Fraudsters selling fake German integration certificates online, investigation finds

An investigation by Stern and RTL has found a market of fake German integration certificates being sold online for around 1.500 euros per certificate.

Fraudsters selling fake German certificates online

An investigation by journalists at German magazine Stern and public broadcaster RTL has uncovered an online market of fake German integration certificates being sold to internationals in the federal republic.

According to the publications, fraudsters are selling fake certificates for Germany’s integration test (known as the Leben in Deutschland test) and citizenship test (Einbürgerungstest) via TikTok, Instagram and encrypted messaging apps for around 1.500 euros per certificate.

Most internationals in Germany need to prove that they have passed one of the above tests as part of an application for permanent residence or German citizenship. Taking these tests only costs around 25 euros, but finding an available spot to take the test has become harder since Germany relaxed its citizenship law in June 2024.

With no official figures on how many applications contain forged documents, during the investigation, journalists attempted to buy the certificates online and interviewed police and administrative employees.

German adminstrative staff are stretched

Since Germany chose to allow dual citizenship to non-EU nationals, the number of citizenship applications has soared. In 2024, Germany naturalised 249.901 people, more than in any single year since 2000. 

Meanwhile, German immigration services are being hit by the country’s record-high worker shortage and struggling to process applications in a timely manner. Due to a lack of staff, some applicants wait over a year in administrative limbo to find out if their application has been accepted, and it is harder to spot falsified documents.

Speaking to Stern and RTL, an administrative employee in North Rhine-Westphalia said that an “inexperienced employee would never recognise that a certificate was faked. They would have no chance.”

The market for forged integration certificates is the newest example of fraudsters taking advantage of internationals’ insecure migration status and Germany’s overburdened administrative systems. In 2023, Tagesspiegel reported that an opportunistic IT specialist was selling appointments at the foreigners’ office (Ausländerbehörde) for between 40 and 100 euros.