Asylum under 18

After your arrival in Germany, the local youth office is responsible for you. You will have a caretaker who will sort out your accommodation. If you have relatives in Germany, it might be possible for you to live with them. If not, you will be accommodated in a foster family, with a residential group or in an asylum home. This is called “Inobhutnahme” which roughly translates to “taking into care”. Before you end up with your actual caretaker, there is still a few steps to go through.

The Youth Office for example initiates a Clearing procedure (“Clearingverfahren”) which works differently in each estate. The first step of this procedure is often the First Screening (“Erstscreening”) which includes a medical examination and some tests for age assessment. Usually, you will be transferred to one of the 16 states within 14 days of your arrival (“Bundesweite Umverteilung”). During the clearing process, the Foreigners' Registration Office ("Ausländerbehörde") will clarify your residency status.

Minors are subject to different laws comparing to adults. That is why your exact age is very important for German authorities. In most cases, they will check your age ("Altersfestsetzung"), and they might not believe your own statement if you cannot provide an ID or a birth certificate that confirm your age. Various methods are used to determine the age, but they cannot provide 100% accurate results. If you think that your estimated age is not correct, with the help of your guardian you can apply for another medical examination.

If you're under 18, you are more than often restricted from making legal decisions, so you won’t be able to apply for asylum personally. For this reason, you need a representative or "guardian" ("Vormund"). The Youth Welfare office ("Jugendamt") and the family court are responsible for finding you a guardian. There are various types of guardianship. The most common are official and voluntary guardianship: An official guardian is, in fact, an employee of the Youth Welfare Office and often supervises several young people. An honorary guardian is a someone who does this work voluntarily and earns no money from it. If you have friends or relatives in Germany, they can also take over as your guardian.

If you are under 18 and have entered Germany unaccompanied, you will often be issued a residence permit for "Tolerated Stay" ("Duldung"). That means the Youth Welfare Office is responsible for you and in principle, you should not be deported. For you to permanently remain in Germany, your guardian or the Youth Welfare Office must apply for an asylum or a "Residence Permit for humanitarian reasons" on your behalf. You can read more about different types of protection for refugees in Right of Residence chapter. But you cannot do this on your own because you have to be an adult to apply officially.

If you are under 18 years old and an unaccompanied in Germany, in principle you could not be deported. Only if one of your parents in your home country, another person with legal parental rights or a “suitable care facility” officially guarantees in writing to take care of you, it would be possible to deport you from Germany. That is specified in the article 58 of the Residence Act. Deportation to another EU country based on the Dublin law does not apply to unaccompanied minors.

If you prefer to live in a family rather than a youth centre, you should inform your caretaker. The youth office will then look for a suitable family. This does not mean, however, that it will always work. If a family is found that wants to accommodate you, the adults can either become your Foster Parents ("Pflegeeltern") or your Adoptive Parents ("Adoptiveltern"):

• Foster parents do not have the exclusive parental rights to care for a child. Such right will stay in the hands of biological parents or the Youth Welfare Office. Therefore, foster parents can only decide about everyday life issues. They are paid for their service.
• If you are adopted, you will legally become the child of your adoptive parents. You will have your parents' family name and German nationality. If your biological parents are still alive, they must agree to the adoption, because they would lose their legal parental rights afterwards.

Sponsors are volunteer caretakers. They can, for example, help you with your homework or spend their free time with you. That can help you to learn German faster, make new friends or have fun. You can find out more about sponsorship here.

As an unaccompanied under-age refugee (UMF), you have the right to go to school or start a training course immediately after your arrival. Up to a certain age (in most of the Federal States up to the age of 18) you have to attend school. The German school system is rather complicated. Each state has its own fugitive-specific classes, and they even have different names (e.g., "Willkommenklasse", "Vorbereitungsklasse", or "Vorqualifizierungsklasse"). If you are older than 16, you may not be able to choose your own school, but you will have to visit a particular class for preparation. As all this is quite complicated, you should decide together with your foster parents, caregivers or your guardian which school is the best for you. You can also consult the Youth Migration Service ("Jugendmigrationsdienst") in your area and read more about your schooling options on www.willkommen-bei-freunden.de.

accordion text: If you are looking for your parents or other family members, you can contact the following relief organizations:

• The search service of the German Red Cross (GRC Tracing Service) finds and unites families in Germany and worldwide
• On the online portal of REFUNITE, you can search for missing relatives. To register, you only need to provide your phone number.

On the online platform Trace the Face, you can start your search with just a picture. If you recognise your family member, they can connect you with them directly

The Reunification with the family members who live in Germany or Europe is regulated by article 8 of the Dublin III law. Reunification with the family who lives outside Europe is conducted based on Section 36 of the Residence Act. In principle, it is not easy to bring your family to Germany. Just like the case of the asylum application, you cannot apply for the family reunion on your own. It should be done by your guardian. 

When you reach the legal age, you will lose your protection against deportation if you have not applied for or got an asylum already. Here is when you should decide if you want to apply for asylum. If you, for example, come from a so-called safe country of origin, it may be better not to request asylum so you would be legally permitted to start a vocational training or "Ausbildung" in Germany (as specified in the Article 60a paragraph 2 sentence 4 of German Residence Act). The best way is to clarify all these questions with the help of a lawyer before you turn 18 years old. You can find the relevant contact details at the Refugee Council ("Flüchtlingsrat") or the Youth Migration Service.

Your guardian and the Youth Welfare Office are no longer responsible for you after your 18th birthday, and you can make legal decisions yourself. You may have to move out of your community accommodation, face restricted healthcare service and less or no support in education and training.

Under certain conditions, you may also apply for a "request for an extension of assistance". If accepted, you will get support up to your 21st birthday. You will receive this help only if you can prove that you really need it. For such assistance, you must apply together with your guardian before your 18th birthday.