[nirmalts]

Hello,

Does anyone here have experience applying for a German workpermit?

Nirmal

[sanjayatarizona]

Buddy,
My 2 cents. Get a professional agency(someone like PWC) to do it for you, else the German Foreign office will kill you with requests and be prepared to wait for a lifetime, unless .. your potential Employer has great brandvalue and can move things faster at the Foreign office.


Not to scare you, i hope things move fast for you. Just the access to all these German roadgoing machines should make the pain worthwhile

[nirmalts]

Originally Posted by sanjayatarizona

Buddy,
My 2 cents. Get a professional agency(someone like PWC) to do it for you, else the German Foreign office will kill you with requests and be prepared to wait for a lifetime, unless .. your potential Employer has great brandvalue and can move things faster at the Foreign office.


Not to scare you, i hope things move fast for you. Just the access to all these German roadgoing machines should make the pain worthwhile

Thanks Sanjay.

Do you think I have to approach PWC or ask my employer to do this? In other words, should the service be used from India or Germany?

Nirmal

[sanjayatarizona]

Originally Posted by nirmalts

Thanks Sanjay.

Do you think I have to approach PWC or ask my employer to do this? In other words, should the service be used from India or Germany?

Nirmal

I would strongly recommend that your employer takes this up with PWC in Germany, just to make life easier for you. Once the corporate connection has been established, i am sure that PWC India will get in touch with you.




Just a word of advise.Check out with your employer when the time comes as to whether they have a DHL/Fedex import account number for the courier dispatches. That way you can call up the courier guys provide the import number and the stuff gets charges automatically to the employer account . I have seen far too many folks spend too much money on sending documents related to Visa correspondence , and you are going to be sending a lot of stuff to and fro.

[MadRash]

Some Europe countries are asking for birth cirtificate of the applicant. I'm not sure about Germany, but make sure that you have one with the proper DOB.

Regards
Mahesh S

[BWN]

Hi Nirmal,

As suggested by others, its always better to ask your employer takes this to PWC in Germany and also get in touch with your local German embassy.

German WP dosn't require birth certificates usually. Many india comapnies ahve tie-ups with Travel houses who are experts in WP processing. You can Travel house in bangalore or chennai for more clarification. THey do the job for you.

[TheOne®]

Hi,

I don't know about it too much myself but I just have a new Indian colleague in our office here in Germany who will go back to India in about two or three weeks to get his work permit finalised.

When I see him I will ask him about it and see if he has some recommendations.

[DerAlte]

Normally your Indian employer should submit and application through the German client (I presume yours is not an individual arrangement; your employer and client must have either a partnership or resourcing agreement in place) which will get submitted with the Client's sponsorship / recommendation letter to the local Rathaus. Once they verify that your skill will not foul up the local employment situation, they will grant permission for long term stay and work (against funds provided by your current employer by way of salary/allowances). This permission is necessary for the German Consulate to grant you the appropriate Visa to enter Germany.

If an individual is taking direct employment, the procedure is slightly different. All EU countries have a website which advises the procedure in such cases - this one is for Germany. Resourcing arrangements by Indian companies (your company posting you at a client or client's client location) have to follow a slightly different procedure since your employment with the Indian company continues.

One need not go through PWC for this. Individuals and their prospective employers can do it themselves and this does not need any facilitation - the "ton of information to be submitted" is usually listed in the website, or one can contact the German Consulate in India. For companies wanting a resourcing arrangement, any law office in Germany can put together the necessary agreements.

Originally Posted by BWN

... German WP dosn't require birth certificates usually. Many india comapnies ahve tie-ups with Travel houses who are experts in WP processing. You can Travel house in bangalore or chennai for more clarification. THey do the job for you. ...

They believe your Passport data, but certain document requirements are beyond the obvious. One also needs marriage certificate etc. if one wants to take the wife along. The family details & application are needed to be submitted along with the primary applicant, if you intend to travel together.

Travel House? Stay away - they are hopeless. They are a dumb 'courier' agency which will even ask for things that the process does not need, and their only value add is the physical transport of the documents with very limited responsibility and no facilitation.

[nirmalts]

Hello all,

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. After lot of googling and contacting VFS Germany centre in Bangalore, I got the following info. I am posting it here as it might help others too.

The steps below are for candidates who got a direct job offer in Germany. Not for an international deputation to the parent company in Germany. There are two different ways:

Normal Process

Stage 1: The candidate makes an application for residence permit (which also provides access to the labour market) at the German embassy in the country where the candidate lives.

Stage 2: The Embassy passes the application to the immigration office (the Auslaenderbehoerde) in the place where the job is to take place for initial approval. The immigration office, in cooperation with the local employment office (the Arbeitsamt) that issues the permission, makes its decision.

Stage 3: If the candidate's application has been approved, the embassy provides an entry visa to the candidate.

Stage 4: Upon arriving in Germany, the foreign national and any accompanying family members must apply for their work and residence permits at the local foreigners authority where they live.

Pre-approved Process

Stage 1: The employer in foreign country contacts the local Auslaenderbehoerde and makes an application to employ the candidate. The Auslaenderbehoerde, in co-operation with the local employment office (the Arbeitsamt) that issues the permission, makes its decision.

Stage 2: If the application has been approved, the Auslaenderbehoerde provides a consent letter

Stage 3: The candidate makes an application for residence permit together with the consent letter above, at the German embassy in the country where the candidate lives. The embassy immediately provides an entry visa to the candidate.

Stage 4: Upon arriving in Germany, the foreign national and any accompanying family members must apply for their work and residence permits at the local foreigners authority where they live.

* Normal process could take upto 3 months. The pre-approved process will take little more than a month.

* Chances of rejection is very less (especially for IT specialists) unless there are problems with papers submitted

* You need to take assistance from a German lawyer/consultant only if your employer needs help is preparing a good job contract and job description. Also a lawyer can check the status with German immigration authorities

I plan to take the second process.

[senindra]

Hi nirmalts,
Since you have already chosen to take the second process, find a few additional points I would like to share with you.

Pre-approved Process

Stage 1: The employer in foreign country contacts the local Auslaenderbehoerde and makes an application to employ the candidate. The Auslaenderbehoerde, in co-operation with the local employment office (the Arbeitsamt) that issues the permission, makes its decision.

senindra : The Arbeitsamt contacts the IHK (Industrie- und Handelskammertag) which is the German chambers of industry and commerce, they are the ones who give the green signal to the arbeitsamt and the auslanderbehoerde to allow you in.

Stage 2: If the application has been approved, the Auslaenderbehoerde provides a consent letter

Stage 3: The candidate makes an application for residence permit together with the consent letter above, at the German embassy in the country where the candidate lives. The embassy immediately provides an entry visa to the candidate.

Stage 4: Upon arriving in Germany, the foreign national and any accompanying family members must apply for their work and residence permits at the local foreigners authority where they live.

senindra: When you come to Germany you will be given a normal visa of 90 days within which you have to go to the Auslaenderbehoerde and submit passport along with your rental agreement and you would be issued your aufenthaltsgenemigung & arbeitserlaubnis (two pages on your passport which would say you are allowed to stay till xyz depending on your contract)

* Normal process could take upto 3 months. The pre-approved process will take little more than a month.

senindra: if you are lucky one week.

* Chances of rejection is very less (especially for IT specialists) unless there are problems with papers submitted

very true till few years ago, still true now and the chances of rejection still is very very low.

* You need to take assistance from a German lawyer/consultant only if your employer needs help is preparing a good job contract and job description. Also a lawyer can check the status with German immigration authorities

If the company is an international company the personalabteilung will be competent enough to do it without any lawyer.

I plan to take the second process.[/quote]

Hope I could be of little help.

All the best

[nirmalts]

Thanks senindra.

My new employer has no experience recruiting someone from this part of the world. Since the pre-approved process needs lot of HR support from the company and they dont have the competance, I decided to go for the normal process. I submitted the papers at VFS Bangalore and they have sent it to Chennai consulate.

Nirmal