A woman who worked at the immigration office in Cologne’s Ehrenfeld district has been in custody for months after being accused of involvement in a so-called people smuggling ring.

She is alleged to have helped Indian nationals obtain German residence permits, and used an apartment of hers in Cologne-Höhenberg as an address for them, receiving several thousand euros per case, according to reporting by the Cologne-based public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR), citing the public prosecutor's office in Darmstadt.

Four people, including her husband, have been charged in connection with the alleged smuggling operation. 

"The proceedings are running against a total of four people," the public prosecutor's office affirmed. 

The woman, who was working at the Ausländeramt Ehrenfeld (Foreigners' office in a multi-ethnic district of Cologne known as Ehrenfeld) at the time, was arrested alongside her husband in early December 2025. The woman has since been dismissed from her job.

Few further details about her have been made public. In a post on social media networks, the woman describes herself as a "specialist advisor for residence decisions," according to WDR.  

The trial is expected to begin in February 2027.

Alleged sham marriages

Suspicions surrounding a man in the state of Hessen led investigators to Cologne, according to WDR. There, authorities noticed irregularities in cases handled by the female employee, prompting further investigation and eventually leading to her arrest in early December 2025.

Criminal defense lawyer Marc Piel, who represents one of the four accused, described how the alleged smuggling network is said to have operated. According to Piel, Indian men were brought to the island of Cyprus in southern Europe to marry women from Eastern Europe. The couples allegedly met for the first time in Cyprus.

Read AlsoGermany: Reports suggest incidents of 'fake' asylum applications from Turkey

First, the marriages were allegedly arranged in Cyprus to enable the Indian men to enter the European Union (EU). The second step allegedly took place in Cologne, Germany. The female employee at the Cologne immigration office is accused of approving applications despite forged supporting documents. The public prosecutor’s office alleged that the female employee  "waved through" forged certificates with the respective applications and forms through the immigration office.

The prosecutor’s office alleges that she allowed the documents to pass through without proper scrutiny.

More than 20 Indian men are believed to have been involved and made use of the alleged scam.

The employee is also alleged to have used her professional expertise to advise other suspected members of the network and to influence the handling of their cases in her official role. According to the prosecutor’s office, she and her husband received several thousand euros for each case.

Furthermore, the woman is also accused of allowing the men who were brought to Germany to use her apartment in Cologne’s Höhenberg district as their address. A neighbor told public broadcaster WDR that authorities made an arrest at that address too. 

CDU party calls for probe into Cologne immigration office

The allegations against the  immigration employee have prompted criticism and calls for greater oversight. Bernd Petelkau, chairman of the Cologne conservative CDU party, slammed the case as a "scandal" in an interview with WDR, adding that public trust will be "shaken" if the allegations are confirmed to be true. 

Meanwhile, Detlef Seif, the CDU’s representative on the German Bundestag’s Committee on Internal Affairs, has called for Cologne’s immigration office to be inspected by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). He told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger that the city of Cologne is "failing in its role as an employer" and that the allegations could undermine public confidence in Germany’s asylum and migration policies.

Read AlsoGermany: Associations write open letter to government demanding asylum protections against AfD

How did Cologne react to the allegations?

Three days after the allegations against the immigration employee became public, Cologne city issued its first statement on the case. City officials said it had supported the investigation by providing the authorities with the necessary information and documents and granting access to relevant municipal buildings. It also said it had conducted a review of the cases handled by the employee and had already withdrawn residence permits that had been issued unlawfully. 

Personnel and disciplinary measures had been taken against the former employee, the city officials announced, adding that investigators had so far found no evidence that other employees or the immigration office as a whole were involved in the alleged smuggling operation.

What will happen now?

The case has raised questions about how the employee was allegedly able to exploit her position and for financial gains, and whether the office’s existing safeguards were enough to prevent misconduct.

The case is not the first of its kind to embroil Cologne’s immigration office. In 2023, another employee was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for falsifying documents to help Syrian refugees obtain residence rights.

In response to the latest scandal, Cologne city authorities defended its immigration office, saying there were already several safeguards in place, including periodic inspections and a system requiring more than one employee to review residence permit decisions.

Cologne says these checks could help establish how the alleged scheme went unnoticed. The city has also said it has begun reviewing its internal procedures in response to the allegations.

It remains unclear what will happen to the residence permits allegedly obtained through the alleged operation and whether any further residence permits may need to be revoked.