Germany’s lower house of parliament adopted a far-reaching package of immigration measures on 6 December 2025 that will fundamentally change the way Berlin handles asylum claims, deportations and naturalisation.
The centre-right/centre-left coalition used its majority to delete a long-standing requirement that the Bundesrat (upper chamber) must sign off before the government can classify another state as a “safe country of origin”. In future, the interior and foreign ministries will be able to add countries by executive ordinance—a move government sources say will start with Algeria, India, Morocco and Tunisia. Because applications from “safe” countries can be rejected as “manifestly unfounded”, officials expect average processing times for those cases to fall from eleven to four weeks, freeing up capacity for more complex protection claims.
![Bundestag Passes Sweeping Migration & Citizenship Reform, Easing ‘Safe-Country’ Designations]()
The same bill abolishes the right to state-funded legal counsel for migrants held in deportation detention. Proponents argue the step will curb what they call “last-minute procedural abuse”, while migration-advocacy NGO Pro Asyl warns that vulnerable detainees will lose meaningful access to justice. A new requirement that anyone who tries to obtain German citizenship fraudulently must wait ten years before re-applying was also introduced, underscoring the coalition’s tougher stance on integrity of naturalisation.
Business-immigration practitioners are watching closely. Faster resolution of low-success asylum claims could, in theory, shorten queues at foreigners’ offices and free staffing resources for work-visa processing—something chambers of commerce have long demanded. At the same time, the harsher detention rules may oblige global-mobility teams to review duty-of-care policies for rejected transferees or family members who lose status.
The legislation now heads to the Bundesrat for information only; because the consent clause has been removed, the upper chamber cannot block it. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the reform “restores the state’s capacity to act”, while Green and Left MPs vowed to challenge parts of the law in the Constitutional Court. Companies should therefore expect further legal uncertainty well into 2026, even as the first ordinances on safe-country listings are expected in the first quarter.
The centre-right/centre-left coalition used its majority to delete a long-standing requirement that the Bundesrat (upper chamber) must sign off before the government can classify another state as a “safe country of origin”. In future, the interior and foreign ministries will be able to add countries by executive ordinance—a move government sources say will start with Algeria, India, Morocco and Tunisia. Because applications from “safe” countries can be rejected as “manifestly unfounded”, officials expect average processing times for those cases to fall from eleven to four weeks, freeing up capacity for more complex protection claims.
The same bill abolishes the right to state-funded legal counsel for migrants held in deportation detention. Proponents argue the step will curb what they call “last-minute procedural abuse”, while migration-advocacy NGO Pro Asyl warns that vulnerable detainees will lose meaningful access to justice. A new requirement that anyone who tries to obtain German citizenship fraudulently must wait ten years before re-applying was also introduced, underscoring the coalition’s tougher stance on integrity of naturalisation.
Business-immigration practitioners are watching closely. Faster resolution of low-success asylum claims could, in theory, shorten queues at foreigners’ offices and free staffing resources for work-visa processing—something chambers of commerce have long demanded. At the same time, the harsher detention rules may oblige global-mobility teams to review duty-of-care policies for rejected transferees or family members who lose status.
The legislation now heads to the Bundesrat for information only; because the consent clause has been removed, the upper chamber cannot block it. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the reform “restores the state’s capacity to act”, while Green and Left MPs vowed to challenge parts of the law in the Constitutional Court. Companies should therefore expect further legal uncertainty well into 2026, even as the first ordinances on safe-country listings are expected in the first quarter.
