michael,

thanks a lot for the blog, a lot of interesting stuff.  I’m from Quebec, my girlfriend is German and we go to Auslanderamt next week as we want to get a temporary resident permit until we actually marry next year and get a regular resident permit.

Any trick to get an appointment at the Auslanderamt?  E-mails are bouncing, nobody answers the phone, etc. So we decided just to show there and try to get someone.

Thanks,

Pepito (names have been changed to protect the innocent)

Here’s what I had to say:

Hi Pepito ,

It’s always nice to hear that my blog is reaching people out there. I can’t think of any particular trick to get an appointment at the Ausländerbehörde - I have always just called and re-called and stayed on the line until someone responsible finally takes the initiative to book me a meeting. Emails will not work. I do know that they have special hours for phoning though, so you might want to take a look at the LABO site to see when those are (they have really crap hours, like every other day before 1 p.m. or something, and I guess nobody answers the phones on Tuesday or Wednesday, period). It’s a bit of a test, but eventually someone will have to listen to you.

By all means, let me know how it goes. I think I will actually add this info to my blog right now

Cheers and good luck!
Matthew

PS: I recommend NOT just showing up. Usually, the place is a mess and it is full of people who don’t speak German, which is pure chaos. You will invariably have to wait a minimum of an hour. Plus, they will typically just give you an appointment, and you will not be able to see someone directly, which means you will just have to come back another day (waste of time).

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 4:02 pm and is filed under Working in Berlin, Ausländeramt, Moving to Berlin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.