"Nothing in the world is more permanent
than impermanence"
Conditions for Obtaining a Settlement Permit
To obtain a permanent settlement permit (Niederlassungserlaubnis) in Germany, applicants generally need at least 5 years of lawful residence, knowledge of German, and a stable income (§ 9 AufenthG).
Jonathan Swift
Desires, dreams, economic necessity, a shift in cultural priorities, or, conversely, a return to one's roots — this is far from an exhaustive list of reasons that drive people to emigrate to another country. Whatever motivates someone leaving their homeland in search of a new life, they run into one of the main challenges — the need to legalize their status in the new country. More and more foreign nationals are choosing Germany as a place to settle permanently. It's also worth noting that, despite Germany's appeal, many native residents leave for other countries: the US, the UK, Spain. For example, several thousand doctors originally from Germany live and work in England. Anyone wishing to immigrate to Germany knows well that the residence-permit procedure is far from simple, and that not everyone succeeds in obtaining permanent settlement. Yet these people shouldn't be called lucky — luck has nothing to do with it. The appearance of the coveted "Niederlassungserlaubnis" entry (permanent settlement permit) on a residence card is by no means a lottery win, but the result of long and painstaking effort.
In essence, permanent residence status refers to an unlimited residence permit in Germany — that is, a status granted to a foreign national with no time restriction, allowing them to live and work in Germany indefinitely. As we have described in detail in our previous articles, there are various ways to acquire a permanent settlement permit. One of them is residing in the country on a lawful basis, holding a residence permit issued for a set term, for at least five years (or three years if the permit was obtained through marriage to a German citizen). In addition to the required period of residence, an applicant for permanent residence must also meet other requirements, such as:
having adequate housing space for themselves and their family members;
having the minimum required income;
mandatory or voluntary social insurance contributions paid for at least 60 months;
having the right to work (or the necessary permits to run a business) at the time of filing the application;
a level of language proficiency at least equal to the statutory minimum, along with other criteria.
Unfortunately, foreign nationals shouldn't relax too much even after obtaining the coveted permanent residence status — nor, for that matter, before obtaining it. Such a "lucky" person needs to remember that they can no longer leave their new home country, without good reason, for longer than 180 days. Under German immigration law, a foreign national who travels abroad can lose their residence permit in the following cases (§ 51(1) Nos. 6-7 AufenthG):
if the reason for leaving is objectively not temporary in nature (allowing the conclusion that there is no intention to return);
or the six-month statutory limit — or a longer period specifically agreed with the German authorities — for staying abroad has been exceeded.
Losing one's residence permit rules out any further stay in Germany and requires preparing all the necessary documents to relocate all over again from scratch. In this article, we will tell you how, despite the difficulties that arose, we managed to help a young woman — let's call her Lydia — obtain the long-awaited permanent settlement permit in Germany.
The story of the client who came to us was as follows. She moved to Germany from Ukraine, initially to study German. While still taking language courses, she met a man, a Latvian national, who later became her husband. The young couple found a modest apartment to live in together, and Lydia soon obtained a temporary residence permit in Germany as the wife of an EU citizen. The first years of married life went reasonably well — the couple worked, built their careers, and traveled a great deal. But in the fourth year of the relationship, things fell apart. Our client's husband demanded that she spend more time at home and with him. Lydia's career, meanwhile, was successfully taking off, and she had no intention of putting it on hold. Once the arguments and quarrels became an almost constant state with only brief lulls, the only sensible decision in such a situation was made: to move into separate apartments and begin divorce proceedings. A divorce, of course, is always a difficult and sad experience, and in Lydia's case matters were further complicated by the fact that her temporary residence permit in Germany was due to expire soon. She did not want to return to her home country of Ukraine, and turned to our law firm for advice and legal support on immigration matters.
Our firm's lawyer, who specializes in these matters, listened carefully to the client, reviewed the documents she had, and got to work. It turned out that Lydia had already been living in the country for four and a half years and would be eligible to apply for a permanent settlement permit in another six months. To keep her stay in Germany lawful during that half-year, the lawyer prepared an application to the immigration authority (Ausländerbehörde), on the basis of which Lydia received a temporary certificate of authorized stay (Fiktionsbescheinigung), valid until the actual permit was granted. Our lawyer then helped the client gather all the required certificates and confirmations. A problem arose rather unexpectedly, however, when it emerged that Lydia had spent seven months in Ukraine after her older sister urgently needed a complex operation followed by a long period of rehabilitation. Lydia had traveled to Ukraine to help her sister after the surgery and had taken care of her — first visiting her in the hospital, and then at home — for roughly six months. As we explained to Lydia, if this information had come to the attention of the Ausländerbehörde's officials earlier, her residence permit could have been revoked, and she would no longer have been able to stay in the country. Nevertheless, the set of documents submitted for the permanent settlement permit included a detailed explanation clarifying that:
the trip to Ukraine was temporary in nature,
the trip was necessitated by the need to help a close family member,
Lydia had no intention whatsoever of staying in Ukraine,
throughout that trip, Lydia lived on funds provided by her husband.
We attached to that petition a set of documents proving these facts. We represented Lydia's interests at every stage of the procedure, including during visits to the immigration authority. In a direct conversation with the authority's official, when the subject of the gap in the client's employment came up, our firm's lawyer once again explained verbally what had caused the fairly long break in work and absence from the country.
To our client's great joy and relief, the permanent settlement permit was granted shortly afterward, and Lydia was finally able to remain in Germany permanently, thereby securing her status there.
In closing, it's worth noting that the process of immigrating to Germany can be called both simple and complicated at the same time, since each individual foreign national's case is not only unique in its own right, but — importantly — the law also grants immigration officials a degree of discretion in reaching their decisions…
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