Germany · Work authorisation
Issued by The immigration authority (Ausländerbehörde) for the place where you live in Germany. It is checked against conditions rather than scored, so the question is whether you meet each one, not how many points you gather.
Conditions
If you are living outside the EU, the competent German diplomatic mission issues the employment visa first. Nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA may enter without a visa and apply within three months.
EUR 50,700 a year
§ 18g(1) sentence 1 AufenthG sets the floor at 50 per cent of the annual contribution assessment ceiling of the general pension insurance; the Federal Foreign Office states that as €50,700 a year for 2026. A lower floor of €45,934.20 a year applies in 2026 under § 18g(1) sentence 2 and § 18g(2) to the shortage occupations listed there, which the Federal Employment Agency describes as including "Akademische Fachkräfte in Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaft und Technik (MINT)" and "Führungskräfte in der Erbringung von Dienstleistungen im Bereich Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie". The lower floor normally requires the approval of the Federal Employment Agency; the standard floor does not. Ask the authority whether your specific job falls in one of those groups before you rely on the lower figure.
A figure without the year it belongs to and the condition attached to it is how someone rules themselves out of a permit they qualify for. Both are above.
A German higher education qualification, or a foreign higher education qualification comparable to a German one.
Statement of Comparability for foreign higher education qualifications, issued by ZAB (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen).
This compares your degree to a local one. It is an academic statement and it does not authorise you to practise any profession.
Statement of Comparability: €208. 3 months from complete documents and full payment
The procedure
Cost and time
Published processing times, not a prediction about your case.
Both halves together
Each one takes a profession into Germany and runs the recognition branch and the authorisation branch side by side, including what your country of qualification adds.
Evidence
7 official pages, each with the jurisdiction it speaks for and the date a human last opened it. The oldest is 2026-08-09, and that is the date this page is only as fresh as.
Is this the right permit for you?
The planner compares every route Germany opens to your country of qualification, and adds the recognition branch when your profession has one.