Does Germany want Aliens to Enter and even Stay Here?

Everybody has his or her special situation, everybody would like to get in as easy and quickly as possible. Do you believe that especially this presentation will even all paths to your permit? Wake up! There is no one clear-cut path to Germany! There will always be more or less red tape to overcome.

Germany’s own workforce is unproportionally losing its young talents due to the aging of the German population in general. Not enough children are being born. These facts give foreign talents a chance. This opportunity does not at all mean that uneducated persons looking for low-scale jobs are welcome to enter the country. This country has its own share of uneducated and these persons are to be placed first. The continuing economic boom in the coming years demands skilled persons for a vast majority of professions. Some federal states expect a shortage of 20,000 or even 200,000 workers in the coming years.

If you seriously want to immigrate to Germany, prepare yourself! Practice patience!! German officials love formalities and painstakingly frown on formal sloppiness like more than two typos on a single page…

Amendment starting 2023

As of June 21, 2023, the "Draft Law on the Further Development of Skilled Worker Immigration" was passed in parliament. The provisions of which will come into force at various times largely within the next eight months. Lawmakers hope the new regulations will increase immigration for employment by 60,000 people a year. To anticipate, the German government is moving in the right direction.

Opportunities for immigration of skilled workers are being expanded and Germany made more attractive as a country of immigration. In other words, Germany is now really understanding itself as an immigration country. The current standard is for those with documented skills (officially branded as "skilled labor pillar").

In future, employment immigration will also be possible via professional experience and without a degree recognized in Germany (officially branded as "experience pillar"). In addition, the "potential pillar” comes. The possibility of an employment permit will be opened via other biographical and knowledge characteristics – e.g. age and language skills. The law contains new possibilities for “changing lanes” both to training titles from refugee status and the conversion of the “training toleration” into a residence permit. Until now, the legal understanding was coping with a person who has fled and cannot be legally returned home. Now the law wants to integrate him into the “empty” labor market.

Unfortunately, measures to optimize the authorities’ workflow have not at all been considered. However, it is precisely these problems that authorities do not give appointments and many more that if not only delay but typically more obstruct successful immigration. Improving these facts will make things a lot easier – for everyone! The new law has not solved these problems.

There is a lot wrong with the administrative processes. The shortage of skilled workers also affects the administration. Even in cases of a Blue Card, the certificate check by the Federal Labor Agency often takes months instead of two weeks as planned. The Federal Labor Agency offers to submit applications via its online portal. However, it only sends the notifications of preliminary approvals by snail mail. According to the requirements of many embassies, the preliminary approval must still be submitted as an original / hard copy / wet-ink copy. These copies must be obtained at great expense using DHL & co. This is demanded even though the consulates have a reliable resource: foreigners central database. They have 24/7 access to this online database. Outsourcing visa applications to the vendor VFS is not always a boon. In some places, applicants are sent back home with a printout of the visa application form if it was not completed through VIDEX. Using VIDEX is actually only one option – based on official implementation rules. These examples are only the tip of the iceberg. Until these structural problems, which are not just personnel issues, are addressed, even well-intentioned legislation will miss its mark.

Business Immigration

The rules and regulations for immigration on grounds of business have not changed a bit. A “golden visa”, as some other countries offer, has never been offered in Germany and is not to be expected. Though the formal requirements have been significantly decreased since 2015, when the previous major amendment was issued, great insecurity still exists because all criteria are at discretion. You can never say “I meet the expectations,” but rather only hope to have done so. If an application to run a self-owned company in Germany was ever turned down then because its business line was around something unwanted or the business plan did not transport the necessity of the applied business. The main concern for any applicant remains to have a business idea that will bring momentum to German economy. Though having investment capital remains important, it comes second after the business idea.

How to Start:

Before entering Germany, you need to know if you need a visa to enter or not. Stop, for a moment please! In order to correctly understand this presentation, you must know two terms form German legalese: “Visum (= visa)” and “Aufenthaltsgenehmigung, -titel (= residence permit, residence title)”. Visa is a permission to remain in Germany for a short-term period while a residence permit (up to six months, never qualifying for permanent residency) is for an indefinite permission, which will qualify for permanent residency. It is just like the difference between “visit” and “stay”.

If you are not from a buddy country , you must have a visa prior to entering Germany! A visa legalizes your entry into and your stay in Germany for up to three months per half year. It is not really intended to be extended any further. You can only get an exception if you are hospitalized, incapable of traveling, or summoned to court or an administrative office. These exceptions are handled very strictly. This time you will have to leave — but next time apply for a national visa if a longer stay is foreseeable and reasonably explainable.

Pursuant to a visa waiver program, citizens of buddy countries may enter without first applying for a visa. Some special buddy country citizens may apply for a residence permit from inside Germany without first having to leave and apply from home. The rules for obtaining and prolonging residency depend exclusively on the reason you are here.

The new law explicitly and actually exclusively names the reasons for a residence permit: