In today's article, a German lawyer will use a practical example to tell our readers about the possibility of exemption from the language test as a condition for resettlement in Germany.
Paragraph 2 of the said section does not contain rules for a general hardship case that would allow the authority to issue a decision on admission under the status of a late resettler without fulfilling all the requirements of the law on late resettlers. Nevertheless, the law allows for a waiver of proof of German language skills due to mental, physical, and psychological illnesses of the applicant.
The applicability of the exception to obviously and severely ill people is not particularly controversial: congenital intellectual disability, blindness, deafness and muteness, impairment of all functions as a result of significant brain damage. It is clear that such severely ill applicants are unable to learn German at the required level.
Nevertheless, even in seemingly obvious cases of inability to learn German due to health reasons, convincing medical certificates about the existing illnesses must be submitted to the reception authority. Vague, briefly composed certificates will not make the proper impression on the authority's officials. Disability certificates, certificates of early retirement due to health reasons, and certificates from the medical labor expert commission will not help the case.
The advanced age of the applicant is not a basis for exemption from the language test. The law does not make exceptions for elderly applicants with various age-related health complaints. The illnesses and their consequences must specifically affect the ability to learn and make it impossible to acquire knowledge of the German language.
Nor will the applicant's inability to walk independently and the ability to move only in a wheelchair always help. The reception authority will examine the applicant's living circumstances. After all, it may turn out that the language courses are located three kilometers from his home. Here, the authority considered it possible for a person in a wheelchair to attend the courses.
Recently, I successfully completed a difficult case of admission to Germany. The case began in the usual way with the filing of an application for admission to Germany under the status of a late resettler. Then there was the usual correspondence with the reception authority about this and that. Approximately in the middle of the processing procedure, I received a message that my client, aged 38, had been seriously injured in a car accident in Kazakhstan. Injuries to the skull, limbs, and pelvic bones were recorded. These injuries led to surgeries, long-term postoperative treatment, and rehabilitation.
I filed a request with the reception authority for exemption from the language test, citing the numerous health problems that had arisen. The head injury caused impaired concentration, rapid fatigue, and inability to absorb new material. The injuries to the bones and musculoskeletal system made travel to the place of German language instruction difficult. The severe injuries tore the young woman out of her usual rhythm, disrupted her family life, made her dependent on outside help and medical procedures. The result was a mental disorder with the development of a depressive state. I also mentioned this in the justification of my motion. All these factors individually and in combination of circumstances compelled the authority to recognize the exceptional case provided for by law and exempt my client from the language test.
The reception authority did not appear convinced by a mere description of the circumstances of the injury (a head-on collision of cars on the road, where the woman sitting in the driver's seat hit her head on the windshield, after which the car skidded off the road and rolled over several times). The authority did not doubt the circumstances and consequences of the accident, but did not issue permission for resettlement without the language test. The authority constantly demanded more and more evidence of why the mentioned injuries made it impossible to learn German.
For some time, the correspondence with the reception authority resembled the tale of the white bull. After submitting the required medical certificates, the authority demanded specification of certain points, suggested waiting for the results of rehabilitation, and intended to give my client time to recover. And then, after resting and regaining strength, she would be able to learn German at the required level. If not, send new certificates.
The case was complicated by the doctors in Kazakhstan not understanding the requirements of the Federal Administrative Office. The main requirement of the authority – to justify the impossibility of learning a foreign language – was overlooked by the Kazakh doctors. The Kazakh doctors honestly described the patient's condition, indicated diagnoses, the treatment provided and its effectiveness, but did not understand what the Federal Administrative Office wanted from them, why their certificates were not considered sufficient.
Only painstaking joint work by a Russian-speaking German doctor and his contacts with colleagues in Kazakhstan allowed the latter to understand the essence of the matter and issue medical certificates that satisfied the reception authority. As a result, my client received a decision on admission to Germany without proof of German language skills.
Thomas PUE,
German lawyer.