How to check your Flensburg points

Why expats should look at their file

Many people who move to Germany never think about Flensburg until a letter from the licensing office arrives. Points collected on a foreign licence are stored like any others, and the register is the same one the authority checks when you exchange your licence, apply for a professional driving permit or face a new fine. Knowing your total before that happens costs nothing: Section 30(8) StVG gives you the right to a free written statement of every entry about you and the resulting points. The KBA calls it gebührenfrei, meaning free of fees, and no reason has to be given.

Only you receive the statement. Section 30 lists who else may get data from the register, and it names courts, fine offices, licensing authorities and bodies dealing with passenger and freight transport. Private employers and landlords are not on that list, although an employer may ask you to show your own extract when you apply for a job that involves driving.

Online: which cards work

The quickest route is the online service, which needs an identity document with an activated eID chip. The law names three: the German Personalausweis, the eID card that Germany issues to citizens of other EU and EEA countries, and the electronic residence permit (eAT) that most non-EU residents carry. A foreign passport does not work here, even a biometric one, because the KBA reads the German eID chip through the AusweisApp. You need the app on a phone with NFC or a card reader, and the six-digit PIN. Many people received a PIN letter with their residence permit and never used it; if you have lost it, ask the office that issued the card, usually the immigration office (Ausländerbehörde), about setting a new one.

After you log in, the app reads your data from the chip, and the extract is offered as a PDF. Keep a copy, because the same document is useful when talking to the licensing office or a seminar provider, and it saves you a second request.

By post: the route that works from anywhere

A simple letter is enough. Give your full name, any birth name, date and place of birth and current postal address, ask for an extract from the Fahreignungsregister, and sign it by hand; the handwritten signature is a legal requirement for written requests. Enclose a legible copy of both sides of your ID card or the photo page of your passport, or have your signature officially certified instead. Send it to Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, 24932 Flensburg. The reply comes to the address you give, which can be outside Germany.

The copy is only used to match your letter to your identity. Name, date of birth and photo should be clearly readable. If your passport shows no address, the address in your letter is where the reply goes, so write it in full, including the country.

In person in Flensburg

The KBA also accepts requests at its head office, Fördestraße 16, 24944 Flensburg, on presentation of a valid passport or ID card. Flensburg is close to the Danish border and a long way from Munich or Frankfurt, so this option mostly suits people who live in Schleswig-Holstein.

What the extract contains

You will see the final decisions recorded about you: fine decisions with points, convictions for traffic crimes, driving bans, licence withdrawals, and administrative steps such as a reminder or warning and completed seminars, plus your point total. Section 59 of the Driving Licence Ordinance sets out what is stored for each decision: the authority that took it with its file number and date, the place, date and time of the offence, whether an accident was involved, the date the decision became final, the fine or ban, and whether it counts for one, two or three points. For a seminar, the record shows when it ended, when the certificate was issued and when it reached the authority. Small fines of up to €55 are never there. Nor is a case that is still open: if you have lodged an objection (Einspruch) against a fine notice, the entry only appears once the decision is final. The guide to Flensburg points explains how each offence is weighted.

Reading the dates

Each entry carries two dates that are easy to mix up. The Tattag is the day of the offence. The date of Rechtskraft is the day the decision became final, typically two weeks after a fine notice was delivered. Expiry runs from the second date only, under Section 29(4) StVG.

On the expiry date (Tilgungsreife) the entry stops counting towards new offences. It is only deleted after a holding period of one year, during which it still shows on your extract by design. If your own count comes out higher than you expected, check first whether one of the entries is already past its expiry date. New drivers see entries even longer: while you are recorded as holding a probationary licence, offences with points are not deleted at all. To get your exact total on a given day, enter each entry in the points calculator.

A worked example

Suppose your extract lists two points for a driving ban that became final on 1 December 2022, one point for a red light final on 15 April 2024, and one point for using a phone final on 3 February 2026. On 11 October 2026 all three still count, giving 4 points, which is the reminder stage. The red-light point expires on 15 October 2026, so by 1 November 2026 your total is 3, even though the extract will keep showing the old line until 15 October 2027.

The timing matters more than it seems. If you commit a new offence before the expiry date, the authority counts the total on the day of that offence, even if the decision only becomes final weeks later. Since the 2014 reform, a new offence no longer extends older entries; each one runs out on its own date.

When a line does not look like yours

Names written in other alphabets, double surnames and changed addresses make matching harder. Courts and fine offices report decisions to the KBA, which assigns them using personal data; where identity is in doubt, Section 28(5) StVG lets it consult the central licence register, the vehicle register and, if needed, the population register. If the doubt remains, the entries of both people are flagged. Should your extract show a decision you do not recognise, compare the date of the offence and the authority named in the entry, then ask that authority for the underlying decision.

No limit on requests

The law does not cap how often you may ask. Requesting a fresh extract after each new fine, or after an entry should have expired, is allowed and costs nothing. If you are about to swap a foreign licence for a German one, an up-to-date extract also shows what the licensing office will see; the steps of that process are on the page about exchanging a foreign licence.

When a check makes sense

Three moments stand out for people living here. Before exchanging a foreign licence, because the licensing office will see the same file. After a reminder at four or five points, because a driver improvement seminar still removes a point up to 5, and the register shows whether you used that option in the last five years. And during the probationary period, where one more offence can mean a remedial course. What can legally be done about a high total is covered on the page about reducing your points.