Germans abroad

German citizens may either

1. exercise their right to vote in the Federal Republic of Germany upon application, if they have lived for at least three months in the territories of the other European Union member states

or

2. participate in the European election in their member state of residence.

In that case, the regulations of the member state apply. For more information please contact the competent agency of the member state you live in.

Information on member states of the European Union is provided on the official website of the European Union.

Germans permanently living abroad who are not disqualified from voting are entitled to go to the polls if,

1. after reaching the age of 14 (which means from their 14^th birthday), they were either resident in the Federal Republic of Germany for an uninterrupted period of at least three months and this stay dates back not more than 25 years

or

2. for other reasons, they have become familiar, personally and directly, with the political situation in the Federal Republic of Germany and are affected by it.

You must have become “familiar” personally “with the political situation” in the Federal Republic of Germany directly and because of what you have experienced. Passively participating in communication, for instance by consuming German-language media abroad, does not suffice.

Your being “affected by the political situation” may result from the fact that you are currently subject to German sovereignty, but it is not restricted to that.

The municipal authority in charge decides whether someone is eligible to vote. An objection to this decision may be lodged in writing with the municipal authority or it may be dictated. A complaint about the decision then taken may be lodged with the district returning officer.

You may download the application form from this webpage as pdf file. It contains an information leaflet with instructions for completing the form.

Printed application forms are available from the district and town returning officers in the Federal Republic of Germany.

For Germans without a place of residence in the Federal Republic of Germany, the municipality in charge is the one they were last registered with before moving abroad.

A municipal authority in Berlin (‘Bezirksamt Mitte’) is responsible for German expatriates who have never lived in the domestic territory for a minimum of three months.

For the address of the respective municipal authority (except Hamburg and Berlin) please refer to the official List of Municipalities of the Federal Statistical Office or the homepage of your municipality. In Hamburg and Berlin, the authority in charge is the “Bezirksamt”.

The application has to bear the applicant’s personal handwritten signature; its original must be submitted to the competent municipal authority. The application must not be sent by e-mail or fax.

The application for entry into the voters’ register must have been received by the municipality in charge in Germany on the 21^st day before election at the latest (= 19 May 2024). This period cannot be extended.

Usually, the municipalities do not confirm receipt of the application by post. Your application for entry into the voters’ register also is an application for a polling card to be issued. You will automatically receive the postal ballot documents together with the polling card.

Because of long mail delivery times in the host country, the following German missions offer courier service for

1. applications for entry in the voters’ register to be sent from abroad to Germany and/or
2. postal allot documents to be sent by the election offices in Germany to the German missions abroad and/or
3. postal ballot letters to be sent back from abroad to the election offices in Germany.

When you use the official courier service, the Federal Foreign Office will not assume liability for any loss, damage or delayed delivery of electoral documents. The letters cannot be tracked. You may have to sign a disclaimer.

Applications for entry in the voters’ register are available several months before European Parliament election. Applicants can therefore make sure that their applications are received in time by the competent municipal authorities in Germany even though mail delivery times may be long in the host country. For that reason, only few German missions abroad (see column a of the above list) offer to send these applications by courier in exceptional cases. The letters have to be addressed to the respective German municipal authority and have sufficient postage on it (20g, € 0.85). We would recommend that you contact the respective German mission beforehand.

The German missions abroad in column b above offer courier service for postal ballot documents to be sent from the electoral offices in Germany to foreign countries, provided that you have contacted the competent German mission beforehand and arranged for the documents to be sent that way.

In that case, the procedure is as follows:

The electoral documents have to be contained in a separate envelope which has been sealed and clearly marked as containing such documents (“Wahlsache”) and bears the name(s) of the person(s) entitled to vote. That envelope is inserted into another one and sent, with sufficient postage for Germany, to the following address by the electoral office:

Federal Foreign Office
for Embassy/Consulate-General/Consulate (location)
Kurstraße 36
10117 Berlin
Germany.

Please make sure you point that out to your electoral office.

The Federal Foreign Office will pass the letter on by official courier service to the respective German mission abroad. There the documents will have to be collected by yourself or a proxy. The German missions in the respective countries will not send them to the persons entitled to vote. We would recommend that you contact the respective German mission in time to find out how long it takes for letters to be delivered via the official courier service, about their being retained for you and handed over to you.

In countries with a slow or unreliable postal system it may in exceptional cases be necessary to use the courier service for sending postal ballot letters back to ensure that they are received in time by the electoral offices (by 6 p.m. on election day). To make sure that the postal ballot letters which have been sent by courier can be passed on in time, they have to be received by the Courier Service of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin by Monday, 3 June 2024 at the latest. We would therefore recommend that you contact the respective German mission abroad (see column c of the list above) to find out by when the postal ballot letters have to be received there.

A ballot-box poll at the German missions would involve disproportionate effort for the missions and especially for German expatriates who are entitled to vote. For most of them it is much easier to cast their votes by postal ballot than at embassies or consulates as they might have to travel long distances to get to these German missions.

In addition, polling would have to end earlier than in Germany or delays be accepted when the provisional election result is established.

Germans living abroad may support a nomination of a party or political association with their supporting signature subject to the same conditions as persons entitled to vote who live in Germany.

As any other supporter, they must be eligible to vote for a list for all Länder in the federal territory or for a list for an individual Land in the respective Land. Therefore, to be able to vote in the European Parliament election in the first place, they have to file an application for entry in the voters’ register of the municipality where they had their last registered main residence before moving abroad.

After checking, the municipal authority of that municipality can confirm on the official form for supporting signatures (Annexes 14 of the European Electoral Regulations) that the German living abroad has the right to vote. There are no separate forms for that purpose.

This is the only way to ensure that current addresses are available for the mailing of postal voting documents. Such documents could only be posted automatically without prior application if the correct foreign addresses of those entitled to vote were known to the German authorities in charge before each election.

German expatriates are not obliged to inform the German authorities about residential moves, births of children, or deaths. Consequently, the population register data are not reliable. Part of the postal ballot documents sent by post may not be received by the addressees when addresses have changed or they may even fall into the wrong hands.

You may register with the Federal Foreign Office to be on a ‘List of Germans’ and provide an e-mail address.

https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/-krisenvorsorgeliste/387662