Insights into the procedure and the current status , Date: 11/11/2025, format: Article, area: Authority

The foundation for the FLORA support system was laid in the first half of 2018 with a successful technical feasibility study (proof of concept). From August 2018 onwards, this feasibility study was followed by the development of a pilot system for the location in Dresden, which was successfully piloted with the Saxony State Directorate from April 2021 and put into live operation in August 2022. FLORA passed from project to product status in mid-2024 and is subject to ongoing development..

The BAMF is currently working on connecting new locations and federal states to the FLORA support system, while also continuously expanding the functionalities of the system. FLORA is currently (as of June 2025) in live operation in Saxony, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Hesse and Thuringia.

Project phase I – feasibility study (proof of concept)

Project phase I was aimed at implementing a proof of concept and identifying the fundamental added value of using blockchain for the asylum process. Specifically, the aim of the proof of concept was to demonstrate how blockchain technology can support interagency communication and cooperation in the asylum process. The developed proof of concept continuously stored the current status changes of each refugee’s respective asylum process. A status change indicates, for example, whether the BAMF has already issued an asylum notice for the person concerned, and whether it was positive or negative. Other participating authorities can use this status to initiate their own processes. For instance, if the BAMF’s notice was positive, the competent immigration authority can issue a residence permit directly and with virtually no delay.

The development of the proof of concept was accompanied by comprehensive technical, subjectmatter and legal evaluation. The results of this evaluation can be found in the white paper Supporting communication and cooperation in the asylum procedure with Blockchain technology.

Project phase II – the pilot phase in Dresden

The aim of project phase II was to develop and pilot a support system based on FLORA in cooperation with the BAMF branch office in Dresden and the Saxony State Directorate.

The development of the pilot system started in August 2018. From May 2020 onwards, this was followed by an extended test phase in which the FLORA support system was prepared for pilot operation. Pilot operation finally commenced in April 2021, and the FLORA support system assisted staff at the BAMF branch office in Dresden and the Saxony State Directorate for the first time in processing asylum applications. In the scope of the pilot project, the FLORA support system successfully demonstrated its functional added value, and the system was transferred to official live operation in August 2022.

The pilot phase was also accompanied by a comprehensive functional evaluation. The results of this evaluation can be found in the white paper Piloting and evaluating of the FLORA support system in the context of the AnkER facility Dresden.

Phase III - Live operation and nationwide rollout

The aim of project phase III is to ensure stable live operation and enable the rollout of the FLORA support system in other federal states by developing a scalable and high-performance application.

To this end, development is constantly progressing in the background using agile principles and iterative production and feedback cycles. Since 2024, individual software components have been transferred to the BAMF’s own state-of-the-art, cloud-based DevOpsPlatform (BDOP), which also facilitates simplified development along with improved performance.

The long term objective is to connect all the federal states of Germany. A number of challenges still need to be overcome here, most of which require individual solutions and close cooperation between the relevant authorities due to differences in (state) legal and organisational frameworks and the associated heterogeneous process and software landscape. To simplify the integration of the FLORA support system into existing systems, a simple standard interface is currently being developed, which will be made available to all federal states and, in the long term, will enable the seamless integration of FLORA into existing state-specific solutions.