Moving to Germany

Europe's largest labour market, now openly recruiting — provided your qualification is recognised.

Germany spent decades insisting it was not a country of immigration, then reversed the position entirely. The Skilled Immigration Act reforms that phased in through 2023 and 2024 lowered the EU Blue Card salary thresholds, widened the shortage-occupation list, and introduced a points-based job-seeker permit — the Opportunity Card — for people with no offer at all. The official line is now that the country needs several hundred thousand net arrivals a year to hold its workforce steady.

The bottleneck moved rather than disappeared. For most non-EU applicants the decisive question is not the visa but Anerkennung: whether a German authority formally recognises the degree or vocational qualification you already hold. In regulated fields — medicine, nursing, teaching, law, much of the trades — an unrecognised qualification means you cannot practise, whatever your visa says. This single process determines more outcomes than any salary threshold.

The other change worth knowing is the citizenship reform that took effect in June 2024. The ordinary residence requirement fell from eight years to five, with three possible for exceptional integration, and multiple nationality became generally permitted — the old rule requiring most applicants to renounce their original citizenship was removed. That reform, more than any visa change, altered the long-term case for moving to Germany.

Region	Western Europe
Capital	Berlin
Population	about 83 million
Foreign-born residents	roughly 20% of residents
Official language(s)	German
Currency	Euro (EUR)

Why people move to Germany

• The EU Blue Card thresholds were lowered and the shortage-occupation list widened, opening the route to more graduates.
• The Opportunity Card allows entry to look for work on points, without any job offer.
• Public universities charge no tuition to most students, including non-EU students, in nearly every state.
• Statutory health insurance covers the whole household on one contribution, including non-earning spouses and children.
• Since June 2024 naturalisation is commonly possible after five years, and dual citizenship is generally permitted.
• A settlement permit can come unusually early — often within a few years — where German and integration requirements are met.

What to know before you commit

• Recognition of foreign qualifications is slow, document-heavy and, in regulated professions, unavoidable.
• German is required far more widely than English-language job adverts suggest, and almost universally outside tech and research.
• Deductions are heavy: tax, social insurance and the health contribution together take a large share of gross pay.
• Finding a flat in Munich, Berlin, Hamburg or Frankfurt is commonly harder and slower than getting the visa itself.
• Choosing private health insurance is close to irreversible for many employees, and premiums rise with age.
• Administration is paper-based, appointment-based and often only in German; waiting times for the immigration office vary widely by city.

The eight guides

Official sources

• Make it in Germany — official portal
• Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF)
• Federal Foreign Office — visa information

Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.