Before immigrating
For refugees abroad
Resettlement programmes enable refugees to legally immigrate to a safe third country from their country of first asylum.
It is not possible to apply for admission to the resettlement programme. Refugees are selected by the UNHCR in the country of first asylum according to their specific protection needs.
It is therefore important that all refugees in the countries of first asylum are registered with the UNHCR or the local authorities. Beyond that, however, refugees themselves have no influence over whether they will be accepted into another country.
The UNHCR provides information about resettlement on these pages:
For relatives and friends in Germany
Perhaps you have learned that your relatives or friends will soon be immigrating to Germany through resettlement. If you would like your relatives to live near you, it is important to take care of this as early as possible.
Assignment to the federal states is based on a distribution key. There is no legal right or guarantee that immigrating relatives will be allocated to your place of residence, nearby or to the same federal state.
However, there are a few things you can do to make this more likely:
As soon as your relatives have interviews for admission to Germany, provide them with your full name and address, including the federal state. The easiest way to do this is to send them a photo of your ID card. Your relatives can then bring this contact information with them to the interviews. As mobile phones are not permitted during interviews at all embassies, your relatives should print out the photo from your ID card or write down the information.
As soon as you know that your relatives are to be admitted to Germany – even if no specific immigration date is known yet – you can contact your local authority: Try contacting representatives from various departments (Immigration Authority, residents’ registration office, social welfare office, accommodation authority).
Explain your request there: now that your relatives have been accepted into the resettlement programme with a residence permit in accordance with Section 23.4 of the Residence Act, they would like to be assigned to your place of residence. You can ask for prior approval for placement in your place of residence. Either the municipality has accommodation to house your relatives, or there may be a possibility to organise private accommodation and obtain the consent of a landlord. Important: The rent will only be covered from the time of arrival in the municipality and must be agreed with the Job Centre.
If your place of residence responds positively and agrees to accept your relatives, this must be communicated to the relevant authority in your federal state and to the BAMF Resettlement Department.
Once it has been confirmed that your relatives will be coming to your place of residence and when, you can support them by finding out what steps they need to take after arrival, identifying the relevant contact persons at the various authorities and, if necessary, making appointments for them.