Germany introduces an “exit permit” for men aged 17–45: before traveling abroad for more than three months, a Bundeswehr approval is required

From January 1, Germany has required men aged 17–45 to obtain a permit at a Bundeswehr career center before leaving the country for more than three months. The rule applies in peacetime—regardless of whether there is a military threat or a special state of readiness has been declared.

The requirement covers any extended absence: studying abroad for a semester, work deployments, long vacations, and other trips that exceed the set threshold.

Hardly anyone reported the change at the time: it was “hidden” in a package of amendments to the military service law, which the Bundestag approved on December 5, 2025, and the Bundesrat on December 19. During the legislative review, there was virtually no public debate.

Only months later, on April 3, 2026, Frankfurter Rundschau pointed out that both parliament and the media may have overlooked an important detail.

How the new rule works

The basis is amendments to the Conscription Act (Wehrpflichtgesetz). Under Section 3, paragraph 2, men who have reached age 17 must obtain approval from the designated Bundeswehr career center if they plan to leave Germany for longer than three months.

A similar obligation applies even when someone has already been granted permission to stay abroad but wants to extend the period—or when the trip was initially shorter than the threshold and later becomes longer.

Previously, this logic existed, but only under special legal regimes—when a state of tension or defense is declared (Spannungs- oder Verteidigungsfall), triggered by Articles 80a and 115a of Germany’s Basic Law.

What changed in the December reform is a wording adjustment in Section 2: the law clarified that provisions—including those that effectively introduce an “exit permit”—apply outside a state of tension or defense.

The underlying principle is this: the permit must cover the period during which the person is not subject to conscription for military service. Refusal is only possible if there are grounds linked to “significant hardship” for the applicant (and in defense scenarios, “unreasonable hardship”). In practice, this means there is no outright refusal built into the law’s current logic, but the application itself must be submitted.

There is, however, an exception: men who live permanently outside Germany and effectively do not retain military obligations under the framework of the legally defined “permanent emigration” may be exempt—reflected in Section 1, paragraph 2. The new rule primarily targets those who live in Germany and leave temporarily.

Dual citizenship does not exempt

Section 1 of the Conscription Act states that military service applies to “all men” who are citizens of Germany within the meaning of the Basic Law. A second passport by itself does not create an exemption.

The 2024 citizenship reform expanded the practice of dual citizenship as the general rule. This increases the number of men in the relevant age group who may hold more than one citizenship.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, roughly one in six men born in 2008 already has second citizenship.

The new legal approach takes this trend into account: within the same reform package, a mandatory readiness-to-serve questionnaire was introduced, requiring young men to list all additional citizenships.

The official justification is potential security concerns and the likelihood of competing obligations toward other states.

But for the “exit permit,” the key wording is specifically “men” (männliche Personen) of a certain age who live in Germany. There are no clauses excluding dual citizens.

So, for example, a man living in Munich with German and Turkish citizenship, German and U.S. citizenship, or German and Italian citizenship is covered by the same rule as someone with only one passport.

Confirmation from the ministry, but details remain unclear

In comments to Ippen.Media, a representative of the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the requirement applies in peacetime. The stated goal, she said, is to build a “reliable and informative conscription registry” so that authorities can understand who is abroad for an extended period.

However, when asked what consequences would apply to those who leave without a permit, no clear answer was given. Nor were applicant-friendly documents published: there is no description of the procedure, the application form, or clear instructions for millions of potentially affected men.

On the defense blog Augen geradeaus!, it was discussed that some men who contacted career centers in advance were not given clear guidance.

While the Ministry of Defence acknowledged the “far-reaching” implications of the provision, it said it was preparing “rules for exceptions” to avoid excessive bureaucracy. At the same time, it added that “a final outline of the process” that would need to be embedded in practice is not yet possible.

Three months later: unanswered questions for those who already left

The law took effect on January 1. By April 1, any man who left Germany at the beginning of the year without filing an application would, in formal terms, have crossed the three-month threshold.

This includes students on exchange programs, employees working on international projects, and people who went on long trips without knowing about the new requirement in advance.

Officially, nothing has been clarified about what happens in such cases. The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the consequences of non-compliance when Ippen.Media asked. A similar gap was noted by Heise in a Telepolis piece dated April 4: Bundeswehr cannot “reject” applications, and apparently also cannot process them normally—leaving the requirement hanging between the text of the law and the real administrative readiness.

It is also emphasized that, under Section 1, paragraph 3 of the Conscription Act, if a man relocates abroad permanently without the required permit, he does not get the “freeze” of military obligations that is provided for emigrants. His status may remain active.

Whether authorities will apply the rule to those who simply did not know about it yet remains unclear.

Part of a broader push to strengthen the armed forces

The exit-permit requirement is embedded in a wider legislative package linked to a chronic staffing shortfall in Bundeswehr. Germany plans to increase the size of its armed forces from roughly 184,000 active service members to 255–270 thousand by 2035. Voluntary recruitment is not keeping pace with those goals.

Under the new approach, young men born from 2008 will receive a mandatory readiness and qualification questionnaire after turning 18. Women may complete the questionnaire voluntarily. Medical examinations (Musterung) are planned to be reintroduced in stages: first for volunteers in 2026, and then for all eligible men.

If the number of volunteers proves insufficient, the law includes a mechanism that allows the Bundestag to trigger “conscription as needed” (Bedarfswehrpflicht) through a separate decision.

Some defense experts who spoke to the Bundestag doubted that voluntariness alone would be enough. One retired general called the abolition of conscription in 2011 a “major strategic mistake.”

Information access request: investigation continues

FragDenStaat (a German platform for freedom-of-information requests) sent a formal request to the Ministry of Defence on March 25. It asks for internal documents, clarifications, and official materials relating to the implementation of Section 3, paragraph 2.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed receipt on March 26 and is expected to respond by April 28. The answer could show whether an administrative infrastructure for processing exit-permit applications already exists—or whether the rule has been in force for a third month without a real mechanism to enforce it.

The key unresolved questions

Two major uncertainties remain around the provision, and neither the government nor parliament has addressed them publicly.

First: is the Bundeswehr ready to process a potentially massive volume of applications? In Germany, there are about 20 million men in the 17–45 age group. Not all of them leave for abroad for more than three months every year, but among those who do, there could be thousands of students, workers on international contracts, and seasonal employees.

At the same time, Bundeswehr career centers were originally created primarily as recruitment hubs, not as an infrastructure for large-scale “permit” paperwork.

The ministry’s acknowledgement that it is still working on “rules for exceptions” indirectly suggests the administration may not be ready.

Second: could the rule be challenged in court on constitutional grounds? Germany’s Basic Law guarantees freedom of movement: Article 11 enshrines the right to choose one’s place of residence within the country. Article 2 protects personal liberty more broadly.

A requirement that, in peacetime, ties leaving the country to approval by military authorities— even if such approval is “generally granted” in practice—appears legally tense.

No public lawsuits have been reported so far. Commentators in German media note that even during the height of the Cold War in Norway, men of conscription age were not required to obtain prior permission to cross the border; a post-factum notification model was used. In public debates, a distinction is often drawn between “permission” and “notification”—and that difference could become the focal point of a constitutional dispute.

A new nuance for Germans’ international mobility

A German passport has traditionally ranked among the world’s strongest in terms of visa-free access, and Germans’ international mobility has long been close to frictionless.

Now, however, an asymmetry emerges: entry into Germany remains free, while for a specific category of men, leaving abroad for an extended period comes with a bureaucratic condition.

For men under 45 who leave on long work contracts, enroll in study programs, or arrange residence in another country while maintaining ties to Germany, an additional procedural step is introduced—yet it remains unclear how exactly checks will work and what the real enforcement mechanism will look like.

Given the Ministry of Defence’s statement that applications “should in principle be approved,” the practical impact may be limited. Still, much depends on how the security situation evolves and whether the Bundestag will activate the conscription trigger provided for by law.

Even conscientious objectors are not automatically exempt. Under Section 24 of the Conscription Act, even with an officially established refusal status, military oversight (Wehrüberwachung) remains. That means the “exit permit” obligation could also apply to them.

Bottom line: starting January 1, Germany has effectively introduced a pre-travel approval requirement for men aged 17–45 to leave the country for more than three months—via Bundeswehr career centers—and many questions remain about how the rule will be implemented and what consequences may await those who left without knowing about it.

Our Telegram channel about various types of Greek residence permits, digital nomad programs, and the Greek Golden Visa: @digitalnomadgr