An approval requirement in the new military service law has caused confusion in recent days. According to the law, which came into force on January 1, 2026, men between the ages of 17 and 45 must obtain permission from the Bundeswehr if they want to leave Germany for longer than three months. The Frankfurter Rundschau first reported on it.
The regulation is particularly interesting for employers with regard to foreign assignments. These should not actually take place if they are scheduled for a period of more than three months and the employee has not received appropriate approval from the Bundeswehr. According to Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), this regulation does not actually apply. According to Pistorius, an administrative regulation will be issued this week that will allow an exception to the approval requirement. But how did the confusion surrounding stays abroad arise?
The regulation on the authorization requirement has been part of the Military Service Act for decades. However, only in “cases of tension and defense”. The Military Service Modernization Act has been in effect since January 2026. Since then, this has required all men over the age of 18 to be recorded using a questionnaire. From July 2027 there will be mandatory mustering for men. However, the law does not provide for the reintroduction of full conscription. The new law also declared, among other things, the requirement for a foreign travel permit to apply if there is no case of tension or defense.
Conscription Act: Permission to travel abroad must be applied for
But due to a mix of paragraphs, things get complicated here, as lawyer Christian Solmecke from the law firm WBS Legal points out: The approval can only be granted for the period in which the person is not due to be called up for military service. However, since conscription into military service is generally not mandatory for anyone because military service is currently voluntary, approval must be given to everyone. But: Submitting the application is still mandatory for everyone. According to the wording of the regulation, men must therefore submit an application for approval, even though their stay must be approved one way or another. “That sounds totally paradoxical and is state bureaucracy in its purest form,” says Solmecke.
For companies, the approval process could potentially extend the preparation time for the foreign assignment. Sending employees abroad quickly for project work could work less well due to the additional bureaucratic step. They would also have to inform their affected employees that they need to request approval.
The controversial regulation is only now being discussed publicly – months after it came into force. As a result, many men did not even know that they needed a permit for a longer stay abroad, let alone where exactly they should contact the Bundeswehr and what an application for the permit should look like.
New regulation is intended to prevent the approval process
The Ministry of Defense confirmed the basic existence of the regulation to the Frankfurter Rundschau. Regarding practical implementation, however, it said: “We will make it clear through administrative regulations that the approval is deemed to have been granted as long as military service is voluntary.”
Boris Pistorius also emphasized this. “Nothing is changing for men at the moment: whether they are 17 or 45 years old or in between – everyone is of course allowed to travel and currently does not need a permit to do so,” Pistorius told the German Press Agency (dpa). “A longer stay abroad does not have to be reported. For this reason, we provide an exception to the reporting obligation fundamentally laid down in the law.”
From a labor law perspective, this appears to be only a semi-satisfactory solution. This emerges from the assessment of Matthias Kneissl, research assistant at the Chair of Private Law VII for Civil Law and Medical Law at the Bucerius Law School. An administrative regulation is not suitable for correcting an error in a law. Although it controls the enforcement of the law, it cannot suspend a legally standardized approval requirement. “As long as Section 3 Paragraph 2 WPflG in its current version actually requires approval, the obligation formally remains in place, regardless of whether the administration refrains from enforcing it,” writes Kneissl in his assessment for LTO. “The citizen can only rely on its content to a limited extent in the event of a dispute.” He therefore calls for clarification in the law.
As of now, nothing changes for foreign assignments and sabbaticals. At least as long as the Ministry of Defense removes the requirement for approval with a corresponding regulation. And as long as compulsory military service is not reintroduced.
Lena Onderka is editorially responsible for the Employee Experience & Retention area – which also includes, for example, the topics of BGM and employee surveys. She also looks after the topic of diversity. She is also the editorial contact for the German Human Resources Summit and the HR Forum Banking.
