2005 German visa affair

The visa affair is the name given by the German press to the controversy that arose in early 2005 over a change in the procedure for issuing visas to foreign nationals seeking to enter Germany from non-EU states in Eastern Europe. The Cologne criminal court stated, that the new visa policy put in place in 2000, had dispensed with safeguards against abuses such as illegal immigration and human trafficking in favour of speeding up the issuing process for tourist visas and had led to a massive increase in these practices. The affair prompted the resignation of Minister of State Ludger Volmer of the Green party from his roles in the Bundestag foreign affairs committee and as foreign affairs spokesperson of his party. The claims severely damaged the reputation of his party colleague Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. The allegation was that changes had been made to the previous tougher visa rules, without the correct political procedure.

In 1999, the German embassy in Kyiv alone issued more than 150,000 visas for Germany. Long queues formed in front of the embassy. Applicants reported that Ukrainian security personnel demanded DM 100–500 (€50–250) to get ahead in the queue.

At the beginning of 2000, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Ludger Volmer [de] issued a decree, known as "Volmer's Decree," which extended the powers of the individual embassies in deciding visa applications. The decree aimed at making travel to Germany easier. When in doubt, the application was to be decided in favour of the applicant.

At the same time, visa applications directly from travel agencies were introduced. This regulation was opposed by the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard) as well as by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), because they feared that it would lead to easier migration into Germany for criminals. They cited a criminal court decision against the manager of a travel agency who organized illegal migration into Germany. In this case, the tourists went underground, became prostitutes, or left Germany for other countries of the European Union.

On 9 March 2000, Minister of the Interior Otto Schily (SPD) wrote a letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer, saying that he saw the "Volmer's Decree" as a violation of the Aliens Act as well as of the Schengen Treaty. As of 2005, it is not clear if Schily intervened further, or if he did not, his reasons for not intervening.

On 2 May 2001, embassies world-wide were advised to accept the Carnet de Touriste travel insurance introduced by Helmut Kohl's CDU in 1995. These insurance documents covered medical costs incurred abroad as well as any costs resulting from deportation. They were accepted in place of a written guarantee by a German citizen to prove that the visa applicant could finance their stay and return home.

The German Automobile Club (ADAC) sold between 120,000 and 150,000 of these insurance documents, the Allianz insurance company sold more than 35,000, and the ITREC GmbH company more than 31,000. The Foreign Office also advised the embassies to accept similar travel insurance documents from the Reiseschutz AG, owned by private entrepreneur Kübler. The press claims this played an important role in smuggling people into Germany. The Ministry of the Interior was informed about this by the Federal Crime Agency (German: Bundeskriminalamt).

In the trial of Anaton Berg, the Cologne criminal court claimed that the "Volmer's Decree", the acceptance of travel insurance documents instead of guarantors or proof of credit-worthiness, and the applications for visas at travel agencies had led to mass human trafficking. In the verdict, this was described as "a cold putsch against the law".