The Award
On 4 November, the ‘International Organisations’ office of the Bonn Immigration Office was honoured as the best German immigration authority in the areas of “Accessibility” and ‘Processing time’. In the ‘Digitalisation’ category, the award went to the Welcome and Service Centre Essen. The Business Immigration Office Linz was honoured for the best ‘Service Orientation’. As the ‘Global Mobility’ expert panel sees the bottleneck in the immigration of skilled workers in the immigration authorities, the award highlights successful initiatives. These serve as best practices for other authorities.
The awards were presented at the Welcome Hotel in Neckarsulm as part of an exclusive dinner including ceremonial laudations by Dr Fritz Audebert, CEO & founder of ICUnet.AG, European market leader for intercultural consulting and global mobility services. They are based on a mixed-methods study conducted by ICUnet.AG in collaboration with Professor Dr Janina Klein, expert in Organisational Change in Public Institutions (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).
Best Practices in the Immigration Offices
According to Angelika Zilles from the ‘International Organisations’ office of the Bonn Immigration Office, excellent availability for her clients is always a top priority, both by phone and email and, above all, beyond normal working hours. Personal contact with the sending companies and organisations is also important in order to prepare everything in advance for the respective special clientele, for example scientists. The aim is therefore to harmonise customer orientation with the day-to-day business of the regulatory authorities.
According to Thomas Roßgatterer, the success of the Business Immigration Office Linz in Austria is due to its multicultural team, which has a particularly high level of language skills and receives excellent intercultural training. The aim is to act as a ‘business card for the city of Linz’ and to ensure a positive welcoming culture for skilled workers by meeting them on an equal footing. Every sending company and every posted person has different needs that need to be addressed individually. It is also important to accept feedback and critically scrutinise processes.
Ultimately, the core of the problem is the heterogeneity of processes in the authorities. Other authorities therefore often struggle with inadequate efficiency in processing times and suboptimal accessibility, which makes it difficult for highly qualified specialists to immigrate to Germany and Austria. This is in contrast to the increasingly well-functioning processes of digitalised visa issuing under the leadership of the Federal Foreign Office and the centralised issuing of work permits by the Federal Employment Agency.
To help counteract the shortage of skilled labour, ICUnet.AG will continue the scientifically backed project and present the award annually.
Further information on this topic:
Video message (german) from Professor Dr Janina Klein
Interview (german) with Mr Roßgatterer from the Business Immigration Office Linz
Interview (german) with Ms Zilles from the ‘International Organisations’ office of the Bonn Immigration Office
Query note / press contact:
Alessa Zehe | Teamlead Marketing & PR, ICUnet.AG
alessa.zehe@icunet.group | +49 851 988666-889
ICUnet.AG, Fritz-Schäffer-Promenade 1, 94032 Passau
*About the Expert Panel:
The ‘Global Mobility’ panel of experts organised by ICUnet.AG includes the well-known companies BMW, Merck Group, Schwarz Group, Henkel, RWE, Volkswagen, Barry Callebaut, OMV, Siemens, Evonik, Allianz and Sanofi. They meet four times a year to discuss topics relating to global mobility and the recruitment of skilled labour as well as the improvement of immigration processes.
**About ICUnet.AG:
Founded in Passau in 2001 and now represented in over 20 locations worldwide, ICUnet.AG is the European market leader for intercultural consulting and global mobility in over 75 countries.
The interdisciplinary and intercultural team of experts has already provided relocation and immigration services for 40,000+ professionals worldwide.
Having won more than 80 awards, ICUnet.AG is the most frequently honoured company in its sector, trusted by over 24 DAX companies, 22 Euro Stoxx companies and more than 450 medium-sized companies.
Find out more about immigration and our services on our Global Mobility Service Site.