Your chances:
Congratulations! With a vocational training and a binding job offer, you have a good chance of working and living in Germany.
Citizens of Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the USA do not require an entry visa to enter Germany. Once you are in Germany, you have 90 days to apply for a residence permit for qualified employment. You may only take up employment if you have a corresponding residence permit. Apart from the binding job offer, the main prerequisite for this is the recognition of your foreign professional qualification. You may want to inform yourself about the procedure and the possibilities before applying for your visa or before entering Germany. Learn more about this in the Recogniton section.
Your foreign vocational qualification has not yet been recognised?
In such case you must first have your qualification recognised by the competent authority in Germany. To do so, you may enter Germany without a visa for three months and apply for recognition there. After the recognition you can then apply for the corresponding residence permit. Only then are you able to take up employment in Germany.
Your foreign vocational qualification has already been recognised as equivalent?
In such case you may enter Germany for three months without a visa and apply for a residence permit for qualified employment. After that you will be able to take up employment in Germany. If you would like to start working shortly after arriving in Germany, you may want to apply for a visa for qualified professionals at the relevant German embassy before entering the country.
The following information might help you with your visa application:
- At a glance: Work visa for qualified professionals (PDF)
- Checklist for qualified professionals (PDF)
Tip: In order to shorten your immigration process, your future employer can pay to launch an fast-track procedure for skilled workers. You may want to inform him or her about the possibility.
