Deadline for an unfair dismissal claim: 3 weeks from receipt

What happens after the claim, what it costs and when it is worthwhile is explained in our main guide on the unfair dismissal claim. This guide is only about the deadline.

Deadline calculator: when does your deadline end?

When does the deadline for an unfair dismissal claim start?

The deadline starts on receipt of the written notice of dismissal (Sec. 4 sentence 1 KSchG). A letter has been received as soon as it has come within your sphere in such a way that you can be expected to take note of it under ordinary circumstances (Sec. 130 (1) BGB). Whether you actually read it does not matter, and the date in the letterhead is irrelevant.

Handed over in person

If the employer or a messenger hands you the letter in person, it is received immediately, even if you only open the envelope at home.

Put in the letterbox

With a letterbox, what matters is when, according to common practice, the next emptying can be expected. The Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) does not look at your personal habits but at a general view; local postal delivery times may play a role. If the letter is only put in the letterbox late in the evening, it is usually received the next day. There is no fixed cut-off time (BAG, judgment of 22 August 2019, 2 AZR 111/19). Registered mail delivered to the letterbox (Einwurf-Einschreiben) is treated like a normal letter in the letterbox.

Registered mail requiring a signature

If the postal worker does not find you at home and you only find a delivery notice, the dismissal has not yet been received. It is usually only received when you collect the letter from the post office. So do not leave registered mail uncollected to gain time. That can be regarded as frustrating receipt.

Holiday, illness, hospital

If the dismissal is in your letterbox during your holiday or illness, it has still been received. According to the case law of the Federal Labour Court, you must make arrangements yourself for receiving your post. The deadline therefore runs even if you know nothing about it. Only late admission can help then (see below).

Handed to family members

If your spouse or a flatmate accepts the letter at the door, it is usually received at the time when it can be expected under normal circumstances to be passed on to you.

Dismissal requiring the consent of an authority

If the dismissal requires the consent of an authority, for example the Integration Office (Integrationsamt, the authority responsible for severely disabled employees) in the case of severely disabled people, the deadline only runs from when the authority's decision is notified to you (Sec. 4 sentence 4 KSchG). Exactly when this exception applies depends on whether the consent had already been given before the dismissal and whether the employer knew of the special protection against dismissal. To be on the safe side, count from receipt of the dismissal anyway.

How to calculate the 3-week deadline

The calculation follows the BGB, which also applies to court deadlines via Sec. 222 (1) ZPO:

1. Determine the day of receipt. It is not counted, because the deadline is triggered by an event in the course of the day (Sec. 187 (1) BGB).
2. Count on 3 weeks. The deadline ends at the end of the day of the third week that has the same weekday as the day of receipt (Sec. 188 (2) BGB). Receipt on a Tuesday means the deadline ends on the Tuesday 3 weeks later, at midnight.
3. Check weekends and public holidays. If the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or general public holiday, the deadline ends at the end of the next working day (Sec. 222 (2) ZPO).

Example: The dismissal is in your letterbox on Friday, 13 November 2026, and is received that day. The deadline ends on Friday, 4 December 2026, at midnight.

Examples for 2026 and 2027

The following dates are calculated under Sec. 187, 188 BGB and Sec. 222 (2) ZPO. Nationwide public holidays are taken into account; state public holidays are shown in the last column.

Receipt of the dismissal	Weekday	Arithmetical end	Actual end of the deadline	Reason for postponement
28 Oct 2026	Wednesday	Wed 18 Nov 2026	Wed 18 Nov 2026, in Saxony Thu 19 Nov 2026	Day of Repentance and Prayer only in Saxony
13 Nov 2026	Friday	Fri 4 Dec 2026	Fri 4 Dec 2026	none
14 Nov 2026	Saturday	Sat 5 Dec 2026	Mon 7 Dec 2026	Saturday
4 Dec 2026	Friday	Fri 25 Dec 2026	Mon 28 Dec 2026	Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Sunday
10 Dec 2026	Thursday	Thu 31 Dec 2026	Thu 31 Dec 2026	none, New Year's Eve is not a public holiday
11 Dec 2026	Friday	Fri 1 Jan 2027	Mon 4 Jan 2027	New Year's Day, weekend
16 Dec 2026	Wednesday	Wed 6 Jan 2027	Wed 6 Jan 2027, in BW, BY, ST Thu 7 Jan 2027	Epiphany only in some states
15 Feb 2027	Monday	Mon 8 Mar 2027	Mon 8 Mar 2027, in BE, MV Tue 9 Mar 2027	International Women's Day only in some states
5 Mar 2027	Friday	Fri 26 Mar 2027	Tue 30 Mar 2027	Good Friday, weekend, Easter Monday
15 Apr 2027	Thursday	Thu 6 May 2027	Fri 7 May 2027	Ascension Day
26 Apr 2027	Monday	Mon 17 May 2027	Tue 18 May 2027	Whit Monday
6 May 2027	Thursday	Thu 27 May 2027	Thu 27 May 2027, in BW, BY, HE, NW, RP, SL Fri 28 May 2027	Corpus Christi only in some states, in SN only in the regions designated by ordinance, in TH only in some municipalities
11 Oct 2027	Monday	Mon 1 Nov 2027	Mon 1 Nov 2027, in BW, BY, NW, RP, SL Tue 2 Nov 2027	All Saints' Day only in some states

State public holidays: checked against the public holiday act of the state for Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Saxony; for the other states. What counts is the public holiday at the seat of the labour court where you file the claim. The Assumption of Mary (15 August) is only a public holiday in Bavaria in municipalities with a predominantly Catholic population (Art. 1 (1) no. 2 FTG Bayern); in Augsburg, 8 August is also a public holiday (Art. 1 (2) FTG Bayern).

When does the deadline end at a weekend or on a public holiday?

On the next working day. This follows from Sec. 222 (2) ZPO, which applies to proceedings before the labour court via Sec. 46 (2) ArbGG. Sec. 193 BGB is often cited at this point. Its wording, however, only covers deadlines within which a declaration of intent must be made or a performance rendered. Filing a claim is neither. In the result, this changes nothing: the deadline for the claim is also postponed to the next working day.

Only the end is postponed, not the start: if you receive the dismissal on a Saturday, Saturday is the day of receipt. And only statutory public holidays count; Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are not among them.

Which dismissals does the deadline apply to?

The 3-week deadline applies if you want to assert that the dismissal is socially unjustified or invalid for other reasons (Sec. 4 sentence 1 KSchG). This covers almost every error.

Type of dismissal	Does the 3-week deadline apply?	Legal basis
Ordinary dismissal	yes	Sec. 4 sentence 1 KSchG
Summary dismissal	yes	Sec. 13 (1) sentence 2 KSchG
Dismissal with an offer of altered terms (Änderungskündigung)	yes, claim against the change; a reservation must be declared within the notice period, at the latest within 3 weeks	Sec. 4 sentence 2, Sec. 2 KSchG
Dismissal during probation or in the first 6 months	yes	Sec. 4 KSchG applies regardless of Sec. 1 KSchG
Dismissal in a small business	yes	Sec. 23 (1) sentences 2 and 3 KSchG
Mini-job and part-time	yes, mini-jobbers are employees	Sec. 4 sentence 1 KSchG, Sec. 2 (2) TzBfG
Dismissal by email, text message or orally	not according to the wording, because the deadline is linked to the written dismissal	Sec. 4 sentence 1 KSchG, Sec. 623 BGB
End of a fixed-term contract	separate 3-week deadline from the agreed end	Sec. 17 TzBfG

If you receive several dismissals, for example without notice and alternatively with notice, a separate deadline runs for each. If you filed the claim in time, you can also rely on reasons you did not yet mention in the claim until the close of the oral hearing at first instance (Sec. 6 KSchG). The claim therefore does not have to be perfect, only on time. More on the summary variant is in our guide on summary dismissal, and on probation in our guide on the notice period during probation.

Can the deadline be extended?

No. Neither the court nor your employer can extend the statutory 3 weeks. Settlement talks with the employer, a severance offer or waiting for confirmation of cover from your legal expenses insurer do not stop the deadline either. If your employer offers you severance under Sec. 1a KSchG, that entitlement even requires you to let the deadline pass (Sec. 1a (1) KSchG). You should make this decision consciously before the deadline expires.

Deadline missed: what now?

Once the deadline has expired, the dismissal is deemed valid from the outset (Sec. 7 KSchG). The only option left is late admission of the claim under Sec. 5 KSchG.

Requirements for late admission

On application, the court admits the claim late if, despite all the care that could reasonably be expected of you, you were prevented from filing the claim in time (Sec. 5 (1) sentence 1 KSchG). The same applies if a woman only learns of her pregnancy after the deadline has expired for a reason for which she is not responsible (Sec. 5 (1) sentence 2 KSchG).

The standard is strict. Whether a reason is sufficient is decided by the court in the individual case:

Situation	Late admission possible?
Dismissal arrived during a longer holiday trip, return only after the deadline expired	often yes
serious illness that made any action impossible, for example in hospital without the possibility of instructing anyone	in individual cases
pregnancy that you only learn of after the deadline expired	yes, if you are not responsible for learning of it late (Sec. 5 (1) sentence 2 KSchG)
claim posted in time but in transit for an unusually long time	in individual cases
you did not know about the 3-week deadline	usually no
you negotiated with the employer or waited for the legal expenses insurer	usually no
your lawyer missed the deadline	no, the lawyer's fault is attributed to you (Sec. 85 (2) ZPO)

Application: deadline, form and content

• Deadline: The application is only admissible within 2 weeks after the obstacle has been removed. After 6 months from the end of the missed deadline, it is excluded altogether (Sec. 5 (3) KSchG).
• Claim with it: The claim must be filed together with the application; if it has already been filed, the application refers to it (Sec. 5 (2) sentence 1 KSchG).
• Reasons: The application must state the facts that explain the delay and the means by which you substantiate them (Sec. 5 (2) sentence 2 KSchG), for example booking confirmations, medical certificates or a statutory declaration.
• Decision: The labour court combines the application with the claim. It may initially hear only the question of admission and then decides by interim judgment (Sec. 5 (4) KSchG).

Example: The dismissal is in your letterbox on Friday, 13 November 2026, while you are away for 4 weeks. The deadline ends on 4 December 2026. You return on Monday, 14 December 2026, and find the letter. The application together with the claim must then reach the labour court by Monday, 28 December 2026. The outer limit of 6 months after the end of the deadline is 4 June 2027.

How do you file the claim in time?

What meets the deadline is receipt of the claim by the labour court. Formally, the claim is only brought once it has been served on the employer (Sec. 253 (1) ZPO), but the deadline is already met on receipt if the court serves the claim shortly afterwards (Sec. 167 ZPO). The competent court is usually the labour court at your employer's registered office or at your usual place of work. If the claim reaches a labour court that lacks jurisdiction, it is referred.

Route	What you need	What to watch out for
Legal applications office (Rechtsantragstelle) of the labour court	ID, letter of dismissal with envelope, employment contract	claim recorded by the court office (Sec. 496 ZPO, Sec. 46 (2) ArbGG); check opening hours in advance
Letter or delivery to the court	signed statement of claim, copy of the dismissal	sign it (Sec. 130 no. 6 ZPO), enclose a copy (Sec. 253 (5) ZPO), allow for postal delivery time
Fax	signed statement of claim	copy must show the signature (Sec. 130 no. 6 ZPO), keep the transmission report
Electronically	secure transmission channel, for example a user account under the Online Access Act, or a qualified electronic signature	a simple email is not enough (Sec. 46c (3) and (4) ArbGG); received when stored by the court (Sec. 46c (5) ArbGG)
Through a lawyer	dismissal, employment contract, payslips, details of receipt	lawyers file electronically (Sec. 46g ArbGG); give the exact date of receipt

The deadline runs until midnight on the last day. Many courts have a night letterbox into which you can put the claim even after office hours. Still allow a buffer. What belongs in a statement of claim is shown in our main guide on the unfair dismissal claim.

When does the employer learn of the claim?

Through the court. It serves the statement of claim on the employer and summons both sides to the conciliation hearing. The claim must be served on the employer at least one week before the hearing (Sec. 47 (1) ArbGG). You therefore do not have to inform your employer yourself, but you may.

Other deadlines after a dismissal

The deadline for the claim is the most important deadline, but not the only one. Some are even shorter.

Deadline	Duration	Legal basis	Consequence if missed
Register as a jobseeker with the employment agency (Agentur für Arbeit)	3 months before the end, otherwise within 3 days of learning of it	Sec. 38 (1) SGB III	1-week suspension of unemployment benefit (Sec. 159 (1) sentence 2 no. 9, (6) SGB III)
Reject the dismissal if no original power of attorney is enclosed	without delay	Sec. 174 BGB	rejection no longer possible
Reservation in case of a dismissal with an offer of altered terms	within the notice period, at the latest 3 weeks	Sec. 2 KSchG	offer of change can only be accepted or rejected as a whole
Inform the employer of a pregnancy if it did not know	2 weeks after receipt of the dismissal	Sec. 17 (1) MuSchG	special protection against dismissal may be lost, exception for delay through no fault
Unfair dismissal claim	3 weeks from receipt	Sec. 4 KSchG	dismissal deemed valid (Sec. 7 KSchG)

When your employment actually ends depends on the notice period. The scale by length of service is in our guide on notice periods for employees.

Checklist: do this today

1. Write down the day and time of receipt, keep the envelope, note any witnesses.
2. Calculate the end of the deadline using the table above and enter it in your calendar, with a reminder one week before.
3. Register as a jobseeker.
4. Check whether an original power of attorney was enclosed; if not, decide immediately whether to reject the dismissal.
5. Gather documents: employment contract, payslips, formal warnings, evidence of pregnancy or severe disability.
6. File the claim or instruct a lawyer, not only in the last week.

General questions about the employment outside the dismissal are answered through written advice from our employment lawyer, also at a fixed price.