The Federal Chancellery’s new “EinfachMachen” (Make It Simple) portal went live this week, inviting citizens and businesses to report bureaucratic hurdles in real time. Although pitched broadly, the site’s early submissions show a flood of complaints about residence-permit paperwork, driver-licence swaps and cross-border tax certificates—classic pain-points for globally mobile staff.
Users can log issues anonymously and vote on others’ posts; the most-upvoted obstacles will feed into a spring 2026 legislative-slimming package. Digital-government minister Sarah Ryglewski says the tool aims to “tap the collective intelligence of those who fight forms every day.”
For mobility teams the portal offers a chance to shape policy: several relocation firms have already encouraged expatriates to flag the multi-step Anmeldung (address-registration) process and the patchwork of appointment portals across Germany’s 16 states. The hope is that public pressure will accelerate long-planned digitisation of foreigners’ offices.
![Germany launches ‘EinfachMachen’ portal to crowd-source bureaucracy cuts, including mobility pain-points]()
As a practical stop-gap, employers and mobile professionals may turn to specialist facilitators like VisaHQ (https://www.visahq.com/germany/), which offers end-to-end support for German visas, residence permits and related documentation. The platform delivers personalised checklists, tracks application milestones and can even coordinate embassy appointments across federal states, helping assignees avoid the very pitfalls now being catalogued on EinfachMachen.
The launch coincides with the annual bundle of New-Year legal changes. Among them, Germany’s unified € 63 monthly ‘Deutschlandticket’ rail pass is now enshrined in law through 2030, and holders of 1999-2001 driving licences have until 19 January 2026 to exchange them for the new 15-year biometric card—another item on HR checklists for long-term assignees.
While the portal itself does not change rules overnight, its data dashboard offers a real-time barometer of where red tape bites. Companies with large assignee populations may wish to designate a coordinator to monitor emerging trends and join the consultation rounds planned for the summer.
Users can log issues anonymously and vote on others’ posts; the most-upvoted obstacles will feed into a spring 2026 legislative-slimming package. Digital-government minister Sarah Ryglewski says the tool aims to “tap the collective intelligence of those who fight forms every day.”
For mobility teams the portal offers a chance to shape policy: several relocation firms have already encouraged expatriates to flag the multi-step Anmeldung (address-registration) process and the patchwork of appointment portals across Germany’s 16 states. The hope is that public pressure will accelerate long-planned digitisation of foreigners’ offices.
As a practical stop-gap, employers and mobile professionals may turn to specialist facilitators like VisaHQ (https://www.visahq.com/germany/), which offers end-to-end support for German visas, residence permits and related documentation. The platform delivers personalised checklists, tracks application milestones and can even coordinate embassy appointments across federal states, helping assignees avoid the very pitfalls now being catalogued on EinfachMachen.
The launch coincides with the annual bundle of New-Year legal changes. Among them, Germany’s unified € 63 monthly ‘Deutschlandticket’ rail pass is now enshrined in law through 2030, and holders of 1999-2001 driving licences have until 19 January 2026 to exchange them for the new 15-year biometric card—another item on HR checklists for long-term assignees.
While the portal itself does not change rules overnight, its data dashboard offers a real-time barometer of where red tape bites. Companies with large assignee populations may wish to designate a coordinator to monitor emerging trends and join the consultation rounds planned for the summer.
