The Federal Foreign Office has decided to abolish the remonstration procedure for visa rejections worldwide from 1 July 2025.The most important information in summary:

• No more remonstration procedure from the 1st of July 2025
• If your visa application is rejected after the 01.07.2025, please do NOT send us any more remonstration letters. The Embassy will no longer reply to remonstrations after this date.
• You can take legal action against a rejection of your visa application by filing a complaint with the Berlin Administrative Court (in Germany).
  Please note: This must be done in German and involves court costs.
• Please note that, following a rejected visa application, a new application may be submitted at any time.
• The following applies more than ever:
  Complete documentation is essential in order to reduce the risk of rejection. Please read the information on our website concerning the respective documentation very carefully. If the visa office requests additional documents, please submit them in good time.

The abolition of the remonstration procedure eliminates a legal remedy in the visa application procedure that is not statutorily prescribed and which up to now has been granted voluntarily. This decision is based on a pilot project conducted in several German visa sections, where suspension of remonstrations for both Schengen visas and national visas was tested from 1 June 2023.

Evaluation of the pilot project has shown that Dispensing with the remonstration procedure has released considerable staff capacity in visa sections in some cases, freeing up staff to process more visa applications. As a result, it has been possible to process both more national and more Schengen visa applications and to reduce waiting times compared to the same period in the previous year.

The processing of a greater number of visa applications and a reduction in waiting times benefits all applicants. Adequate legal protection will also be guaranteed in the future, for judicial review under law will not be limited by the abolition of the remonstration procedure. Furthermore, it goes without saying that all applicants have the option of submitting a new visa application at any time in the case of a rejection.

With the option to apply online via the Consular Services Portal available worldwide since 1 January 2025, applicants also receive clear and intuitive step-by-step guidance through the application process to ensure that they submit complete (digital) applications. Experience from the online application pilot project has shown that this significantly improves the quality of the procedure and avoids delays caused by incomplete applications.
(currently applicable for student visas and opportunity cards at the Embassy in London and the Consulate General in Edinburgh, and for Blue Card-applications at our VAC TLSContact)