Description

The German residence permit (German: Aufenthaltstitel) is a document issued to non-EU citizens (so-called third-country nationals) living in Germany.

A German residence card is valid for a certain period of time and is issued for a certain purpose:

residence for educational purposes
residence for the purpose of economic activity
residence under international law or on humanitarian grounds
residence for family reasons

Additional provisions (e.g. whether the resident is allowed to work) are stored on the chip. Since 1 September 2011, the residence permit is issued as ID-1 (credit card size) plastic cards with an embedded RFID chip. It is covered with multi-colour guillochés and appears pink-blue from the distance. All information on it is given only in German (except for the English words residence permit). The residence permit contains a RFID chip. The chip stores the information given on the document (like name or date of birth), the holder’s picture with signature.