What is the RLCC – Our service
The Refugee Law Clinic Cologne e.V. is a charitable organisation, founded by law students from Cologne to support immigrants, especially refugees and asylum seekers.
Under the supervision of qualified lawyers, our student volunteers provide free legal advice in matters of immigration law, as well as assisting immigrants prepare for legal hearings.
What do we offer
Initial consultation
If you would like legal advice on asylum or immigration law, please visit us during our consultation hours. There we will check if we can accept your case as a mandate. Please bring all important documents with you. Please note that legal advice cannot be given during the consultation hours, but we will only decide if we can take you as a client.
Unfortunately, we can only answer questions with reference to asylum or immigration law.
How? Please inform us in advance, if possible, via mail at sprechstunde@lawcliniccologne.com
When? Every 1. & 3. Thursday of the month from 18:30 bis 20:30 Uhr
Where? Bernhard-Feilchenfeld-Straße 9, 50969 Cologne, 2. floor, left corridor on the right
Who? Consultants: Henrik Detering, Stephanie Botsch, Lukas Granrath
For specific problems or inquiries about office hours, please contact us directly at sprechstunde@lawcliniccologne.com.
Languages
Our consultation team speaks English and German. If you require an interpreter and don’t know anyone, who can help (family, friends, acquaintances), we will help to try and find a solution. For any questions regarding language difficulties, please contact us at sprechstunde@lawcliniccologne.com (in English or German if possible).
If you need an interpreter during the consultation, please contact us at sprechstunde@lawcliniccologne.com. We request that you keep any appointment you have made, as organising a volunteer interpreter can involve a lot of work for us!
Assistance for your legal hearing
If you have a hearing at the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF), you might benefit from having one of our members assist you in preparation.
We prepare you for your hearing at the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF) for free and accompany you to your appointment. We recommend that you visit our consultation service early enough, so that we can provide the best assistance to your case both before and after the hearing. Our qualified members can also accompany you to the hearing, even if you do not want to receive help in the preparation leading up to it.
The hearing in front of the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF) is often the deciding moment in the asylum process. It is important that the events leading up to and during your journey to Germany are told as convincingly, in as much detail and as accurately as possible. It is often necessary to recount intimate, traumatic and disturbing details in front of the deciding official.
Unfortunately, many asylum seekers only come to us for help after the hearing has taken place, usually because the hearing led to their application being denied. However, a lot of times this issue could have been prevented if they had received an individual and thorough preparation. For some people it can also just be helpful to have someone by them for support.
For questions exclusively concerning preparation and assistance regarding an upcoming hearing, please contact us here.
Please make sure to contact us as soon as possible – preferably even before you have received your appointment for the hearing from the BAMF! The less time we have before the upcoming hearing, the less likely we can guarantee that we will find someone to assist and accompany you.
We’d like to hear from you
If you have any comments, complaints, issues or similar, either while you are using our services or after your case has been closed, we welcome you to send us an email at concerns@lawcliniccologne.com!