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Blue Card EU visa for non-Turkish citizens

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Who can apply?

You can apply if you meet the following requirements:

Recognized or comparable foreign higher or tertiary education degree or German degree with a minimum salary of 45.300 EUR/year (for 2024) OR
Recognized or comparable foreign higher or tertiary education degree or German degree obtained not more than three years before applying for an EU Blue Card visa and a minimum salary of 41.041,80 EUR/year (for 2024) OR
Recognized or comparable foreign higher or tertiary education degree or German degree, employment in a so-called shortage occupation and a minimum salary of 41.041,80 EUR/year (for 2024). Please find the shortage occupations below:

Education:
university and higher education teachers, vocational education teachers, secondary education teachers, primary school teachers, early childhood educators, education methods specialists, special needs teachers, other language teachers, other music teachers, other arts teachers, information technology trainers, teaching professionals not elsewhere classified

Environment/science/engineering:
physicists and astronomers, meteorologists, chemists, geologists and geophysicists, mathematicians, actuaries and statisticians, biologists, botanists, zoologists and related professionals, farming, forestry and fisheries advisers, environmental protection professionals, industrial and production engineers, civil engineers, environmental engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, mining engineers, metallurgists and related professionals, engineering professionals not elsewhere classified, electrical engineers, electronics engineers, telecommunications engineers, building architects, landscape architects, product and garment designers, town and traffic planners, cartographers and surveyors, graphic and multimedia designers

Health/medicine:
generalist medical practitioners, specialist medical practitioners, nursing professionals, midwifery professionals veterinarians, dentists, pharmacists, environmental and occupational health and hygiene professionals, physiotherapists, dieticians and nutritionists, audiologists and speech therapists, optometrists and ophthalmic opticians, health professionals not elsewhere classified

Information technology:
systems analysts, software developers, web and multimedia developers, applications programmers, software and applications developers and analysts not elsewhere classified, database designers and administrators, systems administrators, computer network professionals, database and network professionals not elsewhere classified

Manufacturing/construction/technology:
manufacturing managers, mining managers, construction managers, supply, distribution and related managers, information and communications technology service managers

Professional service:
child care services managers, health services managers, aged care services managers, social welfare managers, education managers, financial and insurance services branch managers, professional services managers not elsewhere classified, OR
IT specialists lacking a comparable higher or tertiary education degree but proving that they have at least three years of comparable professional experience and a minimum salary of 41.041,80 EUR/year (for 2024)

The employment must correspond to your qualification. If this is not the case or if you do not reach the miminum salary for a Blue Card EU visa, you may apply for a academic or professional skilled worker visa, please see here.
If you do not meet the requirements as an IT specialist listed here or if you would like to apply as any other specialist without a recognized academic or professional degree, see here.

What documents do I need?

NOTE: Please do not staple or fold any documents. The submission of complete documents does not constitute a claim to the issue of a visa, but enables the visa office to check the legal requirements. In individual cases, further documents not mentioned here may also be required. You will be informed about this after the application has been submitted and will be given a reasonable period of time to submit them.

For foreign civil status certificates and other public certificates please check on the website of the German mission in the issuing state whether any formal steps must be taken in order for the document to be accepted by German authorities (i.e. legalization, apostille). The legalization can generally only be done by the German mission in the country where the document was issued.

In general:

Please submit a passport for each applicant. The passport(s) must be valid and there have to be at least two empty pages. Please also submit a copy of the passport data page(s) (page with photo and validity dates) for each family member.

If you are an Afghan citizen and you have applied for your passport at the Afghan Consulate General in Istanbul (place of issue: „MFA Kabul“): Please submit additionally your e-Tazkira or a paper Tazkira accompanied by a translation into English stamped by the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Please fill in, print out and sign the address confirmation and e-mail consent.

After your application has been processed, we will send your passport and other original documents via UPS to the indicated address.

WARNING: If your (e-mail-)addresses change during the application procedure, please inform us immediately. Otherwise, we can not ensure that your documents or important information with regard to your application reach you.

Job documents:

Your university diploma or a comparable at least three-years higher or tertiary education diploma. Please bring German translations of all foreign language documents. Only English language documents do not need to be translated. Please submit the original document and one copy.

In order to check whether your foreign academic degree is assessed as equivalent or corresponding to a German academic degree in the visa application process, you generally have two options:

Option 1: Assessment of your degree(s) in the ANABIN database
Many degrees and the issuing universities can be found in the ANABIN database. In order to be seen as equivalent / corresponding in the visa application, both your degree and your university must be listed and assessed in ANABIN. Please submit therefore one print-out of each; your university and your degree.

If your university is assessed as „H+“, it is sufficient for the purposes of the visa application process if your degree is assessed either as „equivalent“ (gleichwertig) or „corresponding“ (entspricht) to a German academic degree.

If your university is assessed as „H+/-“, your degree must be assessed either as „equivalent“ (gleichwertig) or „corresponding“ (entspricht) to a German academic degree and additionally must be listed in the degrees awarded by your specific university.

In all other cases or if only your university but not your degree are found in ANABIN, your degree cannot be recognized solely based on the information in the ANABIN database. You need to turn to the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) for an individual „Statement of Comparability for Foreign Higher Education Qualifications“ (see option 2).

Option 2: ZAB-letter or other recognition decision
You can have your degree checked for equivalency to a German academic degree by the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB). You can apply for an individual „Statement of Comparability for Foreign Higher Education Qualifications“. In that case you will receive a written confirmation after the review is finished.

If you would like to apply with a tertiary education diploma, you cannot use ANABIN and are required to submit a ZAB-letter or a recognition decision by another responsible recognition authority stating equivalency with German higher education levels. Information on recogition authorities can also be found at www.anerkennung-in-deutschland.de.

Please submit the original document and one copy.

If you would like to apply as an IT-specialist without any diploma you must submit evidence of skills, knowledge and abilities based on at least three years of professional experience acquired in the last seven years in an IT profession (see the list of professions above) by submitting e.g. SGK extracts, certificates, confirmations of employment etc. The level of knowledge has to be equivalent to a German higher education qualification or to a tertiary education qualification and has to be necessary for the performance of the employment. Please submit the originals and one copy.

Proof of professional history, e.g. employer certificates, references, SGK (social insurance) history with barcode. Please bring German translations of all foreign language documents. Only English language documents do not need to be translated. Please submit the original document and one copy. Please submit the original document and one copy.

If available: proof of language skills (German or English). Please submit the original document and one copy. As part of the plausibility check, proof of language skills may be requested subsequently. NOTE: If working in the health sector German language skills on at least B1 or B2 level (depends on the Bundesland) are mandatory.

Only German language certificates based on standardised language tests in accordance with the standards of the Association of Language Testers (ALTE) can be accepted. This currently applies to certificates from the following providers - irrespectively of the place where you did the exam.

Goethe Institut, see: www.goethe.de
ÖSD, see: www.osd.at,
TestDaF-Institut e.V., see: www.testdaf.de (FernUniversität Hagen or Ruhr-Universität Bochum, only B2 or higher level)
telc GmbH, see www.telc.net
ECL test centers, testing is done by AFU GmbH, see: www.eclexam.eu

You must declare that the employment on which the visa application is to be based is actually intended to be carried out and there is no sham employment relationship in order to obtain a residence permit. Please print and sign this form and submit the original.

Within the first twelve months, holders of an Blue Card visa are obliged to notify the competent immigration authority of any change of employer and any change that has an impact on the requirements of the Blue Card visa. Please also print and sign this form and submit the original.

One copy of the insurance confirmation. A Turkish travel health insurance is NOT sufficient. The health insurance is considered adequate if it corresponds in terms of type and scope to that of the statutory health insurance, i.e. in particular it must not provide for any more substantial exclusions of benefits or include any limitation of the costs to be refunded in the event of sickness or any termination or expiry clause due to a particular age being reached, work being discontinued, a change in the purpose of residence or the loss of legal residence status.

IMPORTANT: Being uninsured may have serious consequences as in the worst case no adequate medical can be provided. We strongly recommend that you apply (if applicable) for statutory or other private long-term health insurance as soon as possible after entering Germany.

For your spouse:

If one of the spouses was represented at the time of the marriage, additionally: special power of attorney – the power of attorney must state the full names of both spouses and must have been issued before the marriage contract is concluded. Please bring the original document (you will get it back later) and one copy.

Please bring German translations of all foreign language documents. Only English language documents do not need to be translated.

Documents from German authorities will be accepted without further formality.