"Work and Stay" agency only a digital fig leaf instead of progress

Over before anything has even happened. Anyone who had hoped that the federal government would finally get serious about reforming and centralizing migration procedures with the coalition agreement will be disappointed by the current response to Bundestag document 21/1312 . Instead of a genuine redesign of migration administration, the plan appears to have shrunk to a minimum of change: a digital veneer for a system that is structurally overwhelmed in many areas .

The answer to questions 29 to 29c states that the coalition agreement envisages "removing bureaucratic hurdles," for example, through consistent digitalization, centralization of processes, and accelerated recognition of professional qualifications . To this end, a digital agency for skilled immigration —the so-called " Work and Stay Agency "—with a central IT platform will be created as a single point of contact for foreign skilled workers. This agency will consolidate processes for labor migration and the recognition of professional and academic qualifications and integrate them with the structures in the federal states. The federal government is currently coordinating the specific design and timeline.

What sounds ambitious at first glance turns out, upon closer inspection, to be nothing more than an IT project that fails to solve the fundamental problems . The lack of uniform responsibilities between the federal, state, and local governments, confusing procedures for applicants and companies, and understaffing at foreign missions and immigration authorities remain. Digitalization alone cannot solve these problems, especially if it is not combined with genuine centralization of procedures and clear, legally compliant processes.

Anyone who deals with the real hurdles of skilled immigration on a daily basis knows: without clear responsibilities, efficient workflows, and competent administrators, even the most beautiful platform becomes an empty shell. What Germany urgently needs is more than just a "work-and-stay agency." What is needed are unified decision-making bodies, binding deadlines for processing, and, above all, more qualified staff in the relevant authorities. Everything else remains a digital cloak that at best conceals structural deficiencies but does not eliminate them.

The opportunity for genuine procedural optimization thus appears to have been lost – at least for the time being. Anyone who had hoped that the federal government would consistently modernize immigration procedures will have to remain patient. Until real reforms come, the announced revolution in administrative processes remains little more than a promise that, in practice, is thwarted by the reality of the authorities.

The Bundestag document 21/1312 can be found here: https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/013/2101312.pdf