Already in Berlin

Changing your status, staying long term, citizenship and your Chinese passport, free help.

According to the Berlin statistics office, 16,854 people with Chinese citizenship (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) were registered in Berlin on 31 December 2025.

If you are here and something changed

• Studies finished: § 20 AufenthG gives you up to 18 months to look for a job matching your degree. You may work without restriction during that time.
• Job lost: talk to LEA before your permit expires, not after.
• Training place lost through no fault of your own: up to 6 months to find a new one, see Ausbildung.
• Switching route – for example from Opportunity Card to a skilled-worker permit: normally done at LEA from inside Germany. For a language-course visa, a change of purpose needs a new permit and is checked case by case, see Language course.

Staying long term

• Settlement permit: § 9 after 5 years; skilled workers (§§ 18a, 18b) after 3 years with German at B1 and 36 months of pension contributions, or after 2 years and 24 months of contributions if you completed training or studies in Germany (§ 18c (1)); Blue Card holders after 27 months with German at A1, or 21 months with B1 (§ 18c (2)).
• German citizenship: § 10 StAG after 5 years. The 3-year fast track was abolished on 30 October 2025. Germany allows multiple citizenship, but China does not: naturalising in Germany means automatically losing Chinese nationality (Nationality Law Art. 9). See Chinese rules.

Free help in Berlin

• Willkommenszentrum Berlin – general orientation, several languages.
• MBE – free advice for adult migrants.
• BEMA (Beratungsstelle für Migration und Gute Arbeit) – free advice on employment rights. Go here if you are paid less than agreed, work unpaid hours, or your employer keeps your passport.
• Embassy of the PRC in Berlin – passports, Chinese documents, consular help.