Compliance Watch
Managed immigration compliance for your international workforce in Germany.
We monitor, we alert, you stay protected. relokate watches every permit, every statutory employer duty, and every relevant change in German immigration law — so nothing expires unnoticed and no deadline slips past your HR team.
Included with every relokate engagement — and available as a standalone subscription for any company hiring international talent in Germany.
The problem
Compliance is not a one-time task.
Permits expire. Laws change. New obligations appear — often quietly, buried in a Bundesgesetzblatt update your HR team will never see. No HR team has the time, the expertise, or the bandwidth to watch all of this continuously. And in German immigration law, missing something is not just an admin oversight — the consequences are serious.
€500,000
fine per case
Permit expired unnoticed — your employee cannot legally work.
Every day they continue working counts as illegal employment.
Entry denied
at the border
Permit extension missed — your employee left Germany and cannot re-enter.
Without a valid permit or Fiktionsbescheinigung, re-entry is blocked — and some residence titles expire automatically when an employee stays outside Germany for too long without re-entering in time.
Day 1
statutory deadline
New hire not notified of their rights on time.
Since January 2026, employers recruiting from abroad must point every new third-country hire to the Faire Integration counselling service by their first working day. A statutory duty most HR teams have never heard of — and one auditors can ask you to evidence.
These are not edge cases. They happen to well-run companies with experienced HR teams — because nobody's job was to watch it.
How Compliance Watch works
Connect
Your permits and cases — straight from your relokate engagement, or onboarded in days as a standalone subscription.
We monitor
Every permit, every statutory employer duty, and every relevant change in German immigration law — continuously.
You act on time
Case-matched alerts 6, 3 and 1 month(s) ahead of deadlines — with step-by-step guidance, not just information.
What Compliance Watch does
Compliance Watch is relokate's managed immigration-compliance service for employers in Germany — included with every relokate engagement and available as a standalone subscription. We take these things off your plate entirely.
Managed Permit Monitoring
relokate monitors this for every permit in your team. When something is expiring, we inform you — with what to do next, not just that it's happening.
- Residence permit expiry alerts at 6, 3 and 1 month(s) before deadline
- Proactive renewal instructions included in every alert — no setup needed, runs on your existing relokate case data
Employer Duty & Compliance Support
When new statutory obligations apply to you as an employer, we don't just tell you — we help you act on them.
- New employer duty notifications with clear, step-by-step action guidance (e.g. § 45c AufenthG notification obligations)
- Consultancy on what each obligation means for your specific situation and workforce
- On-demand Right to Work pre-checks with audit-ready documentation — results within 48 hours, urgent checks within 24 hours
- Platform support for any required documentation or tracking — so you have a record and a process, not just an alert
Regulatory Watch
German immigration law moves constantly. We monitor it so you don't have to — and we only tell you about what actually affects your people and your hiring strategy.
- Salary threshold updates across all relevant visa and permit categories — flagged as soon as changes are published, with implications for your affected employees
- New visa routes and permit pathways in Germany — when a new route opens that your employees may qualify for, we flag it with next steps
- Immigration law changes affecting your hiring approach — policy shifts, processing changes, and regulatory updates that could change how you recruit or onboard international talent
- All alerts are case-matched: you hear only about changes relevant to your specific workforce, not general news
Immigration Consulting
Questions come up all the time — and the answer is rarely straightforward. Your team no longer needs to research answers independently.
- Ad hoc guidance on day-to-day immigration questions affecting your employees
- Travel, leave and re-entry queries — can your employee leave Germany? For how long? What do they need before they go?
- Onboarding, layoffs, new processes — what needs to be done?
- Permit condition questions — what is and isn't allowed under a specific permit type
- A reliable point of contact when you're unsure — based on the actual law and, for legal grey zones, in cooperation with our partner lawyers. No legal advice.
Plans
Pick the cover that fits your team
All plans include the full Compliance Watch service — the only difference is the number of active cases covered.
Watch Basic
up to 10 active cases
Custom pricing — book a quick call
Watch Pro
up to 30 active cases
Custom pricing — book a quick call
Enterprise
unlimited cases
Custom pricing — book a quick call
Included with every relokate engagement — or available as a standalone subscription. Book a call and we'll share pricing for your team size.
Not a relokate client yet?
Stay ahead of German immigration law — without moving your cases.
Not a relokate client — but don't want to miss an important law change that affects your team? Compliance Watch is available as a standalone subscription, too. You get the same regulatory intelligence, employer-duty alerts, and on-demand immigration consulting that keep your team protected.
What's included
- Regulatory Watch — salary thresholds, new visa routes, and law changes affecting your hiring
- Employer duty & compliance alerts — new statutory obligations, with step-by-step guidance
- Immigration consulting — ad hoc guidance on travel, onboarding, permits and more
Trusted by startups and corporates alike
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is §45c AufenthG and why does it matter?
Since January 2026, employers recruiting third-country nationals from abroad must inform them about the Faire Integration counselling service by their first working day. No fine currently attaches — §45c is not in the penalty catalogue of §98 AufenthG — but it is a statutory duty, and a missed notice is non-compliance that can surface in an audit. Compliance Watch alerts you to this and every other statutory employer duty.
What happens if an employee's residence permit expires unnoticed?
Every day the employee continues working counts as illegal employment. Fines can reach €500,000 per case. Compliance Watch monitors every permit and alerts you 6, 3 and 1 month(s) before expiry.
Do I need to be a relokate client to use Compliance Watch?
No. Compliance Watch is available as a standalone subscription: regulatory watch, employer-duty alerts and immigration consulting — without moving your cases.
How is this different from a legal newsletter?
All Compliance Watch alerts are case-matched: you only hear about changes that affect your specific workforce and hiring strategy — with step-by-step guidance, not just information.
Is this legal advice?
No. relokate provides guidance based on the actual law; for legal grey zones we cooperate with independent partner attorneys.
Want the full legal background? Read our §45c AufenthG employer guide or browse the German immigration law reference.
Stop watching the calendar. Let us watch it for you.
Compliance Watch runs on your existing relokate case data — no setup, no new tools for your team. Add it to your account and we start monitoring from day one.