The LEA Berlin staff refused the Aufenthaltsdokument-GB and are now referring it up to the EU level, so the EU will make a final decision. As far as the Withdrawal Agreement goes, Anmeldung is just one about 8 forms of proof a British citizen can use to show they were living in Berlin prior to 1st January 2021. The advice I had was correct and came from the IOM, the British embassy and the German government. All I did was follow that. I went deep into it, researched and prepared for this over 12 months ago. I had legal advice from expert lawyers working pro-bono for the British community in Germany. Really kind, helpful people.
The German government only passed the Withdrawal Agreement into law in Autumn 2020. Brits did not have a year to prepare. The transition year had political wrangling all through it, right up until Christmas. No set rules or laws yet.
We couldn't even register for an appointment with the LEA until January 2021. I was advised from this point onwards to get an Anmeldung appointment later in the year if I couldn't get one in December 2020 - if you remember, this was during a Coronavirus lockdown. So Anmeldung between Nov-Dec 2020 just wasn't doable. This year I've had a long time to be persistent with the broken system and get it sorted, but deep down I just could not believe that my Withdrawal Agreement rights would be impinged on by something as trivial at a local civil level as that.
In Berlin regularly people go 3-4 months without being able to register with the city, some can't register at their accommodation at all as the landlord won't let them - and in no way does this impact their rights under the Withdrawal Agreement law.
Perhaps I was also not persistent enough as I intended to show other proofs at the LEA meeting for the residency, all valid ones. It is just that the case handler today at the LEA had a different opinion to the EU law and wasn't arsed in seeing the other documents, only in kicking me out of the room and issuing the Fiktionsbescheinigung, so that was it...
At the same time as making it as unpleasant as possible on a personal level, and as worrying as possible for me... mirroring many of the personalities and behaviour of some of the Berliners on this sub.
So I must ask myself now, whether it is worth the hassle to persist with a life here with my partner, at all, and what sort of life a foreigner can have in Berlin in the current climate especially a British citizen who through no fault of his own, had his country vote stupidly for something very unpopular in the eyes of his fellow Europeans.