Many immigration offices are struggling with an enormous burden. The authority in Frankfurt is a particularly blatant case. Because of their months of inactivity, Commerzbank has now had to release an employee – and is therefore taking action against the authorities.
Left alone in Frankfurt: A Commerzbank employee has been trying to extend his residence permit for eight months (symbolic image).
The saga of the immigration authorities in Frankfurt, which is on the verge of collapse, has a new chapter: in mid-November, Commerzbank, Germany’s third-largest private commercial bank, filed a supervisory complaint against the entire immigration authorities for inaction. The NZZ learned this from circles familiar with the process. The reason for this is that the institute had to release a key employee in the “Corporate Lending” department in mid-November “when the visa and thus the work permit expired” without pay.
Desperate attempts to contact you
In a letter dated November 11 to the immigration authorities, a unit of the regulatory office, the supervisor of the employee concerned explains that he has been trying for more than eight months to have his visa, which was previously valid for four years, extended or the Blue Card issued have. The blue card is similar in form and function to the German identity card. The NZZ has received the complaint from the Commerzbank executive; however, the Institute declined to issue an official statement on the matter. The city of Frankfurt did not respond to an inquiry about the process.
According to a listing by the bank, the employee has tried to contact the authorities more than half a dozen times since the beginning of March. This happened, for example, through an application for a visa extension, an urgent application and various inquiries. As a rule, the employee did not receive an answer, according to the supervisory complaint. He even made various attempts to get an appointment on site, but was turned away by the security service at the entrance check. The names of the employees and their superiors are known to the NZZ.
Due to the inactivity of the authorities and the lack of almost any information about the further course, Commerzbank had to release the employee unpaid when the visa expired – without knowing when he could resume his work. His absence tears a big gap, because he has an important task in portfolio management. “This state of affairs is untenable for us,” the bank director continues in the complaint.
Immigration offices confronted with complaints of failure to act
The foreigners authority, which is completely overwhelmed, is currently putting off around 15,000 e-mail inquiries. Most of these are applications. The traffic jam is even increasing because the authorities are processing fewer applications than new ones are coming in. Both emerge from a response from the magistrate to a request from the FDP parliamentary group in the Römer, Frankfurt City Hall. The NZZ reported extensively on Friday. Around 6,700 of the 15,000 applications concern academics, but all applicants at the immigration office are affected, including students and refugees from Ukraine, Syria or other areas.
Kerry Reddington from the Municipal Foreigners’ Representation (KAV) has known the problem for a long time. Almost every day someone reports to him who has not been able to reach the immigration authorities for weeks and who is therefore at risk of losing his residence permit in Germany or has already lost it. The city administration is also aware of the problem, but so far too little has been done to ensure orderly official operations. Reddington feels the city doesn’t want to solve the problem or it would have already done so.
Like many other immigration offices in Germany, the authority is struggling with additional work due to frequent changes in the law, with too few staff in view of the considerable influx of refugees, as well as a poorly structured website and problems with internal processes. Although Frankfurt is a particularly blatant example of the overloading of immigration offices, it is not an isolated case. In a large-scale Survey by Südwestrundfunk (SWR) by the summer, almost every second senior employee of an immigration office stated that they had been confronted with complaints about failure to act.
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