Now possible to get Bürgeramt appointment within 2 weeks in Berlin

Berliners have long loved complaining about how hard it is to get a timely appointment at the citizens’ office (Bürgeramt). Has all that complaining just been proven fruitful?

Bürgeramt fulfilling basic requirements again

Anyone who has tried to find their feet in Berlin knows the toil of booking a Bürgeramt appointment: you have to register your address within two weeks of moving in, but the next appointment is in four months at 7.09am at a Bürgeramt one hour and 25 minutes from your house.

Now, the state government has announced that it's pulled up its socks. According to the Berlin Senate, in March 2026, everyone who wanted an appointment within two weeks got one. In some cases, Berliners even got a short-notice appointment on the same day or the next day. 

After entering office in April 2023, Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) had originally aimed to achieve the “14-day” goal by the end of 2023. In March 2023, the percentage of people booking a Bürgeramt appointment who got one in 14 days sat at 48,5 percent. This grew to 58,2 percent by March 2024 and to 74 percent by March 2025.

Digitalisation and more staff have made things easier

According to the State Secretary for Digitisation, Matthias Hundt (CDU), two factors have enabled Bürgerämter to fulfil their basic requirements once again.

In the past year, the state government has hired 100 new employees at Bürgerämter across the city. Increased digitisation of procedures also means that different Bürgerämter can work together more effectively, and some appointment processes have been digitised entirely, such as registering at a new address within Berlin (Ummeldung).