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South Africans in Germany

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Applying for your passport in Germany

When you apply for your new South African passport in Germany, you have to apply at either the South African Embassy in Berlin or the Consulate in Munich, depending on where you live. If you apply for your children’s passports, please read about who should be present and sign the application here

Official information on the Consulate’s website

After submitting your application, the documents are sent to South Africa, and when your new passport is sent back to Germany you will get a notification that you can come collect your passport. It is important to apply for your new passport well in advance, at least a year before the expiry date. The embassy or consulate cannot influence the processing time.

Booking your appointment

All South African citizens / applicants requiring civic services, and who reside in Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Niedersachsen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, Thüringen shall approach the South African Embassy in Berlin: Tiergartenstr. 18, 10785 Berlin
All South African citizens/applicants requiring civic services, and who reside in Bayern and Baden-Wuerttemberg shall approach the South African Consulate-General in Munich: Sendlinger-Tor-Platz 5, 80336 Munich 

To schedule an appointment at the Munich Consulate, please send an email to: Munich.CivicApp@dirco.gov.za
To schedule an appointment at the Berlin Embassy, please send an email to: Berlin.Consular@dirco.gov.za

All requests for appointments must contain the following information:

  1.  The subject line of the email: Appointment request
  2. Applicant’s first name and surname
  3. Applicant’s date and place of birth
  4. Applicant’s South African identity number
  5.  Application type e.g. passport
  6.  Contact details (Address + mobile phone number)
Reference – SA Citizen Services Consular Business hours for civic services
For more information see the SA Citizen Services page of the Embassy
 
Tip: Check your email spam folder as the reply email from the embassy might end up there

Checklist of what you need

  • Here is a list of what you need to apply for an Adult passport (over 16 years of age)
  • The list for a child passport can be found here

Please note that you need to take your current passport with you, as well as copies (See links above). Your current passport will be returned to you. The following statement is on the application checklist.

  • The applicant’s original passport must be submitted regardless of whether the current passport is full or expired or the applicant’s forename and/or surname has been amended – the original passport will be given back to the applicant
  • The applicant may continue to use her or his current passport during the processing of the new passport.

German residence permit linked to old passport

I found information with regards to traveling with a new passport, while your residence permit is linked to your old passport, on the Berlin website:
 
“Re-entry to Germany is easy if your residence permit is still valid and you still have the old passport.

Take your old and new passports and your residence permit with you on your trip.
However, we recommend that you enquire about the entry and exit conditions of the country you are visiting before you travel abroad (for example at the embassy of the country you are visiting)

Legal basis –  Gesetze §3, §4 and §13 AufenthG Art 5

Additional information

General information about South African passports is available on the website of the Department of Home Affairs

Information on the Info document from the Embassy

– All applicants must submit photocopies of personal documents together with the original documents e.g. passports, identity documents, birth marriage and death certificates, and divorce decrees – the photocopies would be certified by a consular official free of charge and the original personal documents returned / handed back to the applicants. Alternatively, applicants may submit copies of personal documents which have been certified by a German notary public (Notar) or the relevant German authorities.

– Applications submitted at the Embassy in Berlin or Consulate-General in Munich are sent free of charge to the Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria, where applications are finalised and new documents issued, with the diplomatic freight bag once a month. In the case of urgent applications, applicants may normally opt to organise and pay for a courier service to collect their applications from our office and have it delivered directly to the Department in Pretoria – this courier option is unfortunately not available currently due to the Corona pandemic.

– After the application has been sent to the Department of Home Affairs in Pretoria, it may take up to 6 months for the application to be finalised and the newly issued document to reach the office of application / South African mission abroad. Status / progress reports are not provided to applicants by the mission during the above-mentioned processing period; applicants may however contact the Department of Home Affairs Contact Centre themselves about their application status: hacc@dha.gov.za.

– As soon as the newly issued document reaches the office of application / South African mission abroad, it would be mailed to the applicant in the self-addressed envelope provided, or the applicants would be duly notified. In the case of passport applications, the applicant would be requested to return his or her current valid tourist passport for cancellation; cancelled passports would thereafter be returned to applicants together with their new passport.

– Due to the long-term nature of applications / processing period, applicants are kindly requested to keep our office informed of any change of address during the processing period.

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