Securing a Work Permit for an Administrative/Operations Role

5POSTS

9 years ago

Hi guys!

Really need some advice from all of you who are well versed with German work permit/national visa applications who are are currently working/living in Germany or have experience with this.

I've recently been offered employment with a technology healthcare startup in Frankfurt but the role offered is within the areas of English-speaking customer support, administration, procurement and e-commerce. I know that there is a shortage of labour in the IT and medical sectors, amongst a few others.

If the salary offered is below UR 39.624 per year, will the Federal Employment Agency be willing to pre-approve my application? Is there anyone here who has had their work permit application approved with a lower salary?

It seems that everyone who's successfully received a work permit is from the IT field. What about those with an administrative/communications background. Any success stories?

Thanks so much for reading and I look forward to your advice/thoughts.

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amethyst1099 New member

5POSTS

9 years ago

Hi guys,

Just wanted to share beppi's reply so that everyone can benefit from it:

"Hi Shay,

Congratulations for your job offer, which sounds very interesting.
Despite having lived here long (over 35 years, I am German), I am not very knowledgeable about German wor visa. I haven't heard about this pre-approval letter and cannot tell you how to get it.
I think your employer should approach their local Ausländeramt (which will decide about your visa), explain the urgency of needing to hire you, show evidence that they cannot find a suitable EU candidate and ask how to proceed. Good luck!

Greetings,
Beppi"

amethyst1099 New member

5POSTS

9 years ago

I would still like to get some insight from those of you who have been through this process and have successfully received your work permits/national visas.

What fields of work do the majority of you come from? Besides IT, are there people who have been successful in landing roles within other sectors?

man12345 Member

11POSTS

9 years ago

your specialty requires approval by the Federal Employment Agency because its administrative job ( eventhough i dont know the exact details of your work). i dont know the exact procedure but your employer should get that approval for you. without that letter of approval the local embassy will not issue the work visa. that approval is exempted for skilled workers in science and technology, medicine and pharmcy, researchers. is your bachelor degrees in IT or administration or communication? that would also help to answer your question. if its in administration and your position is a senior excutive with high salary, you can be exempted too. the point is the details of your certificate, salary and position is very important if its an administrative work. talk to the HR of your employer he/she might have the relevant information and probably will have to get the approval letter for you. if your are not a senior level executive and with high salary, getting approval for administrtaive position is very difficult but not impossible. good luck. you can provide specifics of your bachelor certificate, salary and position and will probably give you the little advice I have

amethyst1099 New member

5POSTS

9 years ago

man12345 wrote:
your specialty requires approval by the Federal Employment Agency because its administrative job ( eventhough i dont know the exact details of your work). i dont know the exact procedure but your employer should get that approval for you. without that letter of approval the local embassy will not issue the work visa. that approval is exempted for skilled workers in science and technology, medicine and pharmcy, researchers. is your bachelor degrees in IT or administration or communication? that would also help to answer your question. if its in administration and your position is a senior excutive with high salary, you can be exempted too. the point is the details of your certificate, salary and position is very important if its an administrative work. talk to the HR of your employer he/she might have the relevant information and probably will have to get the approval letter for you. if your are not a senior level executive and with high salary, getting approval for administrtaive position is very difficult but not impossible. good luck. you can provide specifics of your bachelor certificate, salary and position and will probably give you the little advice I have

Thanks so much for your reply! My current position is with a software company where my work entails technical support, software training and online marketing. I have a diploma in Business Management and a degree in Corporate Communications. I am unsure as to whether I would be considered a senior level executive however, my previous work experience includes corporate communications and public relations and I have been in the work force for over 8 years.

The position I am offered would require me to work in the areas of customer support, administration, procurement and e-commerce. We haven't gotten as far as confirming the salary yet but I understand that there is a minimum salary requirement of EUR 39.624 a year. Does this only apply to applications for Blue Card visas?

Since the work requires customer support duties for a mobile health systems company, would it be considered an IT-related job which would fall under the shortage labour category in Germany?

Also, what would you say is an average salary for the role that I've mentioned? I'm not as familiar with salaries in Germany as you can imagine. The office is in Frankfurt am Main if that helps with gauging the cost of living, etc...

man12345 Member

11POSTS

9 years ago

i think you should at least know the salary and the position and all your responsibilities. the embassy will require all these details including your working hours. i will advise you to contact the employer too give the details of your salary, position and responsibilities. i dont think you should even consider an offer if you dont know the details of the remuneration and conditions. that is the start point so please ask them to at least send you and appointment letter detailing all these things. and again talk to your HR. you can send me a pm if you get the exact information. hope this helps

TominStuttgart Germany Expert

2816POSTS

9 years ago

Why didn't you just Google it?

Here are 3 links below, all to different sites that give the details for getting German work visas. The first one is the official German Governmental site.

Getting firsthand accounts can be helpful in some cases but also lead you astray as your situation might differ from someone else's.

Another thing is that I have to warn you about is that there are lots of scams where people target foreigners for non-existing jobs. They usually claim to be from well-known legitimate companies but aren't. They often lure people with promises of great salaries but have no live job interview. One REALLY needs to be careful and verify with the company that this is legit.

For some fields like IT or advance scientific research there are simply not enough highly skilled people in Germany so companies might recruit elsewhere. But because of governmental regulations it is much easier for them to get someone from another EU country. And if they would look for someone for any kind of management job where the primary language would be English then they would always look for native speakers.

So why would they hire someone from Kuala Lumpur? The only reason I could even imagine is a company that has branches or major business dealings in Malaysia and could use someone who also knows the local language and market situation. When they claim that they have lined up accommodation for you but you have to send them payments for it then it is almost 100% certain it is a scam.

http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Startseite_node.html http://www.germany-visa.org/working-ger … rk-permit/http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card- … ermit.html