© dpa
According to the Berlin Senate, the improvements in the online booking of appointments at citizens' registration offices in the summer are sustainable and not due to the holidays.
"This was not a holiday effect, this is the new normal," said Martina Klement, State Secretary for Digitalisation and Administrative Modernisation, after the Senate meeting on Tuesday.
In July alone, more than 180,000 appointments were made. According to Klement, this was around 13 per cent more than a year ago, when around 160,000 appointments were made. The number of appointments per day rose within a year from 6,300 in July 2024 to more than 7,700 appointments in July 2025.
Klement cited the number of calls to the 115 public authority hotline as a further indication of the improved situation, with up to 40,000 callers per month requesting appointments via this channel. Most recently, the figure was 27,000: Within the next 56 days, there was only one day when no appointment was available at the citizens' office, she said. According to Klement, 81.2 per cent of those citizens who wanted an appointment within 14 days received one in July. In the previous year, this rate was still around 60 per cent.
Klement put the average waiting time for appointments at 27 days in July 2025, compared to 33 days in the previous year. "For urgent matters, you can also go to the citizens' office without an appointment," said the State Secretary. This applies, for example, if an expired passport needs to be renewed shortly before a holiday trip.
Klement also pointed out that more than 400 citizen services in Berlin can now be completed online without having to go to the office. These include registering and re-registering, but not applying for a new ID card or passport. Anyone who wants to can have the new papers sent to their home after applying for them at the citizens' office - saving at least one visit to the authorities.
Tangible improvements to the services provided by the citizens' offices are one of the Senate's priorities. In addition to the expansion of digitalisation, 100 additional jobs have been created in the offices. There is also a pool of 20 employees available for flexible assignments. A recruitment service at the state administration office is intended to help the districts to fill vacancies in the citizens' offices more quickly. An additional citizens' office was only opened in Marzahn-Hellersdorf in July.