GGermany

Switching to Blue Card or Work Visa from Family Reunification visa

  • August 18, 2024



Hi all, I come today with some questions (Ive already googled but cannot find proper info), so hopefully another person that has had this situation can help me:

I've been living in Germany (Munich) for about two years and a half with a Family Reunification Visa (my spouse has Blue Card), and been working here for about 10 months here in IT job (1 year contract), but recently got a new job with a permanent contract and a higher salary that qualifies me for Blue Card. My spouse says that I should switch to Blue Card because her company has been having some lay offs and even though Im not that sure how easy is to fire someone in Germany (?) it should be good to have some redundancy in this aspect.

Now here are my questions

  1. I have a University degree (in Information Technology), and my University is in the Anabin database but not my degree, I know that I need to have my degree recognized here and Ive read it takes about 6 months, so I'm wondering if it in this case would it be just better to have a regular work visa for qualified professionals as to make the process faster? From my understanding for a regular work visa you dont need to have your degree recognized (unless its a regulated profession), I'm getting my information from here: https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/visa-residence/types/work-qualified-professionals

  2. Both for the work visa and for the spouse visa, one can apply for settlement permit after 3 years, in this case if I switch for the work visa does the time Ive already spent here (with the spouse visa), count towards this time?

  3. Can I have these two visas simultaneously? Because this is a new job, I'm nervous that if I dont pass the Probezeit, I would stay without the work visa and without the spouse visa, and then I would need to start the process again, which is very frustrating.

  4. Can I apply for this visa within Germany? Once again, Ive googled this, and the answer is always to go the german embassy or consulate in my country/another country, but I already live here, can this be done from within? My home country is Mexico so its very difficult to go all the way there to apply for a visa 🙁

Thanks for reading all this, and hopefully this post doesnt break the subreddit rules, if you guys could help me or direct me to the right place I'd appreciate it. Thank you and have a nice Sunday!

by SadMuyTriste

3 comments

  1. Regarding 1):
    In many cases you will still need a recognized degree for the residence permit, even if it’s not Blue Card. You don’t need it currently since the basis for your residence is your partner, not your work.

    Regarding 4) 
    When you’re in Germany, your local AuslĂ€nderbehörde is where you do the procedures you would otherwise do at the embassy.

    For the rest I can’t help much, but try to contact the Make it in Germany service for your questions.

  2. This will be a bit longer, so I apologize.

    4- I’ll start with this for clarification. In Germany foreigners can aquire residence titles. Residence titles include: visa, residence permit, Blue Card, settlement permit.

    A visa is only issued by the German authorities abroad, consulates and embassies. The other residence titles are only issued inside of Germany.

    A national D-type visa is issued under the same conditions as the residence permit/Blue Card for the purpose of getting to Germany, and then you apply for the actual residence permit/Blue Card inside of Germany. Sort of: you use the visa to get here, and then get the real thing here.

    Many people are apparently confused by this terminology, and just refer to anything that allows them to stay in another country a “visa” (some even say “VISA” because apparently they think it’s related to the American payment company). Even many Germans that don’t have anything to do with this stuff would probably do the same.

    make-it-in-germany, an amazing site in every other aspect, also doesn’t put enough focus on the difference here. Safe to say: if you satisfy the conditions for a visa you’ll satisfy the ones for the assosciated residence permit (and vice versa).

    1- For the regular work residence permit (so 18b) you need a recognized degree as well, else you’re not a skilled worker (it also says on the page you linked: “Your qualification must be recognised in Germany or comparable to a German degree”).

    You could, however, apply for a special work residence permit if you have 2 years work experience in the last 5 years; 19c (1) in conjunction with 6 BeschV (also requires a 40k salary if employer is not bound to a Tarifvertrag, but you satisfy that already). For this you do not need a recognized degree (for IT you don’t even need a degree at all).

    This does not open any option to a faster settlement permit. So you’d have to go with the standard 5 year option under § 9.

    2- The reduced 3 year options are usually exclusive. Time for one doesn’t count towards the other. (Also: I’m only aware of the 3 year settlement permit option for family reunfication with German citizens. There is the option to get a settlement permit after 3 years of family reunification if your wife already has one by the skilled worker path with the Blue Card though. Maybe you mean that?)

    There’s a bit of a debate about whether the skilled worker 3 year option allows previous employment under eg. family reunification to count. At the minimum, you’ll require a recognized degree to at least be eligible for an 18b residence permit. (Whether you must have had the degree recognized for the employment to count is open too.)

    I wouldn’t count on Bavaria going by this more extensive interpretation. In the likely worst case you’ll just have to start with the time counting after you applied 

    3- You can have multiple residence titles at the same time, yes. For the time being you can just keep them, though the authorities will be less than happy to renew eg. your family reunification residence permit if you have a valid work residence permit. You can stay legally already and unnecessary applications (from their point) will increase their backlog even more.

    Note that if you loose the job the authority will decide (if and by how much) to shorten the duration of validity for your work residence permit. This would usually give a few months to look for another job or apply for eg. the family reunification residence permit again.

    ______
    Also, thank you for a post with good questions. This defenetily belongs here.

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