I went to my local foreigner's office today seeking an extension of my residence permit which expires on 19.08.2009.

I'll be fulfilling 5 years of stay/work in Germany later this year in september.

Based on those facts, I was handed a NE application and a list of required documents for NE.
I was also told that I should come back on the exact day on which my current residence permit expires (19.08.2009) and apply for NE.

After asking some questions I was told that only then I will be given a temporary residence permit(6-8 weeks) which will also allow me to travel outside of Germany since I'm going on holiday in september.

I find this procedure a bit risky and strange, having to wait till the last day.

Anybody can comment on that?
Waiting till the last day, is this a wise thing to do?

Hi,

you have not mentioned a rejection above. Then that means that they have taken your NE application. If they have rejected or reject, ask them to give written letter of rejection.

If it says "Fiktionsbescheinigung" on your "temporary residence permit" then don't worry. Since you have not given what it says on your temp residence permit, I would ssume it says so. If this is correct, then don't worry, really. It means your NE is on progress. During that time they usually give this permit. It is not only for you, this is typical for NE applications in Germany. With that temporary status your permit is in transition period. They gave you so that you can travel to your home country without any problem.

Don't worry about the wait period. If this last day intersects your holiday, please tell this to the official.

In my opinion you shouldn't worry about this. I am sure you get NE at the end.

Regards from another ex-GC to you (another ex-GC)

Klenze17.

I didn't receive this temporary extension yet but I was told it was a "provisorische Erlaubnis" which is issued for 6 to 8 weeks period while the NE process is running, that's why I didn't mention anything about it, but I found it was weird that they asked me to wait till the last day since I could also do this earlier...

Futhermore, the NE will be only processed after I apply the application and the necessary documents on the day my current residence permit expires.

I am not really worried but I don't like to wait till the last minute to do something which can be or should be done earlier.

Thank you for your reply.

Its normal for ABH to ask people to come on the day before expiration or atleast the week of expiration.
Relax and its in best terms to do what they ask to do..
cheers

"Its normal for ABH to ask people to come on the day before expiration"

I wouldn't say it is "normal".. such a decision is at the discretion of the ABH in question..

I applied for my NE one month before the expiration date and my ABH was ok with that..

Regards,

Lacrima

Right lacrima, I think that different ABH handle the same case differently.

In my case they might be doing me a favour actually by allowing me to apply ahead of time (august instead of september) and not asking me to apply for an extension to bridge the gap...

Anyway I'll post an update once it's all done.

I agree but they are not always friendly atleast the ABH's I have dealt with so far

You're right rajendrak, they're not always friendly but that's just normal, not everybody you meet on the street is friendly anyway.

On another note, I just noticed they're asking for recent copies of most documents (Anmeldung, Arbeitsbescheinigung...)

Any idea how recent those should be? Is 1 month ok in this case?

I think that docs shouldn't raise eyebrows for being too old to believe. A month or so would make sense and its on their acceptability.

A week old or a day old is always safe to avoid extra trips to ABH ..

BE CAREFUL!!!

Most of the time they try to do this...giving visa for minimum period possible and put some jaggery on your elbow which you can see but cant enjoy...

So just go to them apply for normal BE visa extention for next 3 years, and then apply for NE when you are eligible for it next month.

You are eligible for BE extention now...and take it first for max. duration i.e. 3 years.

this will avoid risk of being dependent on NE results...

i know so many cases where they tried to do this and in my case when i asked why are you doing this, as they were always extrafriendly with me...i allowed me to ask and i could see reaction on their face and came up with argument that temp. letter/cert. fict.besch. for some weeks or up to 3 months would be 30 euros cheaper to me me!!!!!!!

i hope it helps...

Thanks bmilan for sharing your experience.

In fact I already have BE but it expires on 19.08.2009, so I was just hoping to get an extension yesterday and apply for NE at the same time or shortly after.

I don't know if I'll wait till the 19th, I'm thinking right now of going there around a week before giving them a reason that I'm out of town for business the week after in case they argue.

We'll see what happens.

I have B.E till Aug2010. Last time after BE, I went for NE, beamter asked me to come back in Jan2010. But according to ur discussions above, am I not allowed to apply for NE till my current visa expires?

Thanks.

I agree, just extend your current working visa with BE for a longer period of time (2 years or so), your request is completely justified since actually this is a direct visa that should be applied in your case. You can also say that temporary residence permit may raise some unnecessary questions about your status by your firm (Personalabteilung) since technically you are supposed to notify them about changes in your status. Use 30 euro argument as well, besides, if your NE is not processed durung that time you have to extend fiktionsbecheinigung again and pay extra instead of being secured for a longer time.

Even if you have BE for 2 more years you are allowed to go and apply for NE. because NE is entirely different title and you dont need to wait until ur visa expires:-)this was in my case, i got 3 years of extention on BE and then applied for NE...
they told me that one month before exp. of BE i could go for extention but i had to travel that time so she made it more than 2 months in adv. (BE extention for 3 years :-) )

Update for those of you interested.

I contacted my correspondent officer at the foreigner's office 2 days ago to ask her about my case and what was the best way to proceed, and she told me it was better to apply for an extension if I wanted to be on the safe side, and avoid problems of any kind.

I went today and extended my BE for 1 more year and I intend of applying for NE in the next couple of weeks. The processing of NE according to her is 4 to 6 weeks.

I was also invited to a securtiy check in february of next year (that was the next available appointment)

I've never done such a thing, and I was told it exists in other cities for years but was recently established in Köln as well.

Anybody has gone through this already?

Yes, I have taken NE on the last vaild day. Its normal, btw i am also from Köln.

Anybody went through the Sicherheitsbefragung yet?

Anybody went through the Sicherheitsbefragung yet?

I am a Turkish citizen, and got NE §19 without security check in Germany. I have not heard any Turkish person in my life, who got this security check when applying for NE §9 or §19. rajeshspg also got NE §19 but he said he got security check. All Indian citizen I know/heard who applied NE §9 or §19 got security check. Maybe it has to do with nationality, but this might give you an idea.

I have heard that these checks can be as long as 2-3 months.

HTH.
Klenze17.

@klenze17,

It's not true as per my knowledge. Security check has nothing to do with Nationalilty. May be it depends on the person handling the case. I am also Indian, got NE §9 recently, though it took around 6 weeks time.

I am not sure what authorities did with in this time. I know other Indians who got NE without this special check.

Suresh

3 important points:

1- It has nothing to do with nationality, of course if you're comming from the US or Japan, you won't be required to do it I guess, otherwise everybody has to do it.

2- It is still no established in all states in Germany, knowing it was only established a couple of weeks ago in Köln, this shows that it doesn't exist probably in many states yet.

3- It has nothing to do with NE.
Everybody who requires an extension or a new residence permit will have to do it in case it was required in the correspondent state.

I applied for D-EG today. I hope that everything will run smoothly.