Arrival Attestation

The Data Exchange Improvement Act came into force on 5 February 2016. The aim of the Act is to register asylum seekers as early as possible and to improve the identification of asylum seekers, allowing seamless exchange of data between the authorities involved.

In line with to the Act, arrivals therefore receive an arrival attestation immediately after registration. The arrival attestation is an official certificate (certificate of registration as an asylum seeker), which contains personal data and a biometric picture.

The arrival attestation is a paper document and contains a 2D bar code (digital seal) developed by the BSI in line with BSI TR-03137 with cryptographically signed data as a security feature (see also BSI TR-03116-2).

This serves to avoid forgery of arrival attestations and to ensure the authenticity of the data on the arrival attestation. The bar code is verified via the PKI for the authentication of official documents. The BSI is the trust anchor of this public key infrastructure (see also the Country Signing Certificate Authority (CSCA)).

During registration, the necessary personal and biometric data is collected in the course of an identification process. High-quality recording components are used here in accordance with the specifications of the BSI (see also BSI TR-03121).

The arrival attestation is issued by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and the initial reception facilities (EAE).

Ankunftsnachweis Vorderseite — Ankunftsnachweis (Vorderseite) Source: Bundesministerium des Innern

Data stored in the bar code

The digital seal is a 2D bar code (data matrix). The coding of the bar code was developed by the BSI and is specified in the Technical Guideline BSI TR-03137.

The 2D bar code contains the following data: