June arrived and I have been, genuinely, horizontal. Sick, a little dramatic about it, and watching my Berlin trip quietly slip off the calendar. But the news didn't pause for my sinuses, and there's a lot worth covering.
What's Happening
Berlin's immigration office had a year.
The Berlin State Office for Immigration closed 2025 with some genuinely striking numbers. The office processed 39,034 naturalizations, up from 21,802 in 2024. That's not a small jump. It reflects both the centralization of naturalization decisions (previously handled by local district offices) and the rollout of a digital application process that actually works. Processing times are now reportedly running around 7 to 9 months. For a German immigration office, that's close to a miracle.🙏
The wider picture on permits is less rosy. Total residence permits issued in Berlin were essentially flat: 222,767 in 2025 against 221,895 in 2024. Volume held. But rejections didn't. Negative decisions on permit applications jumped from 2,449 to 3,522, an increase of roughly 44%. The office doesn't offer a formal explanation for that spike, and I won't pretend there's one obvious answer. My working hypothesis is that eligibility requirements, particularly for settlement permits, tightened last year, and that some applications we filed under prior assumptions simply didn't survive the shift. That would be one reading.
The flip side of the naturalization numbers: rejection rates there also rose, because more people are applying before they meet the requirements. If you're thinking about citizenship, check your eligibility before filing. Getting rejected takes longer than you'd think to recover from procedurally. 🎉
The Spotlight
The EU pay transparency directive: what it is, what it means, and why Germany is, characteristically, late.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive came into force in June 2023 and required all member states to transpose it into national law by June 7, 2026. The core obligations are straightforward: employers must include a salary range in job postings, they may not ask candidates about their current or previous salary, and if a gender pay gap of more than 5% exists within a group of employees doing comparable work, a formal joint assessment with employee representatives becomes mandatory.
The directive's logic is sound. Salary secrecy has historically disadvantaged women, minorities, and anyone without inside knowledge of what a role is actually worth. Forcing companies to post ranges before the first interview shifts information asymmetry in a small but meaningful direction.
Now for the German part.
June 7 came and went. Germany has not transposed the directive. This puts Germany in the company of several other member states who missed the deadline, and it creates a genuinely murky situation for employers - the "we're waiting for the national law" is not a risk-free position to sit in.
What this means practically for anyone hiring internationally right now: you should probably be posting salary ranges anyway. Not because the legal obligation is fully settled, but because the direction is obvious and the reputational downside of being caught flat-footed is real. Candidates, especially internationally mobile ones comparing offers across countries, increasingly expect it. ⚖️
What’s new with me
Been sick most of the past week, which I refuse to make sound more interesting than it was. A lot of tea (for sure enough to make a German doctor proud). Some cancelled plans. Berlin was on the calendar for this month and it's increasingly clear it is not happening, which is entirely my fault for not booking anything in time and then getting hit by what I can only describe as a persistent cold (some might say it could be COVID, but I refuse to test).
On the upside: being stuck at home with time to think apparently triggers a business planning spiral, and I have had more ideas about where Compass is going in the next year than I know what to do with. Some things are genuinely in the works. Not ready to say more yet, but stay tuned. Things are moving. 🧭
Worth Reading:
Germany scraps airport transit visa for Indian nationals - Effective June 3rd, Indian nationals no longer need a transit visa when passing through a German airport on their way to a non-Schengen destination. A small but real reduction in friction for one of the largest Blue Card applicant nationalities.
The EU's new asylum system is now in force — The Common European Asylum System finally kicked in this month, and if you were hoping it would mark a more humane chapter in how Europe treats people seeking protection, I'd manage those expectations. Faster processing, more detention, easier returns: the architecture is built for speed and deterrence, not dignity. Worth reading if you want to understand what "reform" actually looks like when the political wind blows this direction.
Until next time
Still horizontal in Paris, mainlining soup, rescheduling Berlin for whenever my immune system cooperates.
See you in the next one.
Charlotte
My days lately