If you are residing in Germany on a tolerated basis, you are only permitted to work if this is expressly stated in your toleration (certificate of suspension of deportation). If you wish to work, you must therefore apply for a work permit from the immigration office. This also applies to vocational training or internships.
You can be granted a work permit if you have been residing in Germany for three months with a permit, tolerated status, or temporary residence permit and you have found an employer who is willing to hire you.
Persons with tolerated status who are required to live in a reception center are only granted access to the labor market after six months.
To process your application, the Foreigners' Registration Office usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which checks the working conditions. After more than four years of uninterrupted residence in Germany, the Federal Employment Agency no longer needs to be involved.
If you would like to complete vocational training in a company (dual training), you must apply for a work permit for the specific training position individually. School-based vocational training does not require approval.
The work permit is issued for the maximum duration of your current temporary suspension of deportation. If the requirements are met, it can be extended accordingly when the temporary suspension of deportation is extended.
The pursuit of gainful employment is generally prohibited if
- you have come to Germany to obtain benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act,
- your residence cannot be terminated for reasons for which you are responsible, or you have violated your obligation to cooperate in removing the obstacle to deportation (e.g., insufficient cooperation in obtaining a passport or identity documents, deception regarding your identity or nationality),
- the temporary suspension of deportation was granted with the addition "temporary suspension of deportation for persons with unclear identity," or
you are from a so-called "safe country of origin," i.e., a member state of the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (North Macedonia), Montenegro, Senegal, or Serbia and applied for asylum after August 31, 2015, which was rejected or withdrawn, unless the withdrawal was made on the basis of advice from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Even without an asylum application, persons from safe countries of origin cannot obtain a work permit.
