Advance approval (Vorabzustimmung) for the visa

The Ausländerbehörde can approve the issue of the national visa before the application is submitted to the German mission abroad. § 31 Abs. 3 AufenthV names several situations for this by way of example: an entitlement to the issue of the residence title, a public interest, the cases under §§ 18a, 18b, 18c Abs. 3, 19, 19b, 19c and 21 AufenthG, insofar as approval by the Ausländerbehörde is provided for in them, and urgent cases. In practice, this frequently concerns skilled workers whose qualification has already been recognised, researchers or applicants for an EU Blue Card (Blaue Karte EU). The Ordinance Governing Residence provides no separate fee for this: §§ 44 to 52 AufenthV contain no fee item for the approval of the Ausländerbehörde under § 31 AufenthV. Nor is there a uniform nationwide processing deadline – how quickly your authority decides depends on the authority and on the state of the file.

This is the formal, fee-based procedure: under § 81a Abs. 1 AufenthG, employers can apply for a fast-track procedure for skilled workers “on behalf of the foreigner under a power of attorney”. In this procedure, the Ausländerbehörde bundles the recognition of the foreign qualification, the approval of the Federal Employment Agency (Bundesagentur für Arbeit) and the approval of the issue of the visa, and supports the employer as the central point of contact. Under § 47 Abs. 1 AufenthV, a fee of €411.00 is charged “for carrying out the fast-track procedure for skilled workers under § 81a of the Residence Act”, which the employer bears. The procedure is designed not to exceed a total of around four months.

Only a few specific deadlines are laid down by law; everything else is based on experience. First: if the recognition body requests further proof or its findings are received, the Ausländerbehörde, under § 81a Abs. 3 Satz 1 Nr. 3 AufenthG, invites the employer within three working days of receipt so that these can be handed over and the further course of the procedure discussed; there is no deadline running from receipt of the application. Second: once the Vorabzustimmung has been presented and the appointment request has been received, the German mission abroad in the fast-track procedure offers an appointment for submitting the visa application that falls within three weeks, and then, as a rule, decides within a further three weeks of the complete visa application being submitted (§ 31a AufenthV). Separate deadlines also apply to the recognition body, for example under § 14a of the Professional Qualifications Assessment Act (Berufsqualifikationsfeststellungsgesetz, BQFG), and to the Federal Employment Agency under § 36 Abs. 2 of the Ordinance on the Employment of Foreigners (Beschäftigungsverordnung, BeschV). The frequently quoted ten-day rule of § 31 Abs. 1 AufenthV, on the other hand, only concerns certain cases in the regular visa procedure: there, approval is deemed to have been granted if, within ten days of the transmission of the application data, the Ausländerbehörde neither objects nor notifies that the examination will take longer – it does not apply to the Vorabzustimmung.

The Vorabzustimmung is not a visa and no guarantee of one. It merely anticipates the involvement of the Ausländerbehörde; the decision on the visa application continues to rest with the German mission abroad, which independently examines identity, travel document, security concerns and the general requirements for issue. Nor is it identical to the approval of the Federal Employment Agency: these are two separate examinations that are merely coordinated by the same body in the fast-track procedure. And it does not replace the later residence title, which must be applied for at the Ausländerbehörde after entry.

§ 81a Abs. 1 AufenthG expressly allows the employer to apply only “on behalf of the foreigner under a power of attorney”. Without this power of attorney in writing, the Ausländerbehörde must not process the application, nor must it give the employer any information about its status. The skilled worker signs it abroad; many Ausländerbehörde offices provide their own form for this, which you should request before the consultation. A scan is often sufficient to start the procedure, but the signed original is usually requested later.

The employer presents the signed employment contract or a binding offer. It must show the activity, working hours, remuneration, any fixed term and the planned start date, because the Ausländerbehörde and the Federal Employment Agency use this information to check whether the employment matches the qualification and whether the working conditions are no less favourable than those of comparable domestic employees. The document comes from your own company; certification is usually not necessary, but a legally binding signature is. If the contract changes during the procedure, you must inform the authority immediately.

You need the certificate of the university degree or vocational qualification together with a transcript of subjects and grades; for vocational training, also the proof of training and certificates of relevant professional experience. Documents in a foreign language must be submitted with a certified German translation; whether legalisation or an apostille is required depends on the issuing country. Whether a foreign university degree is already considered comparable can be checked in advance in the anabin database of the Central Office for Foreign Education (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen, ZAB) – a certificate listed there shortens the procedure considerably.

For qualifications that have not been recognised, the Ausländerbehörde initiates the recognition procedure with the competent body in the fast-track procedure – depending on the profession, this is for example the Handwerkskammer (chamber of skilled crafts, HWK), the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer, IHK) or a Land (federal state) authority. In regulated professions, especially in health, nursing and teaching professions, the licence to practise the profession is also required; without it, the activity must not be taken up. This partial procedure incurs separate fees of the recognition body, which are not included in the €411.00.

The employer fills in this form of the Federal Employment Agency; it is the working basis for the Federal Employment Agency’s approval of the employment. Among other things, it asks for the place of work, weekly working hours, gross pay, holiday entitlement and the exact job description. You can obtain it via the Ausländerbehörde or directly from the Federal Employment Agency. If the form is missing or the information differs from the employment contract, the Ausländerbehörde cannot obtain the approval and the entire procedure stalls.

A copy of a valid and recognised passport must be submitted, usually the data page, in some cases also pages with previous visas or entry stamps. The remaining validity should, if possible, cover the planned duration of residence – a passport that expires shortly after entry means that the visa can only be issued for a correspondingly shorter period. The passport is issued by the skilled worker’s home country authority; obtaining it takes several weeks in some countries and should therefore begin in parallel with the procedure.

The Ausländerbehörde checks whether the employer actually exists and whether the job is real. Usual documents are a current extract from the commercial register (Handelsregisterauszug), the trade registration (Gewerbeanmeldung) or proof of the business premises, in some cases supplemented by information on the number of employees. You can obtain the register extract via the joint register portal of the federal states, and you will already have the trade registration from your own registration with the Gewerbeamt (trade office). The authority specifies which proof is actually required in the agreement under § 81a Abs. 2 AufenthG.

Subsistence must be secured through the employment; the agreed gross pay is decisive. If the skilled worker has reached the age of 45 when a residence title under § 18a or § 18b AufenthG is issued for the first time, § 18 Abs. 2 Satz 1 Nr. 5 AufenthG additionally requires either a minimum salary or proof of adequate retirement provision; the relevant salary threshold is adjusted annually, and you can ask the competent Ausländerbehörde for the current amount. For the period until statutory health insurance coverage begins, sufficient insurance cover must also be proven.