The waiting room in the Neukölln district office Photo: Christian Lohse
By Sara Orlos Fernandes
Citizens’ office appointment on Blaschkoallee for Franziska Giffey (44, SPD) – yesterday the Governing Mayor accompanied a customer to the driver’s license exchange. For this you have to go to the office in the future, but other concerns should be simplified.
In the coming weeks and months, the Senate intends to advance digitization in the citizen registration offices. High time, think many Berliners who are annoyed by the paper bureaucracy and waiting for appointments.
Summit meeting in the Neukölln Citizens’ Registration Office: Director Andrea Lange (59), Digital State Secretary Ralf Kleindiek (57, SPD), District Mayor Martin Hikel (36, SPD) and the governing Franziska Giffey (44, SPD, from left)
Photo: Christian Lohse
So far, the only completely digital administrative service is the application for a certificate of good conduct. The application can be filled out at home and then sent online.
235 other concerns are offered online, but the applications must be printed out and signed by hand. “One goal is to make the electronic signature secure enough that it works and you don’t have to print out the forms and sign them,” Giffey said.
- Before the time comes, 30 new digital administration services are to be offered this year. Among other things, re-registrations, registrations and the application for advance maintenance payments are then possible digitally and without visiting the Citizens’ Registration Office.
- If you need an on-site appointment, you shouldn’t wait more than two weeks. The 14-day target has been guaranteed for the end of this year. So that more appointments can be offered, Neukölln wants to increase the staff with temporary staff from the elective offices.
- The non-comer rate of 20 to 25 percent is to be reduced in order to increase the number of appointments available. “In Neukölln the rate is 30 percent. The bad thing is that many book several appointments in one week and then don’t come,” says Andrea Lange, head of the Neukölln Citizens’ Registration Office. That is why we are currently working on an appointment reminder via cell phone. There is also the consideration that in the future only one appointment can be booked per person and concern.
- Collection of identity cards and passports could be possible with power of attorney. Digital State Secretary Ralf Kleindiek (57) goes even further: “We want the federal law to be amended so that ID cards no longer have to be picked up in person. You can also send them by post like in Switzerland.”
However, the administration considers a complete digitization of all services in the citizen registration offices to be unlikely. For services such as applying for an ID card or passport, there would always have to be an on-site verification of the person due to federal regulations. “We’re not an Amazon order for socks,” Giffey said.
That’s how long Berliners wait for an appointment
Elisabeth W. (33): “I needed a certified copy today. I booked the appointment this morning. Between 7 and 8 am I kept updating the page. It never worked with the calendar function, but everything is always gone. Some things like applying for an ID card could be digitized” Photo: Christian Lohse
Claudia K. (60): “I need an ID card and have been calling 115 for weeks and waiting in the queue for hours. At some point it was said that appointments would not be made until March. This is a waste of lifetime of every single citizen” Photo: Christian Lohse
Mohamed Ali (23): “It’s my first time in Berlin at the Citizens’ Registration Office. In Tunisia you can do something like that without an appointment. Today I signed up and I find it more practical if I could do the homework with my mobile phone” Photo: Christian Lohse
Veronika P. (59): “I’ve been looking for an appointment to exchange my driver’s license since the end of November. There was never anything free in the calendar function. It’s a disaster. I wish I could do something like this digitally. That’s the simplest thing” Photo: Christian Lohse