Germany’s new Skilled Worker Visa for qualified professionals

Germany’s new skilled worker visa is a game changer for qualified professionals. The non-EU citizens can live and work in the top developed countries of the world by obtaining this visa through simple steps. A job offer, a recognized degree, and you can apply for a visa as simple as that. On this visa, permanent residency can be gained in only 3 years. You can also sponsor your parents and the parents of your spouse.

Major Requirements for Skilled Worker Visa in Germany

In general, the following are the major requirements to be met for a skilled worker visa:

• Equivalence or comparability of the foreign university or professional qualification (Permit to practice the profession if applicable) from KMK.
• Concrete job offer in Germany or valid employment contract from an employer in Germany.
• Observe the minimum salary for people over 45 years of age: annual gross salary of at least €49,830 (per year 2024) or provide evidence of adequate retirement provision.

Germany’s work visa is also possible in many other ways. Here you can discover more options for you.

If you do not have a job offer from Germany, you can still apply under the new Opportunity Card stream starting from 1 June 2024.

What type of visa do you get as a skilled worker?

A candidate who wants to take up qualified employment must show that they have qualified vocational training or studies outside of Germany, and can obtain a skilled worker visa by Section 18a AufenthG or Section 18b AufenthG.  This is issued for a maximum of four years. If the employment contract is limited to a shorter period, the residence permit is issued for this shorter period plus three months.

Permanent Residency in a short period

You can get permanent residency in Germany by holding the skilled worker visa in a shorter time compared with the normally exercised duration. It means after three years of holding a residence permit to work, you can receive a settlement permit under certain conditions. The normal time for attaining permanent residency for other visa types is 5 years. So this gives an extra edge to those who choose to come to Germany on a skilled worker visa.

Family Visa Possible

Family reunification has been made much easier than before on the new skilled worker visa stream. If spouses or minor children move to Germany to work with certain skilled workers, proof of sufficient living space will be waived in the future. In addition, such skilled workers can also bring their parents. On the other hand, if the spouse is also a permanent resident in Germany – parents-in-law to visit them if they receive their residence permit for the first time on or after March 1, 2024.

How to apply for the Skilled Worker Visa in Germany?

1- Get your qualification recognized

Equivalence or comparability of the foreign university or professional qualification (Permit to practice the profession if applicable) from KMK is mandatory for the skilled worker visa. This report from German institutions helps the employer to better understand if you are qualified enough for the offered job.

Getting a recognition or a comparability report

If you have higher education, then you will apply for recognition from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB). The document describes a higher-education qualification from abroad. A processing fee of € 200 is to be paid by the applicant. 

 Read here full information on ZAB’s official portal.

Recognition of Professional Qualification

The recognition of your foreign professional qualification can also be possible with the following procedure:

• You should first choose if your qualification is to be recognized. You can access the “recognition finder” here. There is a fee to be paid as well for the whole process.
• You need to apply to them for recognition by submitting an application including the application form and your relevant documents (qualification or vocational certificates and work experience proofs), after finding a relevant competent body.
• In the time of two to three (in most cases) months, the relevant competent body will examine your application.
• The recognition result can be “Full recognition, partial recognition, or no recognition”. Full recognition means that your qualification is equivalent to the German reference occupation. Partial recognition means that part of your qualification has been approved according to German standards but substantial differences have been identified in another area. To overcome this result, you attend extra training or certificates and then reapply for recognition. No recognition simply means that your qualifications or vocational skills do not seem good enough according to the German labor market standards. 

Understanding the recognition

To prove your foreign university degree’s recognition, you must provide two “Anabin” database printouts: The first one concerning your university degree (classified as „entspricht“, „gleichwertig“ or “vergleichbar”) and the second one concerning your rewarding university (classified as „H+“). 

Only if your degree and/or rewarding university is not classified as mentioned before, you must provide a Statement of Comparability by the German Central Office of Foreign Education instead.

Only if you will work in a regulated profession, you must provide a practice license granted by the competent German authority.

If you do not get the qualification recognized

Do not worry if you don’t get your qualification recognized from Germany, you can still get a work visa from Germany based on your qualification recognition purpose. This is called a recognition partnership. Simply if your foreign qualification isn’t directly recognized in Germany, this visa allows you to work in a specific job while you pursue official recognition.

The visa duration in this case is 2 years (extendable up to 3 years) instead of the previously allowed 18-month visa. If you want to travel to Germany for the ongoing process of your qualification recognition, you can be awarded a visa of one year (extendable up to 3 years). For the second job, candidates cal so work part-time for up to 20 hours per week.

Some candidates also have to undergo skills analysis for their qualification, they can also get a visa of 6 months to complete this process in Germany.

The basic requirements for the recognition partnership are:

• in addition to the employment contract, the existence of a professional qualification that requires at least two years of training or a university degree – both of which must be recognized by the respective training country,
• German language skills at level A2 (GER).

2- Find a Job

You should have a job offer from a German employer to apply for the skilled worker visa. You can find jobs in Germany on different portals. Our dedicated article on finding a job in Germany can help you how to find English jobs in Germany.

After finding a suitable job for you in Germany, you should send the employer a job application. You should prepare a CV and write a Cover Letter to apply for the job.

• If you don’t know how to write a cover letter, then learn here how to do it.
• Do you want to write a CV with a good impact, learn it all here.

3- Apply for the visa

Once you have your qualification recognition in hand along a qualified job contract, you can then apply for the skilled worker visa. You can do it by following the steps below:

Get an appointment

Get an appointment from the German mission abroad in your country of origin. There you can also get further information about the country-wise required documents for the skilled worker visa.

Gather the documents to apply for the visa

You must present all possible documents related to this visa category to satisfy the visa clearance officer. These could be:

• The application form,
• Your biometric passport photo must not be older than six months,
• Your passport,
• The application declarations must be duly read and signed by you,
• The Employer’s Declaration form („Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis“),
• Your employment contract must be duly signed by you and your employer,
• Your university degrees and final transcripts of record, attested also by the university,
• Recognition report from from Germany,
• Or a comparability report from Germany,
• If you work in a regulated profession, then provide a practice license granted by the competent German authority.

Faster visa approval

In some cases, if your employer provides you with extra assistance you can also get a faster decision from the German embassy or consulates.

This is possible only if you have had pre-approval of your skilled worker visa from German authorities. In this case scenario, if your employer has applied for a pre-approval at a Foreigners Authority according to Section 81a Residence Act (fast-track procedure for skilled workers, “beschleunigtes Fachkräfteverfahren”) or Federal Employment Agency according to Section 36 Employment Ordinance, you must provide the issued pre-approval letter to the embassy to get faster decisions as low as inside one month.

Frequently Asked Questions