Germany has sharply reduced the humanitarian visa program for Russians and Belarusians

The German authorities have closed the “accelerated procedure” for issuing humanitarian visas for the admission of Russians and Belarusians. This was reported by Deutsche Welle and the SaveHumVisa22 association.

“In fact, the German authorities returned to the pre-war approach, when such visas were issued only in isolated cases according to not very clear criteria that are not fully understood even by specialized organizations,” writes DW.

From now on, protection will likely be granted by Germany only in certain exceptional cases - to persons whose opposition activities are of particular importance to Berlin, or in situations of high political resonance. Humanitarian admissions will be limited to a few unique cases per year.

The cases of those who received visa approval before the freeze, but did not have time to affix it to their passport, will be reviewed. Applications submitted before the program was frozen will be canceled, and applicants will have to go through the procedure again in accordance with the new rules, writes SaveHumVisa22.

The accelerated procedure for issuing humanitarian visas began working in Germany in May 2022 against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ongoing repression in the Russian Federation and Belarus. Since June 2022, as part of the procedure, Berlin has received a total of 2.5 thousand people from Russia and 410 people from Belarus since March 2021.

However, in the spring-summer of 2025, after a change of government in Germany, gum visa programs were first paused and then resumed without providing details.