Application for an AUG-license in Germany

How to Apply for an AÜG Licence in Germany — quickly & securely 

Plan­ning to sup­ply employ­ees to a Ger­man busi­ness? If your per­son­nel mod­el qual­i­fies as staff leas­ing under the Ger­man Tem­po­rary Employ­ment Act (Arbeit­nehmerüber­las­sungs­ge­setz – AÜG), you will gen­er­al­ly need a licence from the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency (Bun­de­sagen­tur für Arbeit) before the assign­ment begins.

The appli­ca­tion requires more than the cor­rect forms. Your com­pa­ny must demon­strate that it can oper­ate in com­pli­ance with Ger­man employ­ment law, meet its finan­cial oblig­a­tions and man­age staff leas­ing properly.

AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte helps Ger­man and inter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies pre­pare AÜG licence appli­ca­tions, deal with the licens­ing author­i­ty and address poten­tial issues before they delay the process.

What Does the AÜG Licence Application Involve?

The Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency exam­ines whether your com­pa­ny meets the statu­to­ry require­ments for labour leas­ing. This includes its reli­a­bil­i­ty, finan­cial resources, organ­i­sa­tion and employ­ment-law arrange­ments.

A well-pre­pared appli­ca­tion should present a con­sis­tent pic­ture of how your busi­ness will oper­ate, how employ­ees will be employed and paid, and how the com­pa­ny will meet its legal oblig­a­tions. Our lawyers can help you assess the planned busi­ness mod­el, iden­ti­fy the rel­e­vant require­ments and pre­pare the appli­ca­tion documents.

If you are not yet sure whether your busi­ness needs a licence, start with our guide: Who Needs an AÜG Licence in Germany?

Over 1,000 AÜG cases: Why Companies Trust Us With Their Application

AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte com­bines spe­cialised AÜG exper­tise with prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in licens­ing mat­ters. We advise Ger­man and inter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies, help­ing them under­stand the require­ments, pre­pare their appli­ca­tions and address poten­tial issues before submission.

With over 1,000 AÜG cas­es han­dled and more than 25 years of pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence, our team brings sub­stan­tial prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence to licens­ing and staff-leas­ing mat­ters. Our aim is to help you approach the process with a clear legal strat­e­gy, well-pre­pared doc­u­men­ta­tion and a real­is­tic under­stand­ing of the requirements.

Plan­ning to apply for an AÜG licence? Con­tact AMETHYST Recht­san­wälte to dis­cuss your busi­ness mod­el and the next steps.

Crucial Knowledge for Companies: Which Documents Are Required?

The exact doc­u­men­ta­tion depends on the appli­cant and its cir­cum­stances. Typ­i­cal doc­u­ments include:

• The com­plet­ed AÜG licence appli­ca­tion form
• Com­mer­cial reg­is­ter extracts and cor­po­rate doc­u­ments, where applicable
• Busi­ness registration
• Rel­e­vant records con­cern­ing the appli­cant and respon­si­ble representatives
• Evi­dence of employ­ers’ lia­bil­i­ty insurance
• Cer­tifi­cates from health insur­ance providers cov­er­ing at least half of the workforce
• Proof of suf­fi­cient liq­uid funds
• A sam­ple employ­ment con­tract for tem­po­rary agency workers
• A sam­ple labour leas­ing agreement

The author­i­ty may request fur­ther evi­dence dur­ing its review. Doc­u­ments should be com­plete, cur­rent and con­sis­tent with the com­pa­ny’s actu­al or planned operations.

We help appli­cants organ­ise the required doc­u­men­ta­tion, review con­tracts and iden­ti­fy gaps before sub­mis­sion.

Read more on the Pre­con­di­tions for Grant­i­ng an AÜG Licence and How to Obtain an AÜG Licence.

Financial Requirements: Not Just a Minor Technicality

Appli­cants must demon­strate that they have suf­fi­cient finan­cial resources to meet their oblig­a­tions to tem­po­rary agency workers.

The Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency cur­rent­ly requires proof of €3,000 in liq­uid funds per planned leased employ­ee, sub­ject to a min­i­mum of €15,000. The evi­dence must clear­ly iden­ti­fy the appli­cant and the rel­e­vant date.

The finan­cial evi­dence is an impor­tant part of the appli­ca­tion. Com­pa­nies should there­fore check the required amount and form of proof ear­ly in the process rather than treat­ing it as a final admin­is­tra­tive step.

Get a Head Start When Applying From Outside Germany

For­eign com­pa­nies can apply for a Ger­man AÜG licence, but the process may involve addi­tion­al require­ments:

Depend­ing on the com­pa­ny’s coun­try of estab­lish­ment and legal struc­ture, the author­i­ty may request com­pa­ny records, infor­ma­tion about respon­si­ble per­sons and evi­dence con­cern­ing the rules gov­ern­ing staff leas­ing in the home coun­try. Doc­u­ments from abroad may require cer­ti­fied Ger­man trans­la­tions.

A licence issued in anoth­er coun­try does not auto­mat­i­cal­ly replace the Ger­man AÜG licence. For­eign appli­cants should there­fore assess the Ger­man require­ments before plan­ning assignments.

We sup­port inter­na­tion­al busi­ness­es with the licens­ing process, includ­ing doc­u­ment coor­di­na­tion, con­tract reviews and com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the Ger­man authority.

Preparation Is Key: How Long Does the Application Take?

For a well-pre­pared appli­ca­tion with com­plete doc­u­men­ta­tion, the pro­cess­ing peri­od is gen­er­al­ly around four weeks from receipt of the appli­ca­tion by the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency. The actu­al dura­tion may vary depend­ing on the indi­vid­ual case and whether the author­i­ty requests addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion or documents.

Care­ful prepa­ra­tion can help avoid unnec­es­sary delays. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant for for­eign com­pa­nies that need to obtain doc­u­ments from oth­er juris­dic­tions or arrange translations.

Start the appli­ca­tion process well before your planned assign­ment date. Staff leas­ing must not begin until the required licence has been granted.

Obtaining the Licence Is Only the First Step

An AÜG licence is ini­tial­ly grant­ed for one year. An appli­ca­tion for renew­al must gen­er­al­ly be sub­mit­ted no lat­er than three months before expiry. After three con­sec­u­tive years of law­ful staff leas­ing, a com­pa­ny may qual­i­fy for an unlim­it­ed licence if the statu­to­ry require­ments are met.

There­fore, com­pa­nies must con­tin­ue to com­ply with the AÜG, includ­ing the rules on remu­ner­a­tion, equal treat­ment, work­ing con­di­tions and assign­ment periods.

Learn more: Fea­tures of the AÜG Licence and AÜG Licence Audit Pro­ce­dure.

Get Your AÜG Licence Application Right from the Start

Apply­ing for an AÜG licence involves more than sub­mit­ting forms. Your busi­ness mod­el, per­son­nel struc­ture, con­tracts and sup­port­ing doc­u­ments must align with the legal require­ments. Gaps or incon­sis­ten­cies can lead to addi­tion­al ques­tions, delays or licens­ing difficulties.

Our sup­port can include:

• Clar­i­fy­ing your licens­ing oblig­a­tions — assess­ing whether your planned activ­i­ties require an AÜG licence.
• Struc­tur­ing your busi­ness for com­pli­ance — review­ing your intend­ed per­son­nel mod­el and iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial legal issues at an ear­ly stage.
• Prepar­ing a con­sis­tent appli­ca­tion — check­ing the required doc­u­ments and iden­ti­fy­ing miss­ing or incon­sis­tent information.
• Get­ting your con­tracts right — draft­ing or review­ing employ­ment con­tracts and staff-leas­ing agree­ments to ensure they reflect your planned operations.
• Nav­i­gat­ing the licens­ing author­i­ty — iden­ti­fy­ing the com­pe­tent author­i­ty and assist­ing with com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency.
• Han­dling fol­low-up requests — help­ing you respond to requests for addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion and address ques­tions raised dur­ing the procedure.
• Sup­port­ing inter­na­tion­al appli­cants — advis­ing for­eign busi­ness­es on Ger­man AÜG require­ments and the par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges of cross-bor­der per­son­nel structures.

Explore the Pre­con­di­tions for Grant­i­ng an AÜG Licence or learn more about How to Obtain an AÜG Licence.

Planning to Apply for an AÜG Licence?

Whether you are estab­lish­ing a staffing busi­ness in Ger­many or bring­ing an exist­ing inter­na­tion­al oper­a­tion into the Ger­man mar­ket, ear­ly prepa­ra­tion can help pre­vent avoid­able problems.

Have your appli­ca­tion and busi­ness struc­ture reviewed by lawyers who spe­cialise in Ger­man labour leas­ing law.

Take-Aways: Application for an AÜG Licence in Germany

An AUG (AÜG)-license is required in order to oper­ate a labour leas­ing agency in Ger­many. This applies to indi­vid­u­als, asso­ci­a­tions with­out legal per­son­al­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ties of heirs, i.e. so-called groups of per­sons, part­ner­ships, such as gen­er­al part­ner­ships (‘OHG’) and lim­it­ed part­ner­ships (‘KG’) as well as legal enti­ties, such as pub­lic lim­it­ed com­pa­nies (‘AG’) or pri­vate lim­it­ed com­pa­nies (‘GmbH’).

In short: All staff leas­ing agen­cies and all sup­pli­ers occa­sion­al­ly assign­ing employ­ees from or with­in Ger­many need an ANÜ-license.

The Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency (Bun­de­sagen­tur für Arbeit) issues the licenses.

The appli­ca­tion must be accom­pa­nied by the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments (in German):

• Com­plet­ed appli­ca­tion form for a license to oper­ate a tem­po­rary employ­ment agency
• Up-to-date extract from the com­mer­cial register
• Part­ner­ship agreement
• Busi­ness registration
• Evi­dence of appli­ca­tion for an extract from police records for sub­mis­sion to the pub­lic authority
• Infor­ma­tion from the cen­tral busi­ness register
• Cer­tifi­cate from the employer’s lia­bil­i­ty insur­ance com­pa­ny (acci­dent insur­ance company)
• Cer­tifi­cates of the health insur­ance com­pa­nies where the major­i­ty of employ­ees are ensured
• Proof of liq­uid funds, such as imme­di­ate­ly avail­able cred­it bal­ances or bank con­fir­ma­tion of exist­ing cred­it facil­i­ties. Proof of min­i­mum funds of €15,000.00 must be sub­mit­ted to prove cred­it­wor­thi­ness. This applies to cas­es where up to five tem­po­rary employ­ees are to be employed. If more than five tem­po­rary employ­ees are to be employed, proof of liq­uid funds of €3,000.00 must be fur­nished for every employee.
• Work con­tract model
• Tem­po­rary employ­ment con­tract model

If the appli­cant agency does not have its reg­is­tered place of busi­ness in Ger­many, fur­ther doc­u­ments must be sub­mit­ted from case to case, such as police records from the home coun­try or a license to oper­ate a tem­po­rary employ­ment agency under the laws of the home coun­try or infor­ma­tion that such a license is not required there.

Term of Validity of the AÜG-License

The term of the ger­man AUG license is lim­it­ed to one year (sec. 2 (4) sen­tence 1 of the Ger­man Law on Tem­po­rary Employ­ment (AÜG, Arbeit­nehmerüber­las­sungs­ge­setz). The appli­ca­tion for renew­al must be sub­mit­ted no lat­er than three months before the license expires (sec 2 (4) sen­tence 2 AÜG).

Dur­ing the first three years, the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency (Bun­de­sagen­tur für Arbeit) audits the agency reg­u­lar­ly, often once a year.

If the tem­po­rary employ­ment agency has oper­at­ed cor­rect­ly and with­out com­plaints for three years, the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency can issue an open-end license (sec. 2 (5) sen­tence 1 AÜG).

Notwith­stand­ing the fact that minor vio­la­tions of legal oblig­a­tions do not oppose this, the Fed­er­al Employ­ment Agency pur­sues a more restric­tive practice.

Applying for an Open-End License: Practical Tip

It is often a mat­ter of luck whether an open-end license is grant­ed at the first attempt since there is no such thing as com­plete­ly unob­jec­tion­able work. In the event of dis­putes, it is often advis­able to sub­mit a detailed state­ment before the hear­ing rather than rely­ing on the out­come of appeal pro­ceed­ings after an open-end license was denied. If good rea­sons are giv­en in the hear­ing, there is still a chance that some offi­cials may change their mind which is usu­al­ly no longer pos­si­ble in appeal pro­ceed­ings. A law­suit is not an alter­na­tive, because a new appli­ca­tion for an open-end license after anoth­er year has expired is a much faster option.

The sup­pli­er is not oblig­ed to apply for an open-end license after three years. For cost rea­sons alone, many com­pa­nies do not apply for an open-end license. How­ev­er, an open-end license is also an indi­ca­tion of the agency’s good stand­ing for many cus­tomers, so that most agen­cies con­sid­er such a license to be desirable.

The open-end license expires if the tem­po­rary employ­ment agency has not made use of it for three years (sec. 2 (5) sen­tence 2 AÜG).

How Can We Help You Getting the License?

Our ser­vices:

• Cor­re­spon­dence with the “Bun­de­sagen­tur für Arbeit” as the com­pe­tent licens­ing authority
• Sup­port in obtain­ing the nec­es­sary appli­ca­tion doc­u­ments and require­ments in Germany
• Sup­port in set­ting up a com­pa­ny with regard to labor leas­ing leasing
• Pro­vi­sion of sam­ple con­tracts, cus­tomised on request
• Advice on spe­cif­ic indus­try-relat­ed issues (health, IT, engi­neer­ing, con­struc­tion, security)
• Han­dling of the entire appli­ca­tion procedure