What is the Federal Portal?

Welcome to the Federal Portal!

The Federal Portal (Bundesportal) is the central point of access to online services provided by Germany’s federal, state and local governments – your “office for everything”. The Federal Portal is managed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community.

Where does the information come from?

The information you can find on the Federal Portal is provided by the relevant competent authorities: they can be large federal agencies, state agencies, or small district authorities. This portal offers reliable information and administrative services, all on one site.

What can I do here?

Do you wish to apply for a fishing licence or a building permit, get married or file for divorce? You can find out more about all of these administrative acts on the Federal Portal. For many services, you will also be able to fill in the necessary forms and documents right on the website, send them from there to the competent authority and finish the process online. Step by step, additional administrative services will be added which you will be able to access online via the portal without having to make an appointment with the authorities.

How do I find the competent authority?

By entering a keyword on the portal’s homepage, you will be quickly guided to the agency responsible. Do you want to go fishing? Then enter a keyword (e.g. “fishing licence”) into the search field on the homepage. You will then see a list of search results and two filter options. The first is a location filter where you can enter your location or postal code. If you use this filter, you will only be shown results for your region. The second filter can be used to limit your search results to specific categories. For example, by entering the search term “fishing licence”, you will find categories such as “fishing” and “maritime transport” (please note that some categories are currently only shown in German). 

How else can I use the portal?

In addition to using the keyword search, you can also search by topic area: personal matters and business matters. You can navigate through the topic areas by clicking the buttons. For example, under the heading “All Personal Matters”, you will find the button “Birth”, under “All Business Matters” you will find the button “Logistics”.

Why does the Federal Portal exist?

The Federal Portal is based on the Online Access Act (OZG) of 2017. This Act obliges federal, state and local governments to offer their administrative services also online and to connect their internet portals to a single point of access, the Federal Portal. The portal is organised by topics rather than by which agency offers what service. The aim is to make Germany’s administration more responsive to citizens’ needs as well as more transparent and efficient.

Where can I ask my question?

The Federal Portal is supposed to be easy to understand and self-explanatory. Where this is not the case, you will always be able to ask a question if information is missing or not understandable.

You can find answers to frequently asked questions here: Frequently Asked Questions

You can ask your individual questions here: Support

Suggestions and criticism

We are happy to receive your suggestions, criticism and proposals for improvement which we will use to further enhance the Federal Portal.

You are welcome to use our feedback form: Feedback

European dimension

In 2018, the European Parliament and the European Council adopted the Regulation Establishing a Single Digital Gateway (SDG) to create a single point of access to public administration in the European Union. The SDG and Germany’s Federal Portal pursue the same goal: to make online services offered by the public administration more helpful and easier to use. In addition, citizens should be able to find all services provided by public administration via a single portal.

At European level, the information portal Your Europe is being established as the central point of access for citizens and businesses of the European Union. Your Europe will be linked to the national portals of the Member States – in Germany this is the Federal Portal.

Assistance and problem-solving services in the EU

The European Union offers assistance services intended to help citizens and businesses exercise their rights in the EU single market – for example when it comes to providing product information, recognising professional qualifications or answering consumers’ questions. You can find more information on this in our menu under assistance services.