Applying for a work permit for people with a temporary residence permit

As a general rule, if you are currently undergoing an asylum procedure, you are only permitted to work if this is expressly stated on your temporary residence permit. If you wish to work, you must therefore apply to the Immigration Authority for a work permit.

For people who submitted their asylum application on or after 12 June 2026, the following applies:

An asylum seeker must be permitted to take up employment (including vocational training) after three months’ residence if they are no longer required to live in a reception centre. The Immigration Authority will refuse to grant a work permit in certain cases, for example if the foreign national has repeatedly or significantly failed, without valid reason, to fulfil their obligations to cooperate in the asylum procedure.

If the asylum seeker is required to live in a reception centre and the asylum procedure has not been concluded within three months of the registration of the asylum application, they are entitled to a work permit under certain conditions. For persons who are subject to the procedure to determine jurisdiction or who have already been recognised in another Member State, the time limit may be six months.

Furthermore, for persons from a safe country of origin – that is, persons who come from a Member State of the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (North Macedonia), Montenegro, Senegal, Serbia, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco, Tunisia or Turkey, there may be an indefinite ban on employment.

When processing your application, the Foreigners’ Registration Office usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which checks the working conditions. After an uninterrupted stay in Germany of more than four years, the Federal Employment Agency no longer needs to be involved.

If you wish to undertake in-company vocational training (dual training), you must apply individually for a work permit for the specific training place. School-based vocational training does not require authorisation.

The work permit is granted for a fixed period corresponding to the duration of the Federal Employment Agency’s approval, but no longer than the expiry of the temporary residence permit.

For persons who submitted their asylum application on or before 11 June 2026, the following applies:

The Foreigners’ Registration Office should allow an asylum seeker to take up employment (including training) after three months’ residence, provided they are no longer obliged to live in a reception centre. The Immigration Authority may refuse to grant the permit in exceptional circumstances. Criteria taken into account include, for example, the verification of identity, cooperation in the asylum procedure or criminal offences committed by the foreign national.

If the asylum seeker is still required to live in a reception centre and the asylum procedure has not been concluded within six months, they are entitled to a work permit under certain conditions.

When processing your application, the Foreigners’ Registration Office usually involves the Federal Employment Agency, which checks the working conditions. After an uninterrupted stay in Germany of more than four years, the Federal Employment Agency no longer needs to be involved.

If you wish to undertake in-company vocational training (dual training), you must apply individually for a work permit for the specific training place. School-based vocational training does not require authorisation.

The work permit is issued for a fixed term corresponding to the duration of the Federal Employment Agency’s approval, but no longer than the expiry of the residence permit.

The following restrictions apply:

If you are from a so-called ‘safe country of origin’ – that is, 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 have submitted your asylum application after 31 August 2015, you cannot obtain a work permit whilst the asylum procedure is ongoing. This also applies if you are from Georgia or the Republic of Moldova and submitted your asylum application after 30 August 2023.

Even if the asylum application has been rejected as manifestly unfounded or inadmissible and no suspensive effect has been ordered following an appeal, you will not have access to the German labour market.