Berlin Immigration Office
Landesamt für Einwanderung
Agency overview
TypeAusländerbehörde
JurisdictionBerlin government
Employees540 (as of 2020)
Agency executive
  • Engelhard Mazanke, Direktor and head of the Ausländerbehörde since 2011
Parent departmentBerlin Senatsverwaltung für Inneres, Digitalisierung und Sport
Websiteberlin.de/einwanderung/en

The Berlin Immigration Office (German: Landesamt für Einwanderung, or LEA) replaced the former Ausländerbehörde in 2020. It still serves as Berlin's Ausländerbehörde ("foreigners' agency"), and Germany's largest, with 540 staff and 400,000 clients per year.[1][2] The Berlin Immigration Office is under the stewardship of the Berlin Senate Department for the Interior, Digitalisation and Sports.

Foundation

The entrance of the main building in March 2022.
The entrance of the main building in March 2022.

The Berlin Immigration Office was founded in 2020 from the Ausländerbehörde which was until then a division of the Landesamt für Bürger- und Ordnungsangelegenheiten (LABO).[3] The 2020 reordering gave the Ausländerbehörde independent status as a state-level Landesamt, a first among Germany's 16 states.[4] Apart from the former Ausländerbehörde, the Berlin Immigration Office also comprises some staff members who formerly worked for the LABO.[5] An opening ceremony took place on 15 January 2020.

The restructuring was decided in 2019 by the 2016-2021 red-green-red Berlin government coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and The Left.[6][7] The idea for an office for "immigrants" rather than "foreigners" in Berlin had been suggested by the city's Green party as early as 2014.[8]

The renaming was criticised by a Christian Democrat opposition politician as not what immigrants needed, and by one immigrant as "lipstick on a pig".[8]

Responsibilities

A waiting room at the Berlin Immigration Office.
A waiting room at the Berlin Immigration Office.

The Office has six divisions and 25 subdivisions (as of 2021):[9]

  • Abteilung A – Asylum
  • Abteilung B – Special tasks
  • Abteilung E – Immigration
  • Abteilung R – Crime and repatriation
  • Abteilung G – Guiding principles and cross-sectional matters
  • Abteilung P – Process and service

Its service has been criticised by many users as unfriendly, German-only, and non-digitised, much like the former Ausländerbehörde.[8]

Sites

The Office has a main building at Friedrich-Krause-Ufer in Moabit and a second building at Keplerstraße in Charlottenburg, opened in 2016. Clients are directed to either of the two centres based on the type of visa or residency status they need or hold.[8]

  • Full text of the 2019 law setting out the rebranding of the Ausländerbehörde as the Berlin Immigration Office

References

  1. ↑ Katarina Heidrich (2020-01-15). "Landesamt für Einwanderung eröffnet". Behörden Spiegel. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  2. ↑ Jens Anker (2019-05-29). "Aus dem Ausländeramt wird ein Willkommensamt". Berliner Morgenpost. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  3. ↑ Fahrun, Joachim (2019-09-29). "So soll Berlins Ausländerbehörde umgebaut werden". www.morgenpost.de (in German). Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  4. ↑ Nina Amin (2020-01-02). "Wenn aus der Ausländerbehörde ein Einwanderungsamt wird". rbb. Retrieved 2020-05-10.
  5. ↑ "EinwLAErG BE. Paragraph 4.2". gesetze.berlin.de. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  6. ↑ "Plenarprotokoll. 47. Sitzung" (PDF). Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin. 26 September 2019. p. 5652. Wer die Gesetzesvorlage auf Drucksache 18/1945 annehmen möchte, den bitte ich um das Handzeichen. Das sind die Koalitionsfraktionen.
  7. ↑ "Gesetz zur Errichtung eines Landesamtes für Einwanderung und zur Anpassung betroffener Gesetze. Vorlage zur Beschlussfassung (Gesetzentwurf) Drucksache 18/1945 S. 1 bis 19 vom 28.05.2019". pardok.parlament-berlin.de. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Rushton, Elizabeth (2 February 2021). "Berlin's rebranded Ausländerbehörde". Berliner Zeitung. Retrieved 2022-08-28.
  9. ↑ "Leitung und Organisation" (in German). Landesamt für Einwanderung. 2021-03-01. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
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