While much of Germany’s digital administration agenda lags behind schedule, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has quietly rolled out one of Europe’s most ambitious blockchain deployments in the public sector. According to documents obtained by netzpolitik.org and confirmed on 12 February 2026, the authority has already spent €25.7 million developing and operating FLORA—short for “Föderale Blockchain Infrastruktur Asyl”. Nearly half of all asylum files opened in 2025 were processed through the system.
First piloted in Saxony and Brandenburg in 2021, FLORA now links seven Länder and allows local foreigners’ authorities to pull up a claimant’s biometric and procedural status—from initial registration to the formal BAMF interview—on a tamper-evident ledger built on Hyperledger Fabric. Bayern, North-Rhine Westphalia and Berlin are next in line, with nationwide coverage targeted for 2027. Ambitions to extend the platform to EU-wide Dublin responsibility checks have been “placed on hold” after Brussels budget rows and French disengagement.
Companies and individuals navigating Germany’s broader immigration and travel rules don’t have to wait for government IT upgrades: specialist providers such as VisaHQ already consolidate the latest visa and permit requirements in one place and offer application support online. Their Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) can be a quick starting point for HR teams that suddenly need to onboard talent once FLORA accelerates asylum approvals.
![BAMF sinks €25 million into ‘FLORA’ blockchain as 47 % of German asylum cases go digital]()
BAMF says FLORA will be vital once the EU’s overhauled Common European Asylum System enters into force in June 2026, cutting key decision deadlines from six months to 12 weeks. Critics note that the project’s original budget was €4.5 million and question blockchain’s added value versus conventional databases. A 2024 academic audit flagged centralisation creep: although designed as a decentralised ledger, most Länder opted to let BAMF host the nodes to avoid local IT overhead, shifting cost and data-protection responsibility back to the federal level.
For employers the news matters because faster, digitally traceable asylum decisions reduce the grey-area limbo in which many applicants seek work permission. HR departments in shortage-hit sectors such as healthcare may see earlier access to the labour pool—provided FLORA shortens processing times as advertised. Yet privacy officers should watch how federated authorities access sensitive personal data; the system stores fingerprints and interview transcripts for at least ten years.
A parliamentary technology committee has summoned BAMF’s CIO for March hearings, signalling fresh scrutiny of cost overruns and governance. Until then, global-mobility teams should note that Germany’s asylum back office is ahead of many consular IT projects—and that blockchain in public immigration workflows is moving from buzzword to billion-row reality.
First piloted in Saxony and Brandenburg in 2021, FLORA now links seven Länder and allows local foreigners’ authorities to pull up a claimant’s biometric and procedural status—from initial registration to the formal BAMF interview—on a tamper-evident ledger built on Hyperledger Fabric. Bayern, North-Rhine Westphalia and Berlin are next in line, with nationwide coverage targeted for 2027. Ambitions to extend the platform to EU-wide Dublin responsibility checks have been “placed on hold” after Brussels budget rows and French disengagement.
Companies and individuals navigating Germany’s broader immigration and travel rules don’t have to wait for government IT upgrades: specialist providers such as VisaHQ already consolidate the latest visa and permit requirements in one place and offer application support online. Their Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) can be a quick starting point for HR teams that suddenly need to onboard talent once FLORA accelerates asylum approvals.
BAMF says FLORA will be vital once the EU’s overhauled Common European Asylum System enters into force in June 2026, cutting key decision deadlines from six months to 12 weeks. Critics note that the project’s original budget was €4.5 million and question blockchain’s added value versus conventional databases. A 2024 academic audit flagged centralisation creep: although designed as a decentralised ledger, most Länder opted to let BAMF host the nodes to avoid local IT overhead, shifting cost and data-protection responsibility back to the federal level.
For employers the news matters because faster, digitally traceable asylum decisions reduce the grey-area limbo in which many applicants seek work permission. HR departments in shortage-hit sectors such as healthcare may see earlier access to the labour pool—provided FLORA shortens processing times as advertised. Yet privacy officers should watch how federated authorities access sensitive personal data; the system stores fingerprints and interview transcripts for at least ten years.
A parliamentary technology committee has summoned BAMF’s CIO for March hearings, signalling fresh scrutiny of cost overruns and governance. Until then, global-mobility teams should note that Germany’s asylum back office is ahead of many consular IT projects—and that blockchain in public immigration workflows is moving from buzzword to billion-row reality.
