Hi Everyone
After moving to Essen in May this year and writing an email to the Einbürgerungsamt I have been waiting for a reply ever since to simply get an appointment for a Beratungsgespräch. I also sent 1 re-enquiry and 1 Email asking the current processing times to no avail. They only seem to be contactable by Email.
Every email gets replied with a standard answer with mentions that Appointment requests for Beratung might take longer. I fully sympathize with that and understand that situation in tough with COVID but surely giving out an appointment shouldn’t take more than 7 months?
I am wondering what my next step: wait forever? Write a letter to the Behördenleiter? Put in a Untätigkeitsklage? Would love some feedback.
Here’s what the standard reply looks like:
3 comments
It specifically says that the more often you mail them, the more you will delay the process.
There isn’t much you can do, I’m afraid. As the response says, there is a huge demand for appointments, so there is a huge backlog which is only getting longer, and the unpredictable nature of the pandemic means they can’t easily plan ahead, and they don’t have the physical space — pandemic restrictions mean they can’t have you sitting in a waiting room with other people, and they probably can’t process you in the office they normally would because it’s an open-plan office or something.
Plus, Essen’s administration is one of those that is underbudgeted and understaffed.
You’ll have to do what everybody else is having to do, and wait your turn.
not much you can do but wait I’m afraid. Corona fucked things up at local offices all over the country.
As annoying as it is, getting an appintment can take quite a while and the actual citizenship processing can also take anywhere between 6 months to 2 years, depending on where you’re applying and what the backlog is. I’m guessing you already have permanent residency so try not to stress about the long wait for citizenship.