Immigration and Security Clearance

@Jinzo

I am afraid, the only thing you can do is wait.

While a number of nationalities (Canadian, US-American, Japanese, ...) are priviledged and can arrive in Germany on visitor entrance clearing received upon arrival, applying for work/residence permits in-country, situations like yours make it not advisable.

The immigration authority is waiting for clearance from one or more other government agencies and this will take as long as it takes, depending on the workload of those agencies and whether other situations take priority. Pestering the immigration authority is not going to make this go quicker, it will just make the civil servants there groan whenever your name comes up.

I don´t think you can claim lost income. It was your choice to arrive in Germany without a visa that allows you to work. Immigration applications are not a service you buy but an application that may or may not be granted - no guarantees, you have to meet the requirements. I´d think your lawyers would be in a much better position to advise you, though.

Maybe one of these organizations could advise you:

https://www.berlin.de/sen/soziales/serv … aldienste/

I am not sure whether it would do any good, but you could certainly contact the relevant authority of every country you have lived in for more than six months and request a criminal record check. You´d have to look up the procedure for each individual country.

I agree with ALKB above: Althoughit might be painful in your situation, there is nothing you can do but wait - and you have no claims against anyone (because getting the visa is not a right).

The Ausländeramts everywhere are overloaded, and especially so in Berlin, where most of the current refugees arrive. Recently, a friend of ours (in Stuttgart) gave up applying for a Job Seeker Visa (which would be valid for 6 months) after a one year wait.

The only alternative I see (and which ALKB already hinted at) is returning to your country and applying at the German embassy there. This might or might not be faster (possibly less backlog there) - certainly calling them and asking does no harm.

Thank you everyone, this is helpful and it seems as though waiting is the only option. I will contact the German Embassy in Canada to see if there are options if I apply there but that's probably a longshot.

Thank you everyone, this is helpful and it seems as though waiting is the only option. I will contact the German Embassy in Canada to see if there are options if I apply there but that's probably a longshot.
-@Jinzo

The german embassy in Canada will be only able to help you when you have applied an application in there. Only thing you can do is wait.