Shortly before the immigration law for skilled workers began, the SPD-led Foreign Office's visa policy came under fire. Opposition parties, but also the Union, criticize that foreign specialists have to wait too long for their visas.
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"We are skeptical that the efforts of the Federal Foreign Office are sufficient to meet the needs of the economy for skilled workers," said Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction, the SPIEGEL. "We expect Heiko Maas and the interior authorities to make additional efforts."
The lack of staff in the embassies leads to long visa waiting times, complained also Greens foreign politician Omid Nouripour. The FDP Group's foreign policy spokesman, Bijan Djir-Sarai, criticized: "There have always been structural problems with visa processing, unfortunately Mr Maas has not made an active contribution to resolving them." When it came to budget consultations, there was no great interest in the political head of the Federal Foreign Office to better equip the diplomatic missions abroad.
The Federal Foreign Office (AA) points out that the "human and spatial capacities" have been expanded and the waiting times for specialists at many representations have been reduced.
109 additional jobs will be created in the coming year. In addition, an accelerated procedure will be introduced at the start of the law in early March. "With this, the future employer in Germany can request a preliminary check from the relevant immigration office, thereby significantly reducing the processing time at the embassies," said the Foreign Ministry.
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