Mariia returns to room 4010 once more. She wants to make sure that she wrote down an e-mail address correctly. It’s also about important things; a residence permit. The Ukrainian comes from near Lemberg and fled the war with her two children. She has been here in Frankfurt for almost half a year. Section 24 of the Residence Act is familiar to Ukrainian refugees because it promises security.
With this protection status, refugees can stay and work in Germany for at least two years. They are entitled to social benefits, child support and access to medical care. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) promised immediate unbureaucratic help in taking in the war refugees.
For the first time in its history, the European Union has activated a regulation that saves Ukrainians from a lengthy asylum procedure: the European directive on mass influxes. In German law, this is paragraph 24.
Only return to Ukraine when the war is over
The vast majority of refugees can rely on this. Since the outbreak of war, almost a million people have traveled to Germany from the Ukraine on August 21. According to the calculations of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 96,546 people are recorded in the central register of foreigners. However, that does not mean that they are still in Germany. A “significant number” could have traveled to other EU countries or returned to Ukraine. According to the central register, as of August 20, 430,440 people had a residence permit and a further 218,440 had a fictional certificate, so the paper says, while the application is still being examined.
The Ukrainian Coordination Center in Frankfurt is housed in this building
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Image: Lucas Bäuml
The residence permit makes it official that it may still be a while before you can return to Ukraine. The longer the war lasts, the more Ukrainians have to accept the prospect of staying here for the time being. Mariia wants to go back to Ukraine when the war is over. But he goes on. life too. Mariia’s four-year-old son has been attending a kindergarten in Frankfurt since the beginning of June, and her eleven-year-old daughter will be going to school after the summer holidays in Hesse.
Mariia lives with her children with her sister, who has lived in Frankfurt for twenty years. Until Mariia gets the residence permit according to paragraph 24, she has to be patient. When she arrived in March, she had only a Ukrainian passport with no biometric data. There are two types of passports in Ukraine, one with and one without biometric data. She then applied for a biometric passport at the Ukrainian consulate in Germany. But it is made in the Ukraine and is still on the way to Germany. After all, a mere formality.
The deadline thing is complicated
Every war refugee must apply for a long-term visa or a residence permit in accordance with Section 24 within a period of time. For many, that deadline ends on August 31, but not for all. The deadline thing is complicated. Politicians have gone by sight, and the transition periods have been extended again and again. First it was May 23rd, but it was quickly decided that applications could be submitted until August 31st.
But the war is raging on with undiminished severity, which is why a new deadline has now been set: anyone who flees Ukraine to Germany by November 30 can stay here for 90 days, but must apply for a residence permit during this time. The idea is that the refugees will be registered faster.
