Local immigration offices
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has sole responsibility for carrying out the asylum process. Here you can read about how the other tasks are divided between the local immigration offices and the Federal Office while the process is being carried out.
Asylum-seekers are obliged to live in 'reception facilities' during the initial weeks of the asylum process. The Federal Office decides which reception facility is responsible for housing an asylum-seeker, whilst the local immigration office looks into how their accommodation can be prepared and their livelihood ensured. The Federal Office is also responsible for decisions relating to asylum-seekers' residence for as long as they live in the reception facility.
Once the obligation to live in a reception facility ceases, responsibility for issues concerning legal residence is transferred to the local immigration office.
At the end of the asylum process, the Federal Office informs the local immigration office of the decision concerning the asylum application. The local immigration office is bound to implement the decision made by the Federal Office.
If an asylum application has been granted (or the individual has been recognised as a refugee or deportation bans have been established), the local immigration office will issue the foreign national with the relevant residence title. If the asylum application has been refused, the foreign national is obliged to leave Germany. The local immigration office monitors departures. If the foreign national does not leave the country of his/her own free will, the local foreign immigration will instigate deportation proceedings.
