To receive citizen’s benefit, you must provide the following:

• a residence permit or
• a provisional residence permit (known as a “Fiktionsbescheinigung”, or a substitute certificate issued by the Foreign Residents’ Registration Office, as long as it was issued by 31st May 2022)

You are also required to fulfil other requirements to receive citizen’s benefit. You can find out what these are in the “Brief information on citizen’s benefit”, which you can download in English, Ukrainian and Russian on the following page: Information material to download

Fill out application

You are required to apply for citizen’s benefit at the Jobcenter. The forms that you require for this are only available in German. However, information to help you fill in the forms is also available in English, Ukrainian and Russian. You can download this information on the following page: Information material to download

In the application itself, you provide basic information, for example, on whether you live alone or have children to care for. Depending on how you live, you may have to provide information on additional forms which are referred to as enclosures. These are linked to the application. Please submit them in the Jobcenter together with your application. We can only process your application if all documents are complete.

Download application for citizen’s benefit

Further information on how to make an application is available on our webpage citizen’s benefit: Application and notice. This page is only available in German.

Sending documents to the Jobcenter

Send the completed and signed application to your responsible Jobcenter. You can do this by E-Mail or by post.

Once your application has been verified, you will receive a written reply from the Jobcenter by post.

Wichtig:To ensure that you receive the documents in the post, make sure that your surname is on your letterbox at your home address. If you live with family, friends or acquaintances, your name should also be attached to the letterbox. If this is not possible, please tell us the name of the family that you are staying with.

Apply online

You can use our service to send your application and any other documents directly to your Jobcenter:

You can find the address via the Jobcenter search option. To do this, enter the postcode for your place of residence in the search field:

Find Jobcenter

Applying for child benefit

Child benefit is available in Germany for children who have fled Ukraine. Child benefit is financial support to ensure that children are provided for. The key important information on this benefit is available on our page Child benefit for refugees from Ukraine.

To do this, please arrange a personal consultation appointment. If you have applied for citizen’s benefit, your contact partner is the Jobcenter. In all other cases, you can approach the Federal Employment Agency.

Tipp:If you speak little or no German: Make an appointment and say that you need an interpreter. You can also bring a person with you to the appointment whom you trust and who is able to translate for you.

The Federal Employment Agency or Jobcenter which is responsible for you depends on your place of residence. You can find the address via the service point search:

Find a service point

We can also support you with other issues, and are able to point you in the direction of additional contact points in Germany that can help you. Tell the advisor during your consultation if, for example, you ..

• are looking for a German course,
• need information on childcare,
• would like to have your qualifications recognised in Germany.