How to Apply for a German Work Visa in Germany
This page details how, where and when to apply for a German Work Visa at an immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany. In our guide, we lay out the complete visa process and requirements to help ensure you have a successful application.
Who is this guide for?
👨💼 In order to apply for a German Work Visa, you first need a job offer from an employer based in Germany.
🌎 Only citizens from certain countries are permitted to apply for the German Work Visa at an immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) after their arrival in Germany. If you are from Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, or the United States, you can enter Germany without a visa for 90 days. During this 90-day period, you can apply for a German Work Visa. This guide is for you.
🛑 Citizens from all other countries must apply for the German Work Visa before arriving in Germany. This must be done at a German consulate or embassy outside of Germany. We have explained how to do this in the following guide:
We get a lot of questions about this visa. Therefore, to help you out, we have compiled FAQs about the German Work Visa that you may find helpful.
German Work Visa: Application Process
1️⃣ Move to Germany. Enter Germany without a visa and complete your Anmeldung (address registration).
2️⃣ Secure a job offer from an employer based in Germany.
3️⃣ Book a German Work Visa appointment at your local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany.
4️⃣ Apply for the German Work Visa at your local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany.
We have expanded on each of these steps below.
1️⃣ Move to Germany and complete your Anmeldung
If you are from Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, or the United States, you can enter Germany without a visa for 90 days. You then have 90 days to apply for the German Work Visa.
🏠 Important! In order to apply for a visa at an immigration office in Germany, you must first officially register at an address in Germany. The process of registering at an address is called Anmeldung. Without Anmeldung, you will not be permitted to apply for a visa at your local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde).
If you are having trouble finding accommodation in Germany where you can complete your Anmeldung, then here are some good places to look:
Smartments (see our review for more details)
ImmoScout24 (see our guide for more details)
For further information on how to find an apartment in Germany, see our German Apartment Hunting Guide.
Once you have successfully registered at an address in Germany, you will be issued an Anmeldung certificate, which you will be required to show at your German Work Visa appointment. You can move on to step 2 below.
2️⃣ Secure a job offer from an employer based in Germany.
In order to apply for the German Work Visa, you first need a suitable job offer from an employer based in Germany. Your new employer must issue you an employment contract.
If you are yet to find a job in Germany, check out our German Job Hunting Guide.
For a reasonable chance of your German Work Visa being approved, the employment conditions must meet some basic criteria:
You must be employed on comparable terms to domestic employees.
You must be earning a sufficient salary to sustain your life in Germany.
These employment conditions are assessed on a case-by-case basis as part of your visa application.
Once you have received an employment contract from an employer based in Germany, you are ready to apply for your German Work Visa.
❗You are eligible for an EU Blue Card (which is essentially a German Work Visa but with a range of additional benefits) if your gross annual salary is over:
€45,300
or
over €41,041.80 and you work in a shortage occupation or have completed your university degree in the last 3 years.
To apply for an EU Blue Card, see our guides:
3️⃣ Book a German Work Visa appointment at your local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany.
You must apply for the German Work Visa at your local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany. To find your local immigration office in Germany, enter your postcode into this tool.
Once you have located your local immigration office, you need to then arrange a visa appointment directly with the office. For immigration offices in larger cities (e.g. Berlin), you will find an online appointment booking platform on their official websites. For smaller immigration offices, you may need to email or call them in order to arrange a suitable visa appointment.
📅 Top tip! Visa appointment slots often fill up months in advance. Therefore, it is important to be prepared. Contact your local immigration office as early as possible in your relocation to ensure that you secure an appointment date within your 90-day visa-free period.
Once you have secured a suitable visa appointment, you will likely receive an email detailing the time, date and location for your appointment. You can now start preparing the relevant paperwork for step 4; applying for your German Work Visa.
3️⃣ Apply for the German Work Visa at your local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde) in Germany.
❗ Note: Individual immigration offices in Germany sometimes have slightly different application requirements. However, the documents listed below are the standard, minimum application documents required for the German Work Visa. Prior to your appointment, we recommend that you double-check with your local immigration office to see if they have any additional requirements on top of what is listed below
To apply for a German Work Visa at your local immigration office, you will be required to submit:
✅ A passport
Your passport must:
Have at least 2 free pages.
Be valid for 3 months longer than the intended visa duration.
Have been issued within the last 10 years.
✅ A passport photo
Guidelines for taking compliant biometric passport photos can be found here. Some immigration offices will request multiple photos so we recommend taking at least 3 identical passport photos to your appointment.
✅ Health insurance confirmation
You must have German health insurance in order to start working in Germany. To be approved for a German Work Visa, you must show that you have taken out a suitable health insurance policy. To do this, you should take a health insurance confirmation letter to your appointment, or policy documents showing that you are enrolled.
Top tip! To ensure you meet the health insurance requirements for the German Work Visa, our favourite option is TK Health Insurance. TK’s policy not only meets the requirements for the visa and is approved by German immigration offices but is consistently rated the no.1 health insurance policy in Germany.
✅ Employment contract
Bring the original employment contract from your employer, which should clearly detail:
The job title and work responsibilities
The weekly work hours (e.g. 37 hours per week)
The salary for the position
✅ A job description form (Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis)
This must be completed and signed by your employer. The job description form details all the employment conditions and allows the German authorities to assess whether your job offer meets the requirements for approval.
To download a copy of the job description form, click here.
✅ Proof of address
To apply for the German Work Visa, you must show proof of your official registered address in Germany. To do this, you should show your Anmeldung certificate – you will have received this certificate when you completed your Anmeldung in Germany (see step 1 above).
✅ University degree certificate
You must submit your original degree certificate. You should also bring proof that your university degree is recognised in Germany – to prove this, you have 2 options:
Find your qualification on the Anabin online database. Print the relevant screenshots showing that your qualification is recognised in Germany and bring these to your appointment. See our Anabin Guide for instructions on how to use the database.
Obtain a Statement of Comparability from ZAB (Central Office for Foreign Education).
✅ Visa application form
You must complete and submit a visa application form. You can obtain this form from your local immigration office in Germany – check your local immigration office’s website to see if there is a downloadable version of the form.
✅ Visa application fee
The fee for the visa varies depending on where you apply. However, you can expect to pay no more than €100 (the current fee charged in Berlin).
Additional info
Listed above are all the documents that are likely to be requested as part of your German Work Visa application. Some other documents that are occasionally requested include:
➕ A translation of your university certificate
This is not always requested, but many immigration offices will request a German translation of your degree certificate. For translation services in Germany, we suggest using lingoking.
➕ Rental contract
The immigration office will sometimes request to see a rental agreement. This helps them to assess that your salary is sufficient to cover your expenses. As a rule, we suggest ensuring that your rent is less than 30% of your gross salary.
😨 Top tip! Not all immigration office workers will speak English. When applying for your visa, it is important that you can communicate clearly. Therefore, we suggest that you attend your appointment with a German interpreter or a German-speaking friend.
🎉 Congratulations! You have now completed all the steps for applying for a German Work Visa at an immigration office in Germany! Once approved, you will be issued the visa and can start working in Germany.
For an overview of the other steps required to set up as an employee in Germany, see our German Employee Checklist.