Human rights activists reported that Germany has actually stopped issuing humanitarian visas to Russians and Belarusians, despite the announcement of the resumption of the procedure

The German authorities have stopped processing and issuing humanitarian visas to citizens of Russia and Belarus, although formally this procedure is considered valid. This was reported by human rights organizations at a meeting in the Berlin office of the Association for the Defense of Human Rights Human Rights Watch , as reported by Deutsche Welle and members of the SaveHumVisa22 campaign.

Citizens of Russia and Belarus from 2022 could obtain a humanitarian visa in Germany through an accelerated procedure. Documents were issued to those who were at “special risk” in their home countries due to “commitment to the fight against war, as well as for democracy and human rights, or because of actions critical of the regime.”

In July 2025, the German Ministry of the Interior announced the suspension of humanitarian visas, and in August the authorities announced that "the moratorium on admissions on humanitarian grounds has been lifted." At the same time, the German Foreign Ministry clarified that Russians and Belarusians will no longer be able to submit documents using the accelerated procedure, writes DW .

“The Foreign Ministry says that they still maintain the reception window, but just not an accelerated one. In reality, this means the closure of the program, because only an accelerated procedure was available to Russians. Now there are only cases of very famous people with resonance - a couple of cases a year. But officials pretend that the reception continues,” the inTransit project, which helps with visa applications, told reporters.

Since June 2022, 2,490 Russians have received humanitarian visas in Germany under an accelerated procedure, and since March 2021 - 410 Belarusians, according to the response of the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs to the organization Allianz für ein freiheitlich-demokratisches Russland e. V. The department also told human rights activists that the accelerated procedure is no longer applied, and the authorities agreed to “reduce voluntary federal admission programs to a minimum” due to “heavy load, and in some places, overload of admission and integration systems caused by the influx of protection seekers.”

As SaveHumVisa22 writes, German authorities also warned that they would review the documents of those who received approval for a visa, but did not have time to paste it into their passport. According to human rights activists, this will affect about 40 people. In addition, applications submitted before the program was frozen will be cancelled. SaveHumVisa22 indicates that about 300 people have been awaiting decisions on their applications since the fall of 2024.