🇩🇪 Regulated immigration advisors for Federal Republic of Germany

Who regulates immigration advice in Federal Republic of Germany

Anyone you pay for immigration advice should appear on one of these registers. Checking the register is free, takes a minute, and is the single most effective thing you can do to avoid an unregulated adviser.

• Bundesweites Amtliches Anwaltsverzeichnis (Official Register of Lawyers) (BRAV)

  The official, free, searchable register of every Rechtsanwalt admitted in Germany. Check any paid immigration adviser here before instructing them — under the Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz, paid immigration legal advice is reserved to admitted lawyers.

• Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (BRAK)

  Federal Bar Association — oversight body for the regional bar associations (Rechtsanwaltskammern) that admit the lawyers authorised to give immigration advice.

Germany has no register of licensed "immigration advisers", because no such licence exists. Under § 3 of the Rechtsdienstleistungsgesetz, paid legal advice is prohibited unless the law expressly permits it, and the only registration regime (§ 10 RDG) covers debt collection, pension advice and foreign law — not immigration. So paid immigration advice is for admitted lawyers (Rechtsanwälte), whom you can look up in the official register above. The free state-funded Migrationsberatung services advise under a separate statutory permission (§ 8 RDG). A paid "visa consultant" who is not a lawyer holds no licence, because there is none to hold. Free official advice: the "Working and Living in Germany" hotline on +49 30 1815-1111 (Mon–Thu 9am–4pm, Fri 9am–12pm, German or English) covers visas, qualification recognition and job search.

When professional advice is worth it

Most straightforward applications do not need a paid advisor. The official guidance and the source links on this site are enough. Advice tends to pay for itself when a case carries a real risk of refusal, or when a refusal would be expensive to undo:

• A previous refusal, overstay, or any adverse immigration history.
• Criminal convictions, or questions about character and conduct.
• Your circumstances do not fit the standard case — unusual employment, complex family situations, or evidence you cannot obtain in the normal form.
• A sponsor, employer or institution is giving you advice that contradicts the official guidance.
• The rule you depend on is mid-reform and the published guidance is ambiguous.
• A deadline is close enough that a single mistake cannot be corrected in time.

Fees vary widely and nobody can promise you an outcome. Any advisor who guarantees approval is a reason to walk away.

Verified advisors for Federal Republic of Germany