Hamburg's Residence Permit Fees for Children and Families: The Full Fee Ladder, and Why the Payment Method Depends on Which Counter You're At

Two Offices, Two Ways to Pay

Start with the detail that has nothing to do with how much you owe and everything to do with how you’re allowed to pay it. Hamburg’s own fee page for a Niederlassungserlaubnis application at the Welcome Center for Professionals, the office handling residence titles under Sections 18a-18g AufenthG, recognized researcher status, or self-employed status, lists Girocard and Bargeldzahlung (cash payment) as the accepted methods. The equivalent fee page for a general Hamburg Service district office, the track most other families use, lists Girocard, a classic credit card, and the SocialCard, the prepaid benefits card issued to Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz recipients, with no cash option mentioned at all.

That split isn’t a typo on one page or the other. It’s a genuine difference between how Hamburg’s two Amt für Migration tracks handle payment, and it means the safe assumption isn’t “cash always works” or “a card is always required,” it’s checking which office your own application routes to before you show up. A family whose case falls under the Welcome Center for Professionals can plan to bring either cash or a Girocard; a family filing at a district Hamburg Service office should plan to bring a card, since cash isn’t listed as an option there at all.

The Full Fee Ladder, Not Just a Child Discount

The figure most families search for, the 50 percent discount for minors, is real, but it’s only part of a much longer schedule set by Section 45 AufenthV and Section 44 AufenthV. Here’s the fuller picture, current as of mid-2026, drawn directly from the federal ordinance and Hamburg’s own published fee pages.

The line worth reading twice is the settlement permit row. Section 50 AufenthV applies the standard 50 percent minor’s discount to most of the fees in this table, first issuances, extensions, purpose changes, Mobile ICT Cards, but it carves out an explicit exception for settlement permits: minors pay a flat 55 euros, regardless of which adult tier (113, 124, or 147 euros) a parent’s own case happens to fall under. That’s not simply “half of 113,” it’s a separate number the ordinance sets on its own, a distinction our companion guide on Hamburg’s child settlement permit routing already documents for the age-16 threshold. The one small fixed-fee item in the table, temporary travel documents for children under 12, also gets a separate flat rate under Section 50 rather than a percentage discount, though that’s a narrower case most family applications won’t touch.

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What One Family’s Actual Invoice Can Look Like

Numbers on a schedule are one thing; what a household actually owes on a single visit is another. Take a household with two parents on the standard settlement-permit track and a 16-year-old old enough to apply for their own settlement permit under Section 35 AufenthG, alongside a younger child renewing an ordinary residence permit for a period longer than three months.

That’s roughly 345.50 euros across three separate applications in the same household, on the same visit, and none of it reflects a bulk or sibling discount, because there isn’t one. The AufenthV’s fee chapter has no provision that reduces the total for a second or third family member applying at once; each person’s application is its own fee case, calculated on its own track. What varies is which discount structure applies to which person: the 16-year-old’s flat 55 euro settlement-permit rate, the younger child’s straightforward 50 percent renewal discount, and the parents’ full adult rate, three different calculations landing on the same invoice.

The Hardship Waiver Hamburg Barely Explains, Except in One Place

Section 53 AufenthV does the real work here, and it has two distinct parts. The first is mandatory: a household that cannot support itself without SGB II, SGB XII, or Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz benefits must be exempted from fees for the issuance or extension of a residence permit and a list of related administrative acts. The second is discretionary: even outside that mandatory case, a fee “can be reduced or waived when it is warranted with regard to the fee-payer’s economic circumstances in Germany,” a broader, case-by-case allowance a caseworker can apply even if a household doesn’t fit the strict benefits-recipient category. Section 52 AufenthV adds further categorical exemptions on top, most relevantly for families with humanitarian status: recognized asylum status, resettlement refugee status, or subsidiary protection generally exempts settlement and residence permit applications from fees entirely.

Here’s the part worth being honest about: Hamburg’s own residence-permit fee pages don’t explain any of this in useful detail. Both the Welcome Center for Professionals fee page and the general Hamburg Service extension fee page carry the identical, unhelpfully vague line: “Bestimmte Personengruppen können von der Gebühr befreit sein. Die zuständige Stelle kann Sie genauer informieren” (“certain groups of people may be exempt from the fee; the responsible authority can provide more detailed information”). Neither page names SGB II, SGB XII, Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz, or anything else specifically.

The one place Hamburg actually spells it out is a smaller, adjacent fee. The city’s own Fiktionsbescheinigung page states plainly: “Wenn Sie öffentliche Leistungen nach dem Sozialgesetzbuch II oder XII erhalten, können Sie von den Gebühren befreit werden” (“if you receive public benefits under Social Code II or XII, you can be exempted from the fees”). The eAT card replacement fee page is similarly specific for that narrower fee, waiving it for current SGB II, SGB XII, or Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz proof for holders of a residence permit under Section 25 Abs. 1 or 2 AufenthG. If a family is trying to work out whether the exemption applies to their main settlement-permit or renewal application, the clearest confirmation Hamburg publishes sits on these adjacent, smaller-fee pages rather than on the page for the fee that actually matters most, which makes it worth bringing proof and simply asking the caseworker directly rather than assuming silence means no exemption exists.

Step by Step

Compliance Note

This page explains the general federal fee framework under Sections 44, 45, 50, 52, 52a, and 53 of the Residence Ordinance (AufenthV), alongside Hamburg’s own published payment methods and fee-waiver wording, current as of mid-2026. It is not legal or financial advice. Fees are set by federal regulation and by Hamburg’s own administrative practice, and both can change; confirm the exact amount, accepted payment method, and whether a reduction or exemption applies to your situation directly with the Amt für Migration before your appointment.