The German missions abroad in column b above offer courier service for postal ballot documents to be sent from the electoral offices in Germany to foreign countries, provided that you have contacted the competent German mission beforehand and arranged for the documents to be sent that way.
In that case, the procedure is as follows:
The electoral documents have to be contained in a separate envelope which has been sealed and clearly marked as containing such documents (“Wahlsache”) and bears the name(s) of the person(s) entitled to vote. That envelope is inserted into another one and sent, with sufficient postage for Germany, to the following address by the electoral office:
Federal Foreign Office
for Embassy/Consulate-General/Consulate (location)
Kurstraße 36
10117 Berlin
Germany.
Please make sure to ask your electoral office to do so when you file your application.
The Federal Foreign Office will pass the letter on by official courier service to the respective German mission abroad. There the documents will have to be collected by yourself or a proxy.
On account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the documents may as an exception be forwarded to people entitled to vote if the German mission deems it appropriate (for instance in the case of travel restrictions). This has to be arranged with the German mission. The forwarding costs have to be borne by the voters. A return envelope with sufficient postage and your address on it must be sent to the German mission for that purpose.
We would recommend that you contact the respective German mission in time to find out how long it takes for letters to be delivered via the official courier service (such deliveries may take longer due to COVID-19), about their being retained for you and handed over to you or sent to you.
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