Aufenthaltstitel und erwerbstätigkeit gestattet (work permit)

A visa with this wording allows all kinds of work, but you need to get an actual work permit from the Arbeitsamt first.
Residence visa and work permits are always national, so yours gives no advantage whatsoever in another country (especially Switzerland, which isn't even EU).

Gotcha. I'll check into the actual work permit. I ended up shooting an email off to Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge after some searching on google. I haven't gotten an answer yet but hopefully will soon!

When you say “advantage”, you mean it does not allow me permission to work, correct? And not it does not give me an advantage in getting a job?

And yes, of course, about Switzerland. But I'm only an hour from Zurich and if my former employer sees they have a position I am a fit for, then it's working in Switzerland, based out of Germany. Only time will tell how it plays out. Haha hopefully sooner than later...

Living in one country and working in another is called a cross border situation. I am posting a link to a thread that touched on this subject although it was focused on Netherlands/Germany and not Switzerland/Germany. While Switzerland is not in the EU it is in the Schengen group. If you actually get a job offer and work permit to accept it in Switzerland, it won't be a legal problem anyway that you live in Germany. You need to inform yourself of the implications though of things like the social security coverage and how that works in such a situation (can get tricky). My second link below is to the EU site that gives information about this subject.

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=815065https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/w … dex_en.htm

Thanks for the info Tom! I'll check this out now. I'm so green to all of this and still waiting to see how it all pans out. It may be that the position is based in Belgium or Italy as well - both EU so I wonder if that would be easier. (Maybe dumb to think but like I said - I'm learning😂)

And being an American citizen can't make things any easier. Gonna be a weird tax situation... 🧐

JennScheer wrote:

Thanks for the info Tom! I'll check this out now. I'm so green to all of this and still waiting to see how it all pans out. It may be that the position is based in Belgium or Italy as well - both EU so I wonder if that would be easier. (Maybe dumb to think but like I said - I'm learning😂)

And being an American citizen can't make things any easier. Gonna be a weird tax situation... 🧐

Yes, Americans have a unique tax situation because even expats have to file, even if you end up with no tax obligation. This is a long and complicated subject which I have extensively posted about. And you have to not only file annual Federal Income Taxes but also the FBAR which is a separate document listing your financial assets world-wide. The good news is that in the end few actually have to pay any US tax after qualifying for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or taxing Foreign Tax Credits. Some people just ignore their obligation to file but it will catch up with them. Eventually they go back to the States and get flagged for not having filed. Giving up one's citizenship for example means proving one has filed for the previous 5 years. Eventually, getting a passport renewal or other consular services will probably be crossed checked with one's filing status. On the one hand, they say the IRS is over worked and lots of little things slip by them. The other reality is that with computers it is zero effort for them to flag people for not filing or other abnormalities. There was recently an amnesty program in place so that people could come into compliance without big punishments but it has expired to the best of my knowledge. Best to keep up with such things.