Germany is a federal state. The federal unit is the so-called «Land». Each federal state has its own laws, and therefore the decision to accept immigrants is made directly by a specific Land. At the national level, distribution is handled by the Bundesverwaltungsamt, the Federal Administrative Office, which is a division of the German Ministry of the Interior. The Administrative Office accepts applications and forwards them to the respective Länder. When a Land decides to accept immigrants, it sends its decision back to the Administrative Office. The latter, in turn, sends the decision on acceptance to the embassy at the applicant's place of application.
Document processing should begin at the embassy or consulate. You approach the secretary for Jewish immigration at the embassy and show him documents confirming your Jewish origin. You are given two questionnaire forms and an application form. When translations of your documents into German are ready, you submit the originals along with the translations to the same secretary and wait for the result for three to five years.
The embassy will check your Jewish origin against the documents, but it may also send a request to the archives. That is at its discretion. If the embassy staff have no questions, the consul makes a decision on your right to immigrate and sends the questionnaires with copies to the Federal Administrative Office. There, your documents and application are registered, assigned a corresponding number, and your file is transferred to one of the federal states. If you indicate in the questionnaire the state you wish to go to, in 70% of cases the office will accommodate you. If you have justified wishes, for example close relatives, the chance of getting into the specified state increases significantly.
On the other hand, the procedure for accepting resettlers and immigrants depends on quotas established for each federal state individually. The relevant immigrant reception authorities in one or another state have different waiting lists, which in turn depend on immigrant admission quotas.
The acceptance decision is valid for one year from the date of issuance. Within this period, you must obtain a visa. Visas are stamped into the passports of all family members who travel with you and are valid for three months from the date of issuance. During these months, you must arrive in Germany at the address specified in the acceptance permit. Departure and shipment of containers with belongings are at the expense of the entering party.
Viktor VAITS,
Deutsche Welle