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red carrot

My friend has been living in Germany for 7 years and has a B1 language certificate. The issue he has is that he did not register his residence at the Town Hall for a year after he arrived in Germany. He arrived in Aug 2012 and registered in Dec 2013. The reason he did not register at first because he was living in a Weekend House and the town hall initially refused his application to register his residence, but eventually they did allow him to register.

Is there a way for him to prove his 7 year residence in Germany?

thanks

TominStuttgart

Sounds very unlikely. Not that he might not have a reason to complain if there was some kind of misunderstanding but in the end, the only thing that will generally count for the time of residency is from when it was made official. He can always plead his case if it is a question of qualifying for citizenship for example but I would not get my hopes up too high.  They would have to make a special exception and this will come down to a decision of a particular official, there is no way anybody can know with certainty how they will decide.

beppi

Not registering a residence is a punishable offense in Germany, as is living in a building not approved as residence.
Thus I recommend your friend keeps a low profile about this and only counts the time from after he lived here correctly in a legal sense.

beppi

You also sent me the exact same as private message.
Please refrain from sending private messages on this site to people you don't know.
If you also post the same on the forum, it is seen as SPAM and can get you banned.
But even if that does not happen, you are wasting the time of the site's volunteers like me. I now regret having replied and given you good advice!

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