Integration business file (InGe)
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has developed a computer-aided "Integration business file" (InGe) in order to be able to coordinate and manage the implementation of the integration courses professionally.
General
In order to obviate the need to rely on a purely paper-based system, which costs time and causes expense, but to be able to coordinate and manage the implementation of the integration courses professionally, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has developed the computer application entitled “Integration business file” (abbreviated to InGe). The staff of the Federal Office have been using InGe since 2005.
InGe 2.0
Since both the integration courses and the legislation on which they are based have been altered and refined in recent years, InGe has been optimised and expanded parallel to this development. The Federal Office has improved the speed, flexibility and ergonomics of the database and introduced new functionalities and workflows. The consolidated InGe 2.0 has been in operation since 1 July 2010.
InGe Online
In view of the large number of external agencies which are involved in the procedure (immigration authorities, institutions providing basic security benefits, the Federal Administration Office and course organisers), the external exchange of data will take place by electronic means. There is binding provision for this in the Ordinance on Integration Courses (Integrationskursverordnung – IntV).
To this end, the Federal Office has expanded InGe to become a system capable of operating online – in the form of InGe Online –, which is now increasingly also available to the institutions that are involved in the process.
The rationale behind the inclusion of external parties is to reduce the administrative effort for all participants, for instance by reducing paper costs, postage and waiting periods. It is also hoped to improve the quality and topicality of the data.
Involvement of individual parties
Information will be provided below for the individual institutions as to where InGe Online can already be used, what preconditions must be met and how it is applied in practice.
Immigration authorities online (abbreviated to ABH Online)
Connections available
Both a legal framework and the technical facilities have been available since 2007 for the immigration authorities to transmit the abovementioned data electronically from their own computer system via an interface provided by the Federal Office. Roughly 430 immigration authorities are currently making use of this service.
Connection procedure
Immigration authorities which would like to be connected to InGe Online must first of all expand their own software, or have it expanded, to include the data required by the Federal Office, for instance the date of the obligation to attend an integration course.
The user data then need to be obtained from the Federal Office. Next, the immigration authority transmits the test data, as well as providing these to the Federal Office by separate means. It is verified that the data transmitted are correct. If the test data have been transmitted correctly, the immigration authority receives a confirmation to this effect, and can now transmit real data to the Federal Office via a defined exchange format.
Application in practice
If the immigration authority would like to issue an entitlement or obligation to attend an integration course to its customer, it starts by transmitting the necessary data to the Federal Office.
First of all, a so-called “duplicate test” takes place before the Federal Office incorporates the transmitted data into InGe. The background to this is that section 4 subs. 1 sentence 2 of the Ordinance on Integration Courses only permits attendance at one integration course. If the test reveals that an individual with an identical name, date of birth and gender is already present in the system, the immigration authority receives automatic feedback requesting it to contact the competent Regional Office of the Federal Office. In order to avoid duplicate obligations (or the same individual being both entitled and obliged to attend), it must then be jointly examined whether the persons are identical or simply happen to have the same name.
If the individuals are identical, a distinction is to be made between the following case groups as a matter of principle:
- A participation entitlement may not be issued if the person has already been entitled or obliged to attend a course by another agency.
- An obligation to attend an integration course may not be issued if the person has already been obliged by another agency (such as the JobCenter).
- In the event of an intended obligation to attend and of a (mere) participation entitlement having already been issued by another agency, the immigration authority can decide whether the obligation is to replace the existing entitlement.
Previous entitlements or obligations to attend whose periods of validity expired unused (that is without a registration having been made with a course organiser) are not included in this test.
If all these test actions reveal that the entitlement or obligation can be issued, the new dataset is finally stored at the Federal Office. InGe automatically generates an identification number and posts it in the immigration authorities’ system. This Federal Office identification number serves to unambiguously identify the entitled party in future communications between the agencies involved. The immigration authority can then print out the confirmation regarding the entitlement to attend the integration course with this identification number and deliver it to its customer.
If the data cannot be stored, the immigration authority is informed by the Federal Office accordingly.
Summing up, this means that the immigration authority can be sure when sending a Federal Office identification number that no “competing” entitlement/obligation of another agency is held at the Federal Office for that person.
Outlook
The online procedure is not to be restricted to unilateral data transmission by the immigration authority. There are plans in the "XAusländer" project for the immigration authorities to have the opportunity from May 2013 onwards to access the data from InGe which are defined in the Ordinance on Integration Courses. The legal basis for this has already been included in the Ordinance.
By expanding to the "XAusländer" standard in communications between the immigration authorities and the Federal Office, the immigration authority online interface of InGe will be technically converted to the OSCI-Transport standard. This is already being used for communication between the immigration authorities.
Course organisers: Organisers online
Connections available
The Federal Office is currently developing two procedures for connection to InGe for integration course organisers: the web service procedure and the web form procedure.
Course organisers will have to be connected to InGe Online in future. The initiative for the connection was taken by the Federal Office. Implementation of this new arrangement will begin in 2012.
Web service procedure
The Federal Office provides an online interface within the web service procedure.
Course organisers must adapt their course administration systems – where appropriate via an IT service-provider – in line with the interface documentation such that the data can be transmitted to the interface in the format required by the Federal Office.
It should furthermore be ensured that error messages which are fed back from the Federal Office are correctly processed by the course organiser’s system. Any costs incurred for initial adjustments to the course administration systems, as well as any subsequent alterations that are necessitated due to functions being added or to alterations, must be met by the course organisers.
The web service procedure has the advantage that the data can be transmitted to the Federal Office at the push of a button – depending on the programming of the organiser’s course administration system –, and as a rule do not require any double entries to be made by hand. What is more, the web service procedure will facilitate data access from InGe, for instance to information regarding persons who have been registered/who are participating.
Thanks to optional "asynchronous" data processing, data are also stored in InGe with a delay, should InGe not be available at the time of the data transmission.
Web form procedure
The alternative to the technically more demanding web service procedure is the web form, which can be accessed via the Internet (minimum 1 MBit/s transfer rate), and which the Federal Office also provides free of charge.
The data that are required must be entered by hand into the web form. If they are entered without any errors, that is no erroneous entries are made and obligatory fields are completed, the data are transferred to InGe. The entries made in the web form can however not be stored for technical reasons – for instance for any re-transmissions that might be necessary later.
The consequence of this is that course organisers have to enter more data by hand to transmit the data to the Federal Office than in the web service procedure. Furthermore, only "synchronous" data transmission is possible; this means that the data transmission is rejected if InGe is not currently available. Furthermore, it will not be possible to access data from InGe via the web form procedure.
This procedure has the advantage that adjustments which need to be made later, for example because of changes to the integration course procedure, do not have to be made by the course organiser itself. Expansions or changed versions are provided by the Federal Office.
Connection procedures
To prepare to connection all the course organisers, a questionnaire was organised in the summer of 2011 in which the course organisers were to provide information on the online variant which they preferred, as well as on their IT equipment. The data ascertained here will be available to the regional coordinators from April 2012 via the InGe course organisers ("InGe-Kursträger") application.
The Federal Office will determine in an introductory document which course organisers will be connected at which dates, depending on the resources available to the Federal Office. Where course organisers would like to be connected earlier than stipulated in this document, this may be possible in coordination with the Federal Office.
The coordination procedure will be carried out with IT support from "InGe-Kursträger". The competent regional coordinator will approach the contact named in the questionnaire, and first of all examine in coordination with the organiser whether the information provided in the questionnaire is still correct. The first information parcel, consisting of
- the interface documentation (only web service procedure)
- the operating manual (only web form procedure)
- the respective regulations for use, and
- an information letter on the procedure selected
will then be forwarded to the organiser.
The following defined procedure will then be followed:
Once course organisers have confirmed acceptance of the conditions for use, they receive the registration code for an application provided by the Federal Office for “Delegated User Administration” (DeBeV-Test). Course organisers can use this application to manage their users when implementing the test. Furthermore, the course organiser receives the test concept and prepared test data.
The test is necessary in order to ensure that at least one competent contact is available at each course organiser who has tested all the functions of the interface, and is therefore familiar with it.
As soon as the test has been successfully implemented and verified in the competent Regional Office of the Federal Office, the latter sends the registration code for the "Delegated User Administration" (DeBeV-Produktiv). The course organiser can use this to manage its users for the ensuing commencement of productive operation.
Support
If support from the Federal Office is necessary once the productive launch has been carried out successfully, this is to be provided according to a support concept which is still the subject of coordination.
Should it become necessary for course organisers to alter the data transmitted in the online procedure because a transmission is unsuccessful, these alterations may only be carried out by staff of the Federal Office for data protection reasons.
Test procedure: DTZ Online
Connections available
The results of subsidised integration course participants in the "German Test for Immigrants" (DTZ) language test will also be transmitted by electronic means in future.
To this end, the Federal Office launched the operation of an appropriate web-based service together with telc GmbH in December 2011. The framework for this was created in the context of the refined InGe 2.0. It also helps reduce the administration involved in the implementation of the German Test for Immigrants (DTZ), at the same time as helping the Federal Office to obtain important benchmark figures on the course results very much faster.
Connection procedures
The connection is already complete. Course organisers may therefore no longer forward the copies of the German Test for Immigrants certificates and evaluation forms to the Federal Office for Tests implemented from 1 January 2012 onwards. Only those paying for the courses themselves are exempted from this.
The course organisers however continue to report the passport and ID card numbers of all participants to the Federal Office, as well as any updated addresses.
A "post basket entry" is created in InGe as soon as the outcome of the test has been reported by telc (and hence the German Test for Immigrants dataset is complete) and the result of the orientation course test was collected via the OET application. The certificate or the report of the result actually obtained in the final tests for the participant can then be issued directly by the Regional Office.
Data exchange with providers of basic social security
The reports made by the basic social security providers to the Federal Office on the obligations of benefit-recipients to attend an integration course are currently still made in a paper procedure.
Preparatory measures are planned to connect the basic social security providers to InGe online – probably from 2013/2014 via the "XAusländer" standard.
Data exchange with the Federal Office of Administration
The exchange of data on ethnic German resettlers between the Federal Office of Administration and the Federal Office has already been automated.
