L card with PHD period

Hello Hodaya Biske,

Welcome to Expat.com 😀

I hope you will be able to gather some information here soon.

All the best,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

If your PhD was not under a single permit, that means you came here with a student visa (long-term visa, D visa for study purpose). You renewed your A-card every year AND your PhD salary was not subject to income tax, I assume. If so, unfortunately, yes, those years count as half even though you paid social contributions.

I think a lot of people misunderstand the concept of paying social contributions. Almost everyone in BE with income pays that. Even a student with a job, they also pay social contributions and taxes! A Doctoral scholarship holder, since you are "student"(based on your visa) with income, you also need to pay social contributions. But unlike a job student, as a scholarship holder, both for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers are not liable to income tax as individuals.

hi, just out of curiosity and super out of topic, i thought post doc research is also considered as work and not as student?

@brla15

It depends on you contract of cause... just like PhD can be considered as work and need to get single permit to do your PhD, vice versa

@ashiseverywhere

Hi.

As far as I know, postdoc grant holders should obtain a single permit and are not students. Are they counted as half?