Kindergeld and Elterngeld when you are not an EU citizen

Which residence permits give you Kindergeld and Elterngeld?

One test decides both. § 62 (2) EStG for Kindergeld and § 1 (7) BEEG for Elterngeld carry the same wording, sentence for sentence, in the versions in force in September 2026. A Niederlassungserlaubnis or an Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU qualifies you outright. So does an EU Blue Card, an ICT Card or a Mobile ICT Card. Any other residence permit qualifies if it entitles you, entitled you, or allows you to work for at least six months — and if it is not on the exclusion list that follows in the same sentence.

Four permit purposes are excluded outright, whatever you do with them. Working does not help here; the exclusion is attached to the purpose the permit was issued for:

A second group is excluded only while you are neither working, nor on Elternzeit under § 15 BEEG, nor drawing a benefit under the Social Code Book III. Take up employment and the block falls away:

The permits our candidates usually hold are not named in either list. A permit under § 18a or § 18b AufenthG for skilled workers, an EU Blue Card under § 18g, a training permit under § 16a AufenthG and a permit under § 19c (1) AufenthG with § 26 (2) BeschV for nationals of the Western Balkans are all measured against the plain six-month rule of number 2 — as is the permit of a spouse who came through family reunification and whose card says Erwerbstätigkeit gestattet. The Familienkasse and the Elterngeldstelle decide each case on the card in front of them, so send a copy of both sides with the application.

• § 16e AufenthG, an EU study-related traineeship
• § 19c (1) AufenthG issued for au pair work or for seasonal employment
• § 19e AufenthG, the European Voluntary Service
• § 20a (5) sentence 1 AufenthG, the Chancenkarte issued to look for work or for recognition measures
• Conditional: § 16b AufenthG for a course of study
• Conditional: § 16d AufenthG for recognition measures
• Conditional: § 20 AufenthG, job search after a stay in Germany
• Conditional: § 20a (5) sentence 2 AufenthG

Does taking Kindergeld or Elterngeld endanger your residence permit?

No. § 2 (3) sentence 2 AufenthG lists what does not count as drawing public funds, and Kindergeld is number 1 on that list, Elterngeld number 4. The Ausländerbehörde tests whether your livelihood is secured without public money; these two payments are carved out of that test by the statute itself.

That carve-out is narrow and worth reading precisely. It names Kindergeld, Kinderzuschlag, Erziehungsgeld, Elterngeld, student support under the Social Code Book III and the BAföG, benefits based on your own contributions, and advance maintenance payments. Basic income support is not on it. The Familienkasse draws the same line in its leaflet for nationals of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo, Stand Juli 2026: unemployment benefit, sick pay and maternity pay keep you inside the agreement, Grundsicherungsgeld does not.

How much is Kindergeld, and who in the household receives it?

259 euros a month for each child. § 66 (1) EStG carries that figure, and the Familienkasse leaflet FK KG 2, Stand Juli 2026, dates it: "Das Kindergeld beträgt ab 1. Januar 2026 für jedes anspruchsberechtigte Kind monatlich 259 Euro." It was 255 euros before that date. There is no reduction for the first child and no increase for the fourth.

Only one parent is paid for any one child. Under § 64 (1) and (2) EStG the money goes to whoever has taken the child into their household, and where the parents share a household they name the recipient between themselves. Put the name of the parent with the German tax ID and the German bank account on the form; the choice is yours to make, not the Familienkasse's.

Payment stops at the end of the month in which the child turns 18. It can continue to 21 or 25 where the child is in education or training, and beyond 25 only for a child with a disability, according to the Familienkasse leaflet, Stand Juli 2026. Those later years bring their own evidence requirements, which the leaflet sets out in full.

What if your children stayed in your home country?

Then there is normally no Kindergeld at all. § 63 (1) sentence 6 EStG says that children who have neither their residence nor their habitual abode in Germany, in an EU member state or in an EEA state are not taken into account. Not reduced, not deferred — not taken into account. This is the point at which most family budgets built abroad fall apart, and it is the reason the arrival of the children matters more than the arrival of the parent.

Eight states are the exception, through social security agreements. The Familienkasse leaflet, Stand Juli 2026, names them: Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Morocco, Montenegro, Serbia, Tunisia and Turkey. Nationals of those states who work in Germany can qualify through the agreement even when their residence permit would not carry them.

For the four successor states of Yugoslavia the figures are published, and they are not the German ones. Leaflet KG 52-ju, Stand Juli 2026, sets the monthly rate for children living in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro or Kosovo at 5.11 euros for the first child, 12.78 for the second, 30.68 each for the third and fourth, and 35.79 for each further child, with the order taken from the children's ages. The same leaflet ties the claim to months in which you actually work as an employee with compulsory unemployment insurance, and it treats months on Elternzeit, on income-related Elterngeld, on unemployment benefit, sick pay or maternity pay as employment for that purpose.

Two further conditions from the same leaflet catch people out. No Kindergeld is paid for a child for whom child benefit is granted in the home country, or would be granted if it were applied for there. And a stepchild living in the home country counts only if the child already lived in your household abroad before you took up work in Germany. Applications in these cases go to the Familienkasse Bayern Süd, 93013 Regensburg, on forms KG 1, Anlage Kind and Anlage Ausland (KG 51), with the employer's certificate KG 54 and a Familienstandsbescheinigung (KG 53) from the municipality where you are registered at home. Expect a questionnaire once a year to confirm it all again.

How much Elterngeld will you get if you arrived recently?

Probably the minimum of 300 euros, and it is better to know that before the birth than after. § 2b (1) sentence 1 BEEG fixes the reference period as the twelve calendar months before the month of the birth. Sentence 2 lists the months that drop out of that period — Elterngeld for an older child, maternity protection, a pregnancy-related illness, military or civilian service — and months spent working abroad are not among them. They stay in the calculation as months without German income.

The reason sits in § 2 (1) sentence 3 BEEG: only earnings that are taxable in Germany are counted. The Familienportal of the federal family ministry puts the exception plainly: foreign income counts only where you have to pay tax on it in an EU state, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland. A salary taxed in India, Kosovo or the Philippines is not part of the average, so a parent who started work in Germany four months before the birth is looking at roughly a third of a full year's earnings spread over twelve months.

Above that floor the arithmetic is fixed. Basiselterngeld is 67 per cent of the pre-birth monthly average, capped at 1,800 euros for full months without earnings (§ 2 (1) BEEG). The rate slides down to 65 per cent for averages above 1,200 euros and up towards 100 per cent for averages below 1,000 euros, in steps of 0.1 percentage points per 2 euros (§ 2 (2)). The minimum is 300 euros even where there was no pre-birth income at all (§ 2 (4)). A sibling bonus adds 10 per cent, at least 75 euros, where two children under three or three children under six live in the household, and multiple births add 300 euros for each child after the first (§ 2a (1) and (4) BEEG).

Two deductions surprise people. Maternity pay and the employer's top-up for the period from the day of birth are set off against Elterngeld under § 3 (1) number 1 BEEG, which in practice removes the mother's first weeks of payment. And § 1 (8) BEEG cancels the claim entirely above 175,000 euros of taxable income in the last completed assessment year before the birth — measured on the couple's combined income where both parents qualify. § 28 (5) BEEG applies that figure to children born from 1 April 2025 onwards; for births between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 the threshold was 200,000 euros.

How long does Elterngeld run, and what is Elterngeld Plus?

Parents have twelve monthly payments of Basiselterngeld between them, plus two more if one parent's earnings are reduced in two of the months (§ 4 (3) BEEG). Basiselterngeld can be drawn until the child is 14 months old; Elterngeld Plus runs to the 32nd month of life, as long as at least one parent draws it in unbroken succession from the 15th month (§ 4 (1)).

Elterngeld Plus is not extra money, it is the same money stretched. § 4a (2) BEEG caps each Plus month at half of the Basiselterngeld you would receive with no earnings, and halves the minimum amount, the minimum sibling bonus and the multiple-birth supplement with it. In exchange, one month of Basiselterngeld converts into two months of Elterngeld Plus, which suits a parent going back to part-time work.

The limits worth writing on the calendar: one parent can take at most twelve monthly payments plus up to four months of Partnerschaftsbonus, and must take at least two months to have a claim at all (§ 4 (4)). Both parents can draw Basiselterngeld at the same time in only one of the child's first twelve months (§ 4 (6) sentence 1). Premature births extend the total — 13, 14, 15 or 16 monthly payments where the child arrives at least six, eight, twelve or sixteen weeks before the calculated date (§ 4 (5)).

What are the deadlines, and where do you apply?

Apply for both in the first three months after the birth. § 7 (1) sentence 2 BEEG pays Elterngeld back only for the three months of life before the month your application arrives, and § 70 (1) sentence 2 EStG pays Kindergeld back only six calendar months. The Kindergeld claim itself survives four years, as leaflet KG 52-ju notes, but an unclaimed month is not paid out later. This is the one recommendation of this guide, and it is the cheapest one to follow — a birth, a move and a new job in the same quarter is exactly the situation in which a three-month window closes unnoticed, which is also why we go through the paperwork order with the people we place, at no cost to them because the employer pays our fee.

Kindergeld goes to the Familienkasse of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, online at familienkasse.de. You need a German tax identification number for yourself and one for the child: § 62 (1) sentence 2 EStG makes your own number a condition of the claim, § 63 (1) sentence 3 does the same for the child. A number issued later works backwards to the months in which the other conditions were met (§ 62 (1) sentence 3), so a missing tax ID is a reason to file now rather than to wait.

Elterngeld goes to the Elterngeldstelle of the federal state you live in. The application can be made at mein-elterngeldantrag.de, which routes it by postcode; the older ElterngeldDigital portal states on its own front page that applications can no longer be created there. Both parents sign: the applicant signs, and the other entitled parent signs to confirm they have seen it (§ 7 (3) BEEG).

Elternzeit is a third thing, and the site above says so in as many words — Elterngeld comes from the Elterngeldstelle, Elternzeit is requested from your employer. It is unpaid leave from work, requested in Textform at least seven weeks before it starts, or 13 weeks for a period after the child's third birthday, and the request has to say which periods within the next two years you intend to take (§ 16 (1) BEEG). The entitlement runs to the child's third birthday, with up to 24 months transferable to the span between the third and the eighth (§ 15 (2)), and you may work up to 32 hours a week during it (§ 15 (4)). From the moment you request it — at the earliest eight weeks before it begins — your employer may not terminate the contract (§ 18 (1)).