I am a 40 Year old Indian guy living with my family in Germany. I work as a software developer and I moved here 4.5 years ago. I always have a lingering question. Why is Germany so behind in digitalisation? My recent encounter with Auslanderbehorde (Foreigners office) for my blue card renewal says that nothing has changed in the last 4.5 years (Correct me if you feel otherwise). It is super hard to get an appointment and I feel that this is a repeat of the appointment of what I had 4.5 years ago. They literally have all my details (my latest salary rounded off to the nearest cent, where I stay, my family members, what I do etc etc) and yet I have to go through the same process again.
I cannot comment much on other services as I have not used them recently but I feel that it should be the same (Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong). To give some perspective, The average time to get your passport renewed in India is about 10 days – You get the appointment in 5-7 days and you will have the new passport in hand in just 2-3 days after the appointment. For every open issue with the departments I get a letter to which I have to respond in writing (Right from my things related to my kid to my tax) and I have a huge pile of papers. I remember the Finanzamt sending me a letter asking me for my bank account details for refund and I have been sent them the same answer I gave last year.
In my view 4.5 years is such a long time for a country like Germany to not have made any progress in this area. Everywhere else things are happening at light speed. I visited India after 4.5 years and I was able to see UPI ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified\_Payments\_Interface](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Payments_Interface)) implemented in a country wide scale serving millions.
We live in an era where digitalisation is a necessity and it is no longer a luxury. Digitisation also improves efficiency of the departments which in turn saves tax payers money (which could be used for some other good cause) and also brings in more accountability. I am very much thankful to this country and it has given me a lot. I really care about this country and without any progress in this area, I am very much worried that Germany will be left behind in the coming years.
I would like to know what you guys think about this and when this situation will get better. I feel that we talk a lot about this but there is no outcome !
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by some_dude83
3 comments
Politics slept a long time when it comes to things like that.
No one dares to uproot the system that worked for decades. Also, the costs are *gigantic*. They infere with the bureaucratic order. Only FAX (very old) or mail letters are admissible in court. So everything goes by snail mail, yes. We seem to really need our paper with signature for everything. If you want to build a house yourself, you will be hit with folders of paper like you have never seen before.
The simplicity is absolutely missing. I wish germany would take a slice of sweden and the nordic countries. No we can’t… we need a permit for that, and thousands of folders of paper
My impression after five years in Germany is that although many Germans tend to know that Germany is behind (especially younger generations), very few actually grasp how incredibly far behind they are.
I know, everybody here jokes about fax machines – but holy cow, the issues are so much more pervasive.