Obtaining a work permit for Germany is not always easy. Your success in the application process depends on various factors: your nationality, your occupation, even your annual salary. Here are the key aspects that you have to keep in mind.
General Considerations
Over the past few years, the German government has tried to encourage the migration of highly qualified professionals by introducing a new residence title for Germany. The aging population and a shortage of engineers, IT specialists, healthcare staff, etc. have become major challenges.
EU nationals, as well as people from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, don’t need a visa or official permission to hold a job in Germany. However, intra-European migration may not be enough to compensate for the lack of qualified employees. Therefore, getting a work visa (aka “Blue Card EU”) has become easier for selected, well-paid third-country nationals with a university degree.
Nowadays, an employment permit for Germany is usually issued together with their residence permit. Plenty of people holding a German residence permit are allowed to start working in Germany too, unless their residence title explicitly says otherwise.
Nonetheless, immigration laws do remain rather strict. Except for the cases mentioned above, it is not always easy to take up gainful employment.
Moreover, no other document can replace your residence and / or work permit for Germany. Do not consider working without one. If caught, both you and your employer will have to pay high fines. And without such permits, no insurance company will cover you in case of workplace accidents or occupational diseases.
Country of Origin
Acquiring a work permit for Germany strongly depends on your nationality. If you are a citizen of an EU member state, you needn’t apply for one. There are, however, temporary exceptions for citizens of Croatia. They have to get a so-called EU work permit from the Federal Employment Agency. This requirement will be abolished by June 30, 2015, though.
Citizens of other states usually need to apply for a work permit for Germany from abroad, together with their visa. Handing in your application from within Germany is only possible for expats from a few selected countries (e.g. Canada or the US).
Once you kick off the process, the German diplomatic mission will contact the immigration department (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany. In turn, this office gets in touch with the Federal Employment Agency.
The agency can then approve your application, issue the permit, and submit it to the Ausländerbehörde. From there, it is passed on to the diplomatic mission where you have originally applied for your visa.
If you are interested in an employment visa for Germany, go to the nearest German Embassy or Consulate in order to:
- apply in person
- bring a valid passport and at least one copy thereof
- supply several passport photographs
- pay the required fee
- provide additional documents (e.g. a certificate of good conduct, a job contract, diplomas and references, etc.).
Details regarding the visa application process may vary according to your country of origin. Please contact your local German Embassy to check the exact requirements.
If you are already employed at the foreign branch office of a German company, this is likely to speed up things. Your employer can help you with the immigration process or provide you with a contract for an intra-company transfer. The latter often makes it a lot easier to obtain a work visa for Germany.
Related articles:
German Nationality Law
How to Get German Citizenship
German Dual Citizenship
How to Move to Germany
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Getting German Citizenship is one of the top questions we get so we have decided to summarize the information for those who are willing to get started.
Germany’s principal health care providers are its physicians, dentists, and three types of hospitals (public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit). The health industry also includes large pharmaceutical companies and the manufacturers of various kinds of medical supplies. Public health departments, which are operated by the Länder, are not an important part of German health care. The public health clinics in the new Länder are being phased out during the integration of the two medical systems.
Here you will find a list of web addresses for some well known German universities.
Nearly everyone residing in Germany is guaranteed access to high-quality comprehensive health care. Statutory health insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung–GKV) has provided an organizational framework for the delivery of public health care and has shaped the roles of payers, insurance or sickness funds, and providers, physicians, and hospitals since the Health Insurance Act was adopted in 1883. In 1885 the GKV provided medical protection for 26 percent of the lower-paid segments of the labor force, or 10 percent of the population. As with social insurance, health insurance coverage was gradually extended by including ever more occupational groups in the plan and by steadily raising the income ceiling. Those earning less than the ceiling were required to participate in the insurance program. In 1995 the income ceiling was an annual income of about DM70,00 in the old Länder and DM57,600 in the new Länder.
The formation of two German states in the second half of the 1940s resulted in two different German health systems. In East Germany, a centralized state-run system was put in place, and physicians became state employees. In West Germany, the prewar system was reestablished. It was supervised by the government but was not government run. According to the Basic Law of l949, Germany’s constitution, the federal government has exclusive authority in public health insurance matters and sets broad policy in relation to the GKV. The government’s authority applies in particular to benefits, eligibility, compulsory membership, covered risks (physical, emotional, mental, curative, and preventive), income maintenance during temporary illness, employer-employee contributions to the GKV, and other central issues. However, except for the funding of some benefits and the planning and financing of hospitals, the responsibility for administering and providing health care has been delegated to non-state entities, including national and regional associations of health care providers, Land hospital associations, nonprofit insurance funds, private insurance companies, and voluntary organizations.
The German health care community has made a serious and sustained effort to control the growth of health costs since the mid-1970s. The steep rise in health expenditures in the first half of the 1970s prompted the passage of the Health Insurance Cost Containment Act of 1977. The law established an advisory board, the Concerted Action in Health Care, to suggest non-binding guidelines for health care costs. Chaired by the federal minister for health, its sixty members represent the most important interest groups having a stake in health care. The board has contributed to slowing the growth of health care costs, but further legislation has been necessary.