Extending your residence permit in Germany: deadlines, documents, and what to do after a refusal
Your residence permit ends soon? When to apply, what the Ausländerbehörde asks for, what applies while you wait, and your options if it does not answer or refuses.
Last checked: November 10, 2026
Apply before the permit ends
The most important rule: apply for the extension before the end date on your card. If you apply in time, your old permit stays valid by law until the Ausländerbehörde (immigration office) decides. You may keep living and working in Germany as before.
Many offices ask you to apply about eight weeks before the end date, and many take the application online. Check the website of your own office: the timing differs from city to city.
If you apply after the permit has ended, this protection is not automatic. The office can still treat the old permit as valid to avoid hardship, but it does not have to. Apply at once and explain why you are late.
What the office usually asks for
- A valid passport. A residence permit cannot run longer than the passport, so renew your passport first if it ends soon.
- Your current residence permit and a current biometric photo.
- Proof of your address (Meldebescheinigung) and your rental contract.
- Proof of health insurance.
- For a work permit: your employment contract, salary statements for the last months and often a form from your employer.
- The same conditions apply as for your first permit. If something has changed, for example your job, your income, your marriage or your studies, the office looks at it again.
While you wait
- If you need proof on paper, for your employer or for a trip, ask the office for a Fiktionsbescheinigung. Our guide to the Fiktionsbescheinigung explains the three kinds.
- The fee for an extension is set by federal law: 93 euros for more than three months, 96 euros for up to three months. Children pay half.
- Waiting for months is common. If the office has not decided three months after your application and has no good reason, an action for failure to act (Untätigkeitsklage) at the administrative court is possible. A lawyer can first write to the office and set a deadline.
If the office refuses
- Note the day you received the letter. The time limit is usually one month.
- The letter must tell you what you can do: in some federal states an objection (Widerspruch) to the office, in others an action (Klage) at the administrative court straight away. If this instruction is missing or wrong, the limit is one year.
- An objection or an action does not stop the refusal by itself. You usually also need an urgent application to the court (Eilantrag), so that you may stay while the case runs.
- For work, your old permit still counts while the time limit runs and while the court decides on an urgent application.
- Do not wait until the last week. A lawyer needs time to ask for the file and read it.
How a lawyer in Germany helps
A lawyer can check before you apply whether you still meet the conditions, press the office for a decision, and after a refusal file the objection or action and the urgent application in time. With a refusal in hand, show it to a lawyer in the first days.
Questions people ask
My permit has already ended. What now?
Apply at once, explain the reason and bring proof of it. The office can treat the old permit as still valid to avoid hardship. Until that is clear, ask the office or a lawyer before you keep working or travel.
Can I travel while I wait for the extension?
If you applied in time, you can leave and re-enter Germany with a valid passport and a Fiktionsbescheinigung that says your permit continues (§ 81 Abs. 4, the third box). Without it, ask the office before you book.
The office gives no appointment before my permit ends. What can I do?
What counts is the day you apply, not the day of the appointment. Apply in writing or online before the end date and keep proof that you did.
Official information
General information, not legal advice. Rules change and every case is different: a lawyer checks yours.