I moved to Germany around August 2013. I did a semester abroad in Germany a couple of years prior, and without any other plans after getting my bachelor’s degree, I decided to move to Germany and try to find a job since I liked Germany (You can walk around on the streets with a beer in hand and enjoy it! How cool is that?). I have had many people ask me about what it took to move here, so in this post I will go over the basics of getting a job visa in Germany and then relate my experiences getting my initial visa and getting it renewed.

The Basics

The most important part of finding and getting a job in Germany is getting the permission to work here. Otherwise, you can travel here for vacation, but it is not permitted to work. That pretty much goes for every country in the world, so there should be no surprise there. It can be a bit daunting to get permission here, though. Continue reading →