Hamburg Welcome Center
Your first point of contact in Hamburg is the Hamburg Welcome Center. Located in the huge building of the town hall it provides assistance for foreigners having come to Germany for good.
Easy questions are answered at the front desk and waiting time is usually less than 15 minutes. The website provides general information on immigration, living and housing, kids & family, and career as well as most of the forms necessary for the immigration process.
I.e., for working you will have to apply for residence title based on the visa you have received by the German Embassy in your country. The HWC will tell you how to do that.
The HWC also answers questions by eMail, however, questions need to be asked very specific and answers are often sweet and short. Response time is about 72 hours. They have a phone line, but it is almost always occupied. Best way to get quick and qualified answers to urgent questions is going in person. The team is lovely, and most people speak several languages, it is just that they are too few.
Appointments can be made by eMail or at site. Lead time is mostly 3-4 weeks, however, we have seen up to 14 weeks to even get an appointment.
Ausländerbehörde (Foreigners Office)
There is a central office at Amsinckstrasse 28, situated south of the central station. This office deals with all kinds of affairs and waiting times are long. That’s because it deals with all those people whose residence permit is yet not fully granted.
It is easier to get an appointment with the foreigners’ office of your local district. A list of the districts’ so-called “Bezirksämter” or “Kundenzentrum” (Customer Service Centre) can be found here. There are nine of it.
Which is yours?
In case you have applied for a Bluecard of another kind of Work Visa the embassy will have send all your application documents to the Bezirksamt which your district of residence is allocated to. During your application, you have recorded an address under which you will reside when in Germany. Such address could even be a hotel’s address. Find out the respective district here. Type in your address (just the street and click “WEITER”)
The next page will give you the details of the respective Customer Service Centre with telephone number and opening hours.
Reserve an appointment
Mostly, the offices do work with appointments only. Hence, beware of the lead time for such appointments. Appointments can be made online here. In the lower part of the page, a list of all possible offices is given. If you click on an office, you will be led to the details page of that office where you can find a link to the appointment system under “Termin vereinbaren”.
On the next page, you need to specify for what exactly you need an appointment. For non-Germans, this is a bit difficult, and you may choose to rely on our services.
Book an appointment at a Customer Service Centre via The Red Relocators (15 EUR)
Appointments are needed for example for
- Registration and re-registration
- Deregistration
- Registering Information
- Change in car property title documents (KFZ-Schein)
- Residence Permit
- Certificate on non-marriage status
- Tax Id number
- Registration of a dog
- Parking Allowance Certificates
- Legalization of documents
- Driving License Conversion
- Police Certificate