The Ultimate Summer Travel Compliance Checklist for HR in Germany

Summer changes the rhythm of every HR team. Annual-leave requests pile up, and alongside them a newer kind of request — employees asking to work remotely from abroad for a few weeks. Approving the time off is the easy part. The part that rarely makes it onto anyone’s to-do list is the compliance responsibility that rides along with each request. For your international employees, getting it wrong isn’t just about cost — it can mean trouble entering the country, an uncomfortable situation at the airport, or a compliance risk that lands right back on your desk.

Written for HR, global mobility, and immigration teams. Reflects current German rules in 2026. General information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice — verify each case individually.

A summer trip abroad doesn’t create the same to-do list for every employee. It helps to split the checks HR needs to run into two kinds — and keep them separate: immigration compliance (can the employee leave Germany and get back in?) and additional compliance (tax, social security, data protection), which only kicks in when they are actually working abroad.

Layer 1 — Immigration compliance: leaving Germany and getting back in

Layer 2 — Additional compliance: only when they’re working abroad

What this guide focuses on is the immigration layer unique to the highlighted row: your non-German, non-EU employees who live and work in Germany on a residence permit — a work permit, an EU Blue Card, a Skilled Worker permit, or permanent residency. For them, a passport or residence permit that lapses at the wrong moment doesn’t mean a rescheduled flight — it can mean being refused reentry to Germany, or losing their residence status altogether.

Over the summer those requests arrive in two shapes — an employee who wants to work remotely from abroad, and an employee simply taking holiday abroad. Both rest on the same non-negotiable: a valid passport and a valid residence permit for the whole trip and the moment of reentry. We’ve pulled together the key things HR should keep in mind for each, so nothing slips through before the summer rush.

Two situations, one non-negotiable

Requests to spend time abroad fall into two categories, and they carry very different obligations:

Both scenarios rest on the same foundation, so start there — then apply the extra remote-work layer only when the employee will actually be working.

The foundation both share: passport, permit, and getting back in

Whatever the reason for the trip, two documents decide whether an employee gets back into Germany: their passport and their German residence permit (Aufenthaltstitel). If either is invalid — or expires while they are away — they may be unable to board the flight home, may be stopped at the German border, or may find their residence status has lapsed.

• Passport valid at least 6 months beyond the intended return date
• Residence permit (eAT) valid for the whole trip and at the moment of reentry, with a buffer for delays
• Employee carries the originals at all times — passport, residence permit (eAT), and the Zusatzblatt (the supplementary sheet issued with the eAT that states the permit's conditions, e.g. work authorisation)
• Reentry confirmed: valid passport + valid permit must be presented at the German border

How long can an employee stay abroad? By permit type

A residence permit can lapse simply because of time spent outside Germany — even if the card’s printed expiry date is still far off. How much time is allowed depends on the type of permit the employee holds. The figures below are the common defaults, but the exact window is set case by case, and the immigration authority can grant a longer re-entry deadline on request before departure.

These absence rules sit in §51 AufenthG. Because individual circumstances and authority decisions vary, always verify the allowed period for each employee’s specific permit — don’t assume the six-month rule applies to everyone, and don’t assume a Blue Card holder can stay away indefinitely. A permit that lapses abroad usually cannot simply be reactivated at the border.

That table answers one question — how long an employee can be away from Germany before the German permit lapses. A different limit governs how long they can stay inside another country: a German residence permit lets them travel visa-free to other Schengen states, but only for up to 90 days in any 180-day period (the same short-stay allowance Schengen visitors get). So even when the German permit is safe, the destination’s 90/180 clock still runs.

Scenario 1 — Holiday travel abroad

This is the simpler case: the employee takes leave, travels, and returns. They are not working, so there are no tax, social-security, or data-protection questions to resolve. What matters is that they can lawfully leave and re-enter. On top of the shared foundation above, add two checks:

• Travel insurance covering medical emergencies and disruptions for the full trip — company coverage is often limited abroad
• Destination entry rules and current advisories from the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), which can change at short notice

In practice, the holiday case comes down to one thing HR should never wave through on trust: is the residence permit valid through the return date, and is the employee staying within the time abroad their permit allows? If yes, they are clear to travel. If the permit expires while they are away, the trip becomes a re-entry problem — see the Auswärtiges Amt travel advisories and confirm the timeline before leave is approved.

Scenario 2 — Remote work abroad

A “workation” is not tax-neutral, and it is your decision to approve. It includes everything in the holiday checklist — valid passport, valid permit, time-abroad limit, reentry, insurance — plus a second layer, because the employee is not just present in another country, they are working there.

• Confirm the employee has the legal right to work remotely from the destination — some countries require a permit or digital-nomad visa even for short remote stays
• Income tax: working abroad can trigger income-tax obligations in the destination country — assess with a tax adviser before approval
• Permanent establishment: an employee working from another country can create a taxable presence (permanent establishment) for the company there
• Employment law: check whether the destination country's local employment law applies to the employee while they work from there
• Apply for an A1 certificate where the employee works from another EU/EEA state or Switzerland, to keep them in the German social-security system
• Confirm GDPR and IT-security compliance — data-protection and confidentiality duties apply in full abroad, and extra care is needed outside the EU/EEA
• Put an approved, written remote-work agreement in place setting out duration and location

The A1 certificate deserves a line of its own. Within the EU/EEA and Switzerland, the A1 certificate confirms an employee working temporarily in another member state stays covered by German social security, so they are not liable for contributions in two countries at once. Apply for it before the stay begins.

Travelling while an employee is between permits

This is the case relokate sees go wrong most often, and it deserves more than a warning box. The setup: an employee’s residence permit has already expired, but they applied in time for a renewal or a new permit and it is still being processed. They are approved to be here — but can they travel? The answer turns entirely on one document, the Fiktionsbescheinigung, and on what it says.

The “fiction” keeps them legal — but not mobile

When an employee applies to extend or change their permit before it runs out, German law treats their stay as lawful while the authority decides — the continuation fiction under §81 AufenthG. This protection is triggered automatically, and on its own it may come with no certificate at all. Where a Fiktionsbescheinigung is issued, it works as proof that the application is pending — it keeps the employee safe to stay in Germany and safe to stay employed. What it does not automatically do is grant a right to travel: the document that officially certifies their status — the residence permit — has expired, so a standard Fiktionsbescheinigung is not a travel document.

To travel, request a Fiktionsbescheinigung that explicitly allows it

If the employee needs to leave and re-enter Germany while between permits, they must request a Fiktionsbescheinigung from the immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) that expressly states travel and re-entry are permitted. A certificate that doesn’t say so will not get them back in — they can be turned away at the border. Two things to check on the certificate itself:

• Travel wording — it must explicitly permit travel and re-entry to Germany, not just confirm a pending application
• Its own expiry date — a Fiktionsbescheinigung is time-limited; make sure it stays valid for the whole trip, with a buffer

Request it in due time — every office is different

There is no single national procedure. Each Ausländerbehörde handles these requests its own way, and turnaround varies widely — some issue on the spot, others take weeks, and some send the certificate by post, which adds more time still. So request the travel-enabled Fiktionsbescheinigung well before any planned trip, explaining that travel is required. The worst outcome is a booked summer holiday and a certificate that hasn’t arrived in time. Preparing early is the whole game here — especially over the summer, when both the offices and your employees are at their busiest.

The one-page checklist

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The HR checklist at a glance

Run this before approving any time abroad for an employee on a German residence permit. Every holiday check also applies to remote work — remote work just adds the right-hand column.

How relokate helps: never miss an expiry date

The checks above are only as good as the day you run them. Passports and residence permits expire on their own schedule, and the risk isn’t forgetting to check once — it’s forgetting to check again before the next trip. relokate’s software supports companies and their international employees with exactly this: we automatically monitor the validity of residence permits and passports, remind you before deadlines, advise on the documentation needed for reentry to Germany, and support employees through residence-permit applications and renewals.

For related reading, see our guides on residence permits after a job change and the EU Blue Card, whose absence rules differ from a standard work permit.

Legal Disclaimer: The information provided here and on relokate’s website is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

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