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.
EU Members
Obviously, if you are German, you can live and work here. That right extends to (most) other European Union citizens, so if you happen to have the right passport, you shouldn’t have any issues moving here and working. In that case, one can simply work wherever they will take you. You could even work as a dishwasher if needed until you got yourself grounded. I don’t live in Berlin, but I have been told that there are some waiters/waitresses and bartenders who don’t even speak German, so as long as you speak English, you can likely get a job in the tourism service industry.
Non-EU Members
If you are not from the EU, then things get a bit trickier. In that case, you will need to get a specific visa (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) that allows you to work and here and stay longer than the typical 3-month Schengen tourist visa allows.
For this purpose, there are two different groups of countries: ones where you can freely come here and look for a job and ones where you cannot get a job here and need to do it from within your country.
People from the following countries have it easier:
Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, and the USA
If you are from one of these countries, then you can come to Germany/Europe on a 3-month Schengen tourist visa. While here, you can apply to jobs and go to interviews. If you are offered a job, you are permitted to go to the local, friendly Ausländerbehörde (foreigner’s office) and apply for a visa. Upon acceptance and issuance of your visa, you can start working here.
If you’re not an EU member and not one of the above-mentioned citizens, you must apply for a visa from your country. You can still get a tourist visa to simply come and visit, although depending on your country, it may still be difficult. A friend of mine from South Africa did a semester abroad in Germany with me (I met him then), and he had a doozy of a time getting his student visa and then was even grilled with questions upon entering Germany with his visa. I would imagine that you could come here and still apply to jobs (although I think they don’t even want that), but in the end, you will need to go to the German embassy in your home country and apply for the visa there. This makes getting a job pretty tricky as you would likely need to do interviews online, and I think a lot of companies are really only interested in hiring people who are already in the area. Regardless, it is possible, and I do know some people who have moved here from “other” countries, so don’t give up hope!
What Sort of Job?
The burning question is what sort of job you are can do here. As I mentioned earlier, EU nationals can simply move here and work wherever. If you are non-EU, though, you need to be the best candidate for the job.
Like most countries, the EU is a bit protective with their jobs and only want to give them out to foreigners if there is nobody locally who can do the job better. That basically means you need to be better than any European candidate for the job, which can be a tall order to fulfill, especially if you are relatively new to the professional working world.
Basically, if you are going to get the job, you need to be exactly what they’re looking for, and no other European should be able to do it. If you (as a foreigner) and a European applied for the same job with the same qualifications, the company would legally need to give the job to the European candidate. I believe there is a period that the company needs to have had the job posting open too (something like a month), to allow for other applicants. I believe this is to prevent some sort of nepotism and having some family friend create a new position for you and then immediately hiring you. Yeah, it sucks, but that’s the field we have to play on.
Fear not—there are a lot of international companies in Germany. As an American, I am a native English speaker, and quite a few companies need that. My economics degree has not helped me at all, but the fact that I am a native English speaker does give me something that I am “better at” than most Europeans (unless someone from the UK applied, but again, if the company specifically wants a native American English speaker, then I’m golden). Not a native English speaker? There are companies who need native speakers for plenty of other languages. The first company I worked for, in fact, had native speakers for many different countries including the USA (that was me!), Argentina, Japan, Russia, and a few others. I actually just kept searching for things like “native English” in job searching portals, and that’s how I have managed to find my jobs so far. If you are a native speaker of another language, I would recommend that as a first step.
Another important aspect is that the job needs to pay enough. They judge that based on your marital status and living situation (how much your rent is), among other things I suppose. If your potential job isn’t going to pay enough for you to live without requiring aid from the state, they could potentially deny your visa. I am not sure where the cutoff is, but at one point I was only working part-time and was making about 1500€ before taxes. That raised some eyebrows, and I had to explain that I had money in savings and show them how “cheap” my rent was, so keep that in mind.
That being said, Germany does have a shortage of professionals in the engineering, medical, and computer science fields. If you have a degree in one of those fields and find work in a related field, I would imagine that the process would go a bit smoother for you.
http://www.germany-visa.org/working-germany-getting-german-work-permit/ has a lot more information if you are genuinely curious.
Alternatives to Staying Longer
Why do you want to stay in Germany/Europe? Do you want to move here and settle? Do you just want to live the Germany life for a while? Do you just want to travel as a tourist for more than 90 days? Did you fall in love with somebody? Going through the arduous job visa process isn’t the only way of staying here longer than 3 months.
Work: If you want to simply stay here long term and work, what I posted above is what’s relevant for you. The process is annoying, but living in Germany certainly isn’t too bad. I chose this option because I wanted to stay here long term, and after working in Germany for 5 years and paying into the system, you are eligible for German pension once you retire, so I plan to stay here for at least 5 years.
Study: If you just want to visit Germany and live the German life for a while, you could think about studying. Apply to a university and take some classes for a semester or more. It’s much easier to get a student visa than a work visa. While going to class, you are also allowed to work in a “Student job,” which is a job that is limited to 20 hours a week, but it is taxed less heavily both for you and the employer. This won’t bring in a whole bunch of money, but you can work at pretty much any student job position (tons of companies offer entry level jobs for students doing all sorts of things) without any issues as long as you keep studying. Most German universities are cheap, if not free, but you would still need to pay rent and food and other living expenses. You might have to prove that you have got some money saved up for you to use and fall back on while here, so keep that in mind.
Visa runs: If you just want to visit, you can leave the Schengen zone and come back in after 90 days. The rule is that you can only be in the Schengen zone for 90 days out of a 180-day period. In other words, you can be here for 3 months, and then you have to stay out of the Schengen zone for 3 months before coming back in. Not all European countries are part of the Schengen zone, and the full list is:
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
If you just want to travel, you can spend 3 months in the above countries. At the end of 3 months, spend some time outside. You could go to the Balkan states, a lot of which aren’t in the Schengen zone, or you could go to the UK or Ireland since those countries aren’t in the Schengen zone. You’ll have to check how long you can spend in the other countries, but most countries have a 90 period. Spend 3 months outside, and then you can come back into the Schengen zone without any issues.
Get married: If you fell in love, you might want to think about getting married. It’s still a bit of a process, and some people I know who got married still have to go get plenty of forms filled out and take integration classes, but in the end, they are allowed to work here where they want as if they were an EU national. Everyone keeps telling me to get married, but I’m just not quite ready to do that yet haha.
Nomadic Matt has a great blog, and this post mentions these points as well as some more, so it might be worth checking out https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/how-to-legally-stay-in-europe-for-more-than-90-days/.
Summary
If you want to stay in Germany long-term and work, it depends where you’re from.
If you are an EU citizen, you can freely move here and work. Lucky you!
If you are not, you will need to apply for a job visa.
If you are from Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, or the USA, you can come here on a tourist visa and look for a job.
If you are not from one of those countries, you will need to apply for a visa at the German embassy in your home country.
In either of the 2 previous cases, you will need to prove that you are a better candidate than any other European candidate. I recommend looking up jobs that require a native speaker that you are indeed a native speaker of. Otherwise, high demand jobs in IT, medicine, and engineering shouldn’t be hard to get in Germany. Stay in school, kids!
The job also needs to pay enough in any case. It seems that about 2000€ per month should be no problem. Additionally, you usually can’t work freelance without specific privileges. The last point is rather annoying because a lot of places that wanted native English speakers only wanted to hire teachers on a freelancer basis, and that wouldn’t jive with the Ausländerbehörde.
I am American, so I was luckily in the list that allows me to come here and look for a job, but I still had a hell of a time. I can only imagine how difficult it is for people who aren’t “in the club.”
Below is the personal process that I went through getting my initial visa and getting it renewed.
My Experiences
Job Searching
I got to Germany and met up with some friends that I made here during my semester abroad. I then spent the next 3 months crashing on couches while looking for a job. I searched online (mainly through www.indeed.de) for jobs that I might be qualified for. I initially started looking at things that would utilize my degree in economics, but all the posted jobs I found required an excellent command of German, of which I didn’t have. Regardless, I applied for a few positions and, unsurprisingly, was turned down or I just never heard anything back. Quite a few other jobs also required that I already have a visa and legal permission to work and weren’t interested in me otherwise.
After a while, I changed my focus and started looking up jobs that required native English speakers. I also realized I was shooting myself in the foot with my CV.
The German school system’s grading goes from 1–5 with 1 being the best and 5 being a failing grade. The American system goes from 0-4 with 4 being the best and 0 being a failing grade. In my CV/resumé, I had entered that my GPA in University was a 3.66, which is pretty good. In Germany, that would equivalently be a 1.44, but it initially didn’t occur to me that by putting 3.66, I was basically telling potential employers that my academic scoring put me at slightly more intelligent than a mollusk.
So, after addressing that issue and focusing on English-related jobs, I started getting more positive results.
Among places that I did apply for, I at one point wrote a test article for a company, and they stated in the application that the article could be used on their site if they wished even if they didn’t accept me. I thought it was fishy, but I did it anyway. Lo and behold, I didn’t get the job. I am not trying to say that I was amazingly fit for the position anyways, but the wording in the application just made it sound like they were gaming for free articles by applicants. I have since learned that some companies do that for editing positions, so I feel my suspicions may have some truth to them. I did feel good that I at least got some sort of initial positive response, though.
While looking for jobs, my circle of friends was also trying to help me find something.
One friend worked at a call center and brought me in to talk to the boss, who immediately sat me down and had me start working. I was pretty lost as I didn’t have permission yet, and he said he was working on the contract, but he said it wasn’t too important because it was a “Minijob.” Minijobs are tax-free positions that only allow you to make up to 450€ a month (last I checked). They are meant to give just a little bit of money (that’s barely enough to cover rent, even if it’s cheap), but are exempt from taxes.
I went to the Ausländerbehörde to inquire about this, but first I had to register with the city, as they won’t talk to you unless you are entered into the system.
I went to the Bürgerzentrum (citizen center) and got the necessary paperwork. I basically had to show that I had an apartment and was living in the area. Afterward, I could then go to the Ausländerbehörde agent that was responsible for my area and my last name (different agents cover certain ranges of last names based on the initial letter). The problem was, I didn’t have a rental contract for an apartment since I was just crashing on friends’ couches. This kind of creates a catch-22 in that you need to be renting an apartment before you are technically living there and can get the process started, but I can imagine that a lot of renters wouldn’t want to rent out an apartment to a person who doesn’t have a job and might have to leave in 3 months if said person didn’t find a job. I just took the paperwork to my friends who fudged a contract stating I lived there and said that I was paying rent and a member of the apartment (I was living there, but I just wasn’t there on an actual contractual basis and wasn’t paying).
Note: as of late 2016, they have changed the rules, and now you need more than just a contract which can be fudged by a friend. You need an actual paper from the landlord stating that you are living there, which can make that maneuver tricky if you aren’t actually renting out an apartment, which can be tricky if you don’t have job…
After registering with the city, I could finally talk to the correct person in the Ausländerbehörde.
You would think, of all places, the foreigner’s office would be willing to speak with you in English, but I have never once been spoken to in English, even when I was struggling to understand them. You might want to bring along a friend if your German is bad. At that point, my Germany was just good enough to get by.
Herr G. He was responsible for me at the Ausländerbehörde.
I don’t think I will ever forget him…
When I inquired about the Minijob, he flat out told me that it would not be accepted. I wasn’t aware of a monthly income requirement at the time, but it does make sense. That was fine and was not what annoyed me about him; that will come later. Regardless, I couldn’t work the Minijob, so I told them and that possibility wilted away.
It was also recommended to me by my friends that I go to the Artbeitsamt (job office). I did that and they had a database of jobs one can look through like any other job-hunting website. They also took some of my information and said if they found anything, they would call me, but they never did, so that was kind of a waste of time.
Someone I knew happened to know someone else who needed help in his construction company. I have done construction before. I knew it likely wouldn’t work out since that’s kind of an unqualified job, but I figured I would try it anyways. We talked and I checked out the place, and it seemed fine. We drafted a contract, I went to the Ausländerbehörde, and again Herr G. said no way. He said that any German could do that job. While I don’t doubt him, the owner of the construction company had been looking for new employees for quite a while, but he couldn’t find anyone who was willing to work the hard labor necessary.
Similarly, some friends of mine worked at a courier service company where they delivered packages around the city via bikes. We went in and I inquired about working there, but they wouldn’t consider me since I didn’t have permission to work here. My friends were really sweet and trying to help me, but the jobs I was being presented with just weren’t going to get me a visa.
Time was starting to run short. I had been in Germany for over 2 months, and I still had not found a job. A while back, Herr G. had mentioned that it was possible to extend my visa by 3 months so I could keep looking. I went back to him at this point and inquired about that, and he practically laughed at me saying there was no such thing and that I would have to leave Germany if I didn’t find anything, lest I be fined and barred from reentering Germany for many years. Maybe I misunderstood him the first time, but he sure was condescending about it when I asked him about it.
I had been applying to jobs left and right, often spending many hours a day. I firmly believe I applied to more than 100 jobs in that time. I think this has also helped me get over any negative reaction to rejection, which has helped me not lose my will to write as I write short stories and submit them to magazines and continuously get rejected.
Time was ticking. I had less than 2 weeks left, and I was going to have to leave Germany and the Schengen zone. I had looked up possibilities. The best bet seemed to either go to southeast Europe to the Balkan states or to the UK as both choices were outside the Schengen zone. I didn’t have much money, and the UK also would only permit me to stay 90 days. Since I would have to be gone 90 days, the timing would have to be perfect, and that would be tricky. As such, I crossed the UK off my list and looked to the Balkans. I found a WWOOF entry in Albania that seemed promising. The plan was to go there and stay on a farm for 3 months, travel around in some other Balkan countries for a couple weeks, and then come back to Germany to resume my search. My backpack was packed, and I was just waiting to purchase a flight ticket right before needing to leave, all the while madly sending out applications.
I got an email inquiring about doing a phone interview for a company that I had applied to.
We had the phone interview, and I was then invited to come in for a personal interview. I took the train and went to the interview, and it went well. During the interview, they asked me when I could start. It was a pretty funny thing to reveal, as I told them that they basically had to decide within the next 2 days, otherwise I had to leave Germany. That night, they sent me an offer with a contract.
I was then in a mad dash to get all the necessary paperwork.
1st visa
The following day, I started running around getting everything I had to. I needed to get a social insurance number, health insurance, and some other things.
I got everything and brought it to Herr G. The process was started and I was at least issued some temporary visa so that I could stay here while the documents were being processed, which could take up to 6 weeks.
After that, I couldn’t do anything other than wait. After a few weeks had gone by, I decided to call him to ask about the status. This I will never forget: I called him and he told me that I should call him back the next day at some certain time, and we could then set up an appointment. I agreed and hung up, slightly dumbfounded that we had just made an appointment for me to call again to set up the actual appointment.
Sometimes one has some strong words they wish to say, but in the end, the people behind the desks are the ones with the power, and I can’t do too much about it, so it’s best to just keep one’s mouth shut.
I called back the next day, and true to his word, we then set up an appointment about a week later.
I went to our meeting, and the paperwork was done and approved! I got a piece of paper stating that I was allowed to work, but he told me that I would have to come back again in about a month to get my actual ID card, which took longer to print.
I moved to Cologne, where my job was, and finally started working.
After starting, though, I needed to provide my tax ID number to our bookkeeper. I didn’t have one yet, so I needed to go to the Finanzamt (finance office) and get one issued. That was obnoxious because even though I had re-registered with the city of Cologne to show that I now lived here, the Finanzamt’s system still had my old address in Mainz (where I was living and had originally registered) in their system, so they wouldn’t do anything for me here in Cologne. I had to go back to the Bürgeramt and inquire why the wrong address was in the system, but on their side, things were fine. I waited a couple days, hoping that the Finanzamt’s system would update, and then I called. As I hoped, it was now correct, and they mailed me that document.
Almost done, but the last step was getting my actual ID card. After about a month had gone by, I was informed that my card was now available.
Since Herr G. had told me to “come back here” to get it, I did just that and took a day off work to go to Mainz. He didn’t have it, and nobody in Mainz had any idea where it was. After some calling, I discovered that it had been sent to the Ausländerbehörde in Cologne, which makes sense, but nobody had informed me as such. So, I went back to Cologne and finally managed to get my card, and things were squared away.
For one year.
2nd Visa
My job contract was only for 1 year, and therefore my job visa was only for one year. After almost a year, my company gave me another year contract, but that meant that I needed to get another visa.
Luckily, this time, things went by pretty effortlessly. I went to the office to find out what paperwork was needed. I collected the right paperwork, submitted it, and a few weeks later my new visa and ID card were issued. It was my 3rd visa where things started to get funky.
3rd Visa
Another year had gone by, and I had received another year-long contract, so I needed to renew my visa.
I had created a list of what was required to renew my passport based on the last experience, thinking I could be prepared and get it all done in one fell swoop.
Falsch!
I don’t know why, but among the normal documents, they also required copies of my last 3 paystubs and a Mitgliedsbescheinugung from my insurance company. It was also annoying because they wanted copies of the 3 paystubs, and they had a copy machine, but he forced me to go somewhere else and pay for copies instead of just him making the copies from the originals I had with me.
Whatever. I assembled the paperwork and brought it in. They took most of the papers, but not all of them, which annoyed me since he said I needed all of them. He then told me they would send out the documents and he would call me again so we could finalize the process.
I usually start these processes a couple months before my current visa expires because I don’t like to push things to the last minute. More than a month went by, and I was starting to get concerned at the lack of communication and the fact that my current visa was nearing its expiration.
I called shortly before my visa was set to expire, and they informed me that it still wasn’t done being processed. All visa applications get sent off to the Arbeitsamt in Berlin where they check to see if you are qualified and decide if they will grant you a visa for the job, and my application was still there.
The Ausländerbehörde gave me a temporary 3-month extension that permitted me to keep working while my actual application was being processed.
This was in 2015 and the Syrian Civil War was expelling refugees all over the world. Angela Merkel had opened the doors for refugees, and over a million refugees came to Germany seeking a safe haven from the atrocities of war in their country. I am glad of that decision, and I personally dislike borders of any nature as they are political boundaries when I think that humans should be allowed free movement. I am a privileged, white, American, and I still had issues moving to Europe. Other people who are in much worse situations have it even worse, and I don’t envy their situation.
The number of refugees was putting pressure on the system, though, which is why my application still wasn’t processed. The result was lots of waiting and a temporary 3-month visa. After 3 months, that was about to expire, so I called again and was issued another temporary 3-month visa.
During that visa, I was finally contacted and informed that my paperwork had been cleared and I could get an actual visa.
My 2 previous visas were very specific in that I was only allowed to work at the job that I had been approved for, and I was not allowed to work freelance (I had to have a steady, contractual job). The length of the visa was also dependent upon how long my work contract was.
Contrary to the negative experience of getting this visa renewal, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they had decided, since I had worked enough in Germany, to lift the restriction I had on my access to jobs. I was now permitted to work wherever I wanted and was no longer bound to my one job, which meant that I could switch jobs without much trouble as it didn’t even need to get approved. Furthermore, they didn’t bind it to the end of my current job contract, which was only about 7 months away at that point, but rather just gave me a 2-year visa.
Unrestricted to my current job and for 2 years? Awesome!
Feeling confident about my visa situation and looking for other challenges, I did indeed decide to look at other jobs, and I found one, and starting working there went really smoothly as I didn’t need any additional permissions.
Freelance Work Permission
While working at my new job, I thought I would maybe like to take on some freelance work. One stipulation in my visa was that I was not allowed to work freelance, and I had to have a steady job. In order to get that restriction removed was another act of jumping through all sorts of hoops.
I thought the sensible place to go would be the Ausländerbehörde, but she told me that I had to go to some other building which was a more specific office for immigration. I went there and I got a list of stuff that I needed, which included all sorts of crazy German words I couldn’t even begin to understand as well as a full business plan and so many other things. It was ridiculous, but I managed to assemble the paperwork that seemed relevant, and I had to compile a business plan stating how I would only take on some projects at the beginning to see how well things would work out. If that went smoothly, I would take on more and maybe drop down to part-time at my full-time job. If that continued to go well, I would take on more freelance projects and possibly do that full-time. It took several weeks of paperwork collecting and delivery, but I finally submitted everything and I was granted permission to work freelance.
Usually, when you are issued a visa in Germany, it’s in the form of an ID card and an Ersatzblatt, which is just a little piece of paper that folds up and fits into your passport. When I got my freelance permission, they didn’t have any of those papers to print out for me, so the lady just handwrote in my current one that I was allowed to work freelance for up to 20 hours a week. It was kind of comical how such a bureaucratic process ended up in simply scribbling something that didn’t look official at all in my paperwork.
To add to the humor, I went through quite a process getting permission to work freelance, and in the end, I still haven’t done any freelance work. I tried Upwork and Freelancer.com, but both of them were terrible. I am kind of busy with other projects, and I just don’t have the time to spend dozens and dozens of hours looking for smalltime freelance gigs, only to not get any work in the end. On the one hand, it was annoying to put so much effort into getting the permission to work freelance only to discover that it takes way more time than I wanted to invest, but on the other hand it did indeed show me that I don’t quite care for the freelance way of things at the moment.
4th Visa
All good things must come to an end. After 2 years, my glorious visa was set to expire and I again needed to renew it. Remember how I had unrestricted access to the job market and a nice, long, cushy 2-year visa from last time?
No more!
I had been working for the new company for almost a year and a half with a 2-year contract. My job contract was set to expire in 7 months, and that is exactly how long my new visa was granted for, meaning I would have to come back in again and get another visa in half a year… Furthermore, they had restricted me again to my current job and I would need to obtain permission to work in a new position.
Usually, the visas are issued with an ID card and separate paper, but this time they wanted to give me some sticker which covers a whole page in my passport. I didn’t understand why and inquired about the old method. I was told that they could do that for me if I wanted, but then I wouldn’t legally be allowed to travel to other Schengen countries meaning I could only stay within Germany until I got another Visa (technically that would be a Germany job visa and not include a tourist Schengen visa, he explained to me), even though that’s now how it was before. It was all so surreal and I just didn’t understand why, but I couldn’t do anything about it, so I now have my (only 7 month) visa covering a whole page in my passport. This is pretty normal for tourist visas to countries where you need to apply beforehand (my Brazilian and Chinese tourist visas are in the same manner), but it was completely different to my past experiences with my Germany job visa.
I was really confused and actually quite upset about these curious alterations. I just didn’t understand why. I even went back to the Ausländerbehörde a second time, solely to ask why I had these nice stipulations removed. My agent went and asked her boss about it. She came back to me and all I got were some shrugged shoulders and a “that’s just the way it is.”
5th Visa
An aside: dealing with a faceless and often senseless bureaucracy has been a staple of my experience trying to simply remain and live in Germany. It has been very frustrating at times, and this led me to Franz Kafka’s works, as he often has a theme along those lines. I decided to read The Castle, and it is actually now one of my favorite books. I don’t actually think the book itself is necessarily amazing: it’s an exhausting read, sometimes the monologues go on way too long, and the book itself was never finished; it simply ends in the middle of a sentence as he
Regardless, it spoke to my soul on such a level that I instantly sympathized with the plight of K., the main character.
Back to the visa issue, the company I was working at had been performing really terribly, and the management let go of a couple dozen people, including me. This meant that I needed to find a new job.
Although my visa originally stated that I was allowed to work up until October, that is dependent upon my having a job. I had inquired at one point about what happens if I quit early or was let go, and I was told that I would need to immediately leave Germany as my visa is only valid as long as I still have the job. Worst case, I could leave the Schengen zone for a day and then come back on a normal 3-month tourist visa. I thought it was kind of weird that I couldn’t just stay here and have the tourist visa “automatically” start, but she told me that I need to enter the Schengen zone through a port of entry like an airport, get the stamp in my passport, and be entered into the system as such.
That brings us to today. My current job contract, due to being laid off, goes to the end of June—3 days from now. I either need to leave and come back on a tourist visa or start a visa application for a new job.
Luckily, my job search went pretty well, and I managed to secure a job a few weeks ago. However, for a reason I am still not clear of, they can’t issue the contract until tomorrow.
My plan is to pick up the contract tomorrow morning and then immediately go to the Ausländerbehörde and start the visa application process. If all goes well, the process will get initialized and I’ll just have to wait a few weeks for the Arbeitsamt in Berlin to approve the application. In the worst case, I won’t be able to start the application process either tomorrow or Friday, and I will then need to make a very spontaneous and unwelcome trip outside the Schengen zone by Saturday at the latest.
Wish me luck!
EDIT:
I went back and they started filing my paperwork. Or so I thought. They said it would take a few weeks and that they would send me a letter when I should come in.
When I signed my job contract, we anticipated that the process would take while, so we had stated that I would start August 1st. August was rapidly approaching. I was like a crazy person, checking the mail every day. But nothing came.
I finally went there again to ask them what the status was. I emailed them too, but I never heard back from them (actually I did, but it was like 4 months later…). My normal agent was gone, so I was pushed to someone else. I explained everything to him. He said there was nothing pending or being worked on for me. I felt a pit open in my stomach. I had my doubts when I came in the previous time since the lady who took my paperwork didn’t even have me fill out a form, and it appears my doubts were justified.
He did some digging in my file, though, and he discovered that, surprise surprise, I should be able to legally work wherever I want! They just put the wrong information in the actual visa they had printed out for me. So he got that fixed and printed me a temporary work visa in my passport.
However, it was still only good until the end of October!
6th Visa
I came back a little later, while I was working, and I filed the paperwork for a new visa.
It took a few weeks, but finally this time, it worked out properly and I got my work visa, as it should be. It is good for 2 years and allows me to practically work wherever I want. Unfortunately, by this point, I was getting kind of fed up with Germany, and I only ended up working for another few months on that visa before quitting my job to go on a world trip.
More about that in the future!
For now, Leb wohl, Ausländerbehörde!