The most expensive avoidable mistake is applying too late. Enter the expiry date from your permit and see by when the application must be filed, which documents are usually required, and when to be reminded. Free, no sign-up, everything stays in your browser.
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Guide values without warranty, not legal advice. What that means
None of this is transmitted; the calculation runs on your device. Every immigration office sets its own document requirements. The list below is a starting point, not an official one.
Your timeline
Documents usually required
German terms you will need
At the counter these words are used in German. Search for them in German too — that is how you find the official information.
It is a date calculator with a schematic checklist for typical situations. It applies the general rule from § 81 (4) of the Residence Act to the date you enter. It does not look at your file, your history or your circumstances.
It does not tell you whether your extension will be granted, whether you meet the requirements, or what your office will decide. Those are individual questions and this tool does not answer them.
This is not legal advice. Requirements differ between the roughly 600 immigration offices, and rules change. Your office's own information sheet always takes precedence over this page.
Free advice is available from the migration advice service for adult immigrants (MBE) at around 915 locations, from the youth migration services, and from university international offices. That advice is free and independent — use it.
Before your residence permit expires. Under § 81 AufenthG what counts is the application reaching the immigration office, not the date on your letter and not your appointment. If it arrives in time, your existing permit continues to apply until a decision is made.
File the application in writing anyway. A fax with a transmission report, a registered letter (Einwurf-Einschreiben) or the authority's online portal all preserve the deadline. An appointment is not an application.
It depends on the authority and ranges from a few weeks to several months. Until a decision is made, what protects you is the timely application, not the date on the Fiktionsbescheinigung.
Only if § 81 Abs. 4 AufenthG is ticked, in which case your old permit continues to apply. Under § 81 Abs. 3 employment is not permitted and re-entry after leaving the country is not possible.