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Berlin residence permit: upload documents, 7 MB
Short answer
- The English service pages on service.berlin.de for the online applications of the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA), Berlin’s immigration office, give the same upload rules: PDF, JPG, JPEG and PNG, 7 MB at most per file and 100 MB at most for all files together. PDF is preferred.
- This covers the EU Blue Card, settlement permits, residence permits for skilled workers, the Opportunity Card and studies. Turn photographed pages into one PDF with Image to PDF. iPhone HEIC photos are not on the list, so convert them with HEIC to JPG first.
- If a file is over 7 MB, enter 6.5 MB as the target in Compress PDF. FileLivo counts 1 MB as 1,048,576 bytes, so 7 MB in FileLivo would already be more than 7 million bytes.
The official upload rules
Many residence permits in Berlin are applied for online. Each permit has its own service page on service.berlin.de, and the English versions of the pages listed below contain the same paragraph about the documents you upload. The table quotes it word for word.
| Rule | Wording on service.berlin.de |
|---|---|
| File formats | “The following file formats are accepted: PDF, JPG, JPEG, and PNG.” |
| Size per file | “A single file must not exceed 7 MB in size.” Some pages say “must be a maximum of 7 MB in size.” |
| Size of all files | “The total size of your files must not exceed 100 MB.” |
| PDF preferred | “Please have all the necessary documents ready for this in PDF format if possible.” |
| Photos during the application | “However, you can also still photograph and upload the documents during the application process using your smartphone or tablet.” |
Which applications this applies to
We compared these English service pages on 2026-11-02. All of them have the upload rules above and say: “Before you can send off the application, you need to pay the service fee.” All eight pages name credit card (Visa, Mastercard) or PayPal as the way to pay. The fees are the ones printed on each page.
| Permit (page title) | Online application | Fees on the page |
|---|---|---|
| EU Blue Card | Application for an EU Blue Card | 56 € first issue, 49 € renewal (sticker label); 100 € / 93 € as an electronic residence permit (eAT) |
| Residence permit for qualified skilled workers with vocational training | Application for a residence permit for employment as a skilled worker | 56 € first issue, 49 € renewal (sticker label); 100 € / 93 € as an electronic residence permit (eAT) |
| Residence permit for qualified skilled workers with an academic education | Application for a residence permit for employment as a skilled worker | 56 € first issue, 49 € renewal (sticker label); 100 € / 93 € as an electronic residence permit (eAT) |
| Opportunity card (Chancenkarte) | Application for a residence permit as an Opportunity card for job searches | 56 € (sticker) or 100 € (eAT) after entry with a national D visa; 54 € or 98 € when changing from an EU Blue Card or another employment permit |
| Residence permit for the purpose of full-time studies | Application for a residence permit for language and study purposes | 56 € first issue, 49 € renewal (sticker label); 100 € / 93 € as an electronic residence permit (eAT) |
| Permanent settlement permit for EU Blue Card holders | Niederlassungserlaubnis für Fachkräfte | 56.50 € processing fee with the online application, plus a 56.50 € issuing fee at the appointment |
| Permanent settlement permit for qualified skilled workers | Niederlassungserlaubnis für Fachkräfte | 73.50 € + 73.50 € for highly skilled workers with a university degree; 56.50 € + 56.50 € in all other cases |
| Permanent settlement permit (general) | Niederlassungserlaubnis allgemein / Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU | 56.50 € processing fee with the online application, plus a 56.50 € issuing fee at the appointment |
The pages also list lower fees for Turkish nationals, and the residence permit pages add 6 euros for a digital passport photo taken at the self-service terminal on site. The upload is not the last step: each page says “If your application is considered to be successful, you will be given an appointment for an in-person interview.”
Family reunification
On 2026-03-23 the LEA announced that six family residence permits can now be applied for online, including for the spouse or minor child of a foreign national or of a German. Their pages are not all in English. The page for the spouse of a foreign national opens under an English address but is still in German, with a note that the English translation will follow. Its upload rules are the same: PDF, JPG, JPEG or PNG, 7 MB per file, 100 MB in total, and photos taken during the application are allowed.
The page “Residence permit for spouses and children of skilled workers, students, trainees, scientists and teachers” says: “You can only submit the application to us on site.” There is no online upload for that application, so check which page matches your situation before you prepare files.
Before you start the application
Prepare every file before you open the form. You pay the fee at the end, before the application can be sent, and finding out then that one scan is 9 MB means shrinking it in a hurry. Keep the originals in a separate folder, and give each upload a name that says what it is, such as “employment-contract.pdf” or “payslips-april-september.pdf”.
What 7 MB and 100 MB mean in practice
A phone photo is often 2 to 5 MB, and a color scan of a long contract can easily pass 7 MB. The total is more generous: 100 MB is enough for 14 files of almost 7 MB. If you have many documents, such as six months of payslips, a rental contract, health insurance proof, a degree certificate and its recognition, keep each file as small as it can be while staying readable.
Turn photographed pages into one PDF
The pages allow photos but prefer PDF. A multi-page document such as an employment contract is easier to check as one PDF than as loose photos. To make one:
- Photograph or scan each page well. Lay the page flat on a dark surface, shoot straight down in good light, and check that names, dates and stamps are sharp. A scanner that saves PDF directly usually makes smaller files. See scanning documents with your phone for more tips.
- Put the images into one PDF. Open Image to PDF, press “Choose files” and select the photos. Use the up and down buttons next to each image to set the order. Leave Conversion mode on Basic conversion, set the Page size to A4 and press “Create PDF”. Each photo becomes one page, and the result, images.pdf, is saved with “Download”.
- Check the size. After the conversion FileLivo shows the original size and the result size. The PDF is about as large as the photos together. If it is under 7 MB you are done; if not, read the next section.
- Rename it. Give the file a name that says what is inside before you upload it.
When a file is over 7 MB
- Try safe compression first. Open Compress PDF and pick your file with “Choose PDF file”. Safe compression reorganizes the PDF without losing quality and keeps text and links, but the saving may be small or zero.
- For photos and scans, use strong compression with a target. Strong compression rebuilds each page as an image. Under Target size, enter 6.5 in Target, choose MB and press “Compress PDF”. Searchable text and links are lost, which is usually fine for a scanned certificate.
- Check the result. The target is not guaranteed. If it is missed, FileLivo shows “The target was not reached, but the smallest result found is ready.” Zoom in and check names, amounts, stamps and signatures.
- Split it if it is still too large. Open Split PDF, enter a range such as 1-6 in Pages to split and press “Extract selected pages into one PDF”. Repeat for the remaining pages and name the parts so the order is clear, for example “contract-part-1.pdf”.
Compress PDF does not process encrypted or digitally signed PDFs. If a document was issued with an electronic signature, such as some digital certificates or bank statements, upload it unchanged if it is under 7 MB, because any edit can break the signature. More ways to make a PDF smaller are in reducing PDF size for an upload.
Combining several files into one document
If several PDFs belong to one piece of evidence, such as six separate payslips, you can combine them. Open Merge PDF, press “Choose PDF files” and put the files in order: drag them on a computer, or use the arrows on a phone. Files merge from top to bottom, and “Merge … PDFs” creates merged.pdf.
Merging does not save space. The new PDF is about as large as all the files together and must still be under 7 MB. You only see how many upload fields the form offers for each document once you are in it, so merge only what clearly belongs together.
Common problems
| Problem | Likely cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A file will not upload | It is larger than 7 MB | Compress it with a 6.5 MB target, or split it with Split PDF |
| An iPhone photo is rejected | HEIC is not an accepted format | Convert it with HEIC to JPG, or make a PDF from JPG photos |
| A Word file or WebP image is rejected | Only PDF, JPG, JPEG and PNG are accepted | Save Word documents as PDF; save WebP images as JPG with Convert Image |
| Every file is small enough, but you cannot continue | All files together are over 100 MB | Shrink the largest files further, and resize photos before turning them into a PDF |
| Text is blurry after compression | The target was too small for the number of pages | Use a larger target and split the document instead |
| “Encrypted PDFs are not processed.” | The PDF has a password, as some bank statements do | Ask the issuer for an unprotected copy, or upload the original if it is small enough |
Before you send the application
- Each file is under 7 MB, and all files together are under 100 MB.
- Every file is PDF, JPG, JPEG or PNG, not HEIC, WebP or Word.
- All pages are complete, the right way up and readable, also after shrinking.
- The file names say what is inside.
- You can pay the fee straight away by credit card (Visa, Mastercard) or PayPal.
FileLivo is an independent tool and is not connected with the State of Berlin or the LEA. It does not upload anything to the application portal: your files are processed in your browser and not sent to a server. You upload them yourself in the online application. Whether your documents are sufficient is decided by the LEA.
Official sources
- Service Berlin, “EU Blue Card” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Residence permit for qualified skilled workers with vocational training” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Residence permit for qualified skilled workers with an academic education” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Opportunity card (Chancenkarte)” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Residence permit for the purpose of full-time studies” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Permanent settlement permit for EU Blue Card holders - application” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Permanent settlement permit for qualified skilled workers - application” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Permanent settlement permit (general) - application” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Aufenthaltserlaubnis für den ausländischen Ehegatten eines Ausländers beantragen (German only)” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Service Berlin, “Residence permit for spouses and children of skilled workers, students, trainees, scientists and teachers (on site only)” (no date shown; checked 2026-11-02): service.berlin.de
- Landesamt für Einwanderung, announcement of 2026-03-23 on online applications for family residence permits (checked 2026-11-02): berlin.de/einwanderung