Sometimes I cannot believe how fast time flies. By the time I am writing this post, I have been living in Germany for almost 6 years. In this blog, I will share everything from the moment I graduated to the moment I received my permanent residence status.
In summary, my journey looked like this:
Master’s degree in Germany → Job-seeking visa → Official work contract → Blaue Karte EU → Niederlassungserlaubnis / Permanent Residence
In detail, it looked like this:
After finishing my Master’s, like many other foreign students, the big question was:
Should I stay or should I go back to Vietnam?
The good thing about Germany is that if you obtain a degree here — Bachelor’s, Master’s, or higher — you can usually apply for an 18-month job-seeking visa. And 18 months might sound like A LOT, right? But trust me, that does not remove the stress of the job-seeking process :)))
Applying for the Job-Seeking Visa in Germany
In my case, I had to create a blocked account to extend my stay for this purpose, because I needed to prove / Germany required that I could sustain myself financially during this period. I used Expatrio for this.
It is worth noting that some of my friends did not have to do this. They simply got their visa extended by submitting the required documents. Although I do not know exactly how the decision was made, I suspect it depended on the person in charge of the case — or maybe some nationalities are asked for more documents than others.
So, if you plan to stay in Germany after graduation, make sure you have this amount available, just in case. You will need around 12,000 EUR for this — but please check the updated amount on the official Expatrio page or the official immigration website, because the number can change.
The way it works is that you transfer the money to your blocked account, and every month, you receive part of the money back. I know, I know… it is not ideal to give all your money in advance for the whole year without any interest. But yes, this is how it works, so we either prepare ourselves or get upset :)))
After that, I submitted all the required documents and waited.
Tips
I have heard that Berlin processes everything quite fast. I live in Sachsen, and I got a tip from a friend:
Send everything directly to the person who had been in charge of your Aufenthaltstitel since you arrived in Germany.
Since this officer had already handled my case before, I thought maybe they would process it faster. And honestly, it did feel that way.
So, if you have the contact details of the officer responsible for your case, send your application there as well, besides submitting it through the general portal or general email.
Three months after my job-seeking visa was granted, I got my full-time job. And this is where I made a mistake — something you can avoid.
Instead of changing immediately from a job-seeking visa to a work visa, I waited until I passed probation. A normal probation period in Germany usually takes 6 months. My thinking was:
“What if I do not like the job?”
“What if I do not pass probation?”
“I still have a valid visa, so why rush to submit the application now?”
Etc. etc.
It was the insecurity in me speaking hahahaha. So I decided that I would only apply to change my visa status after I passed probation. And that delayed everything by 6 months.
Many of my friends went ahead and applied for a visa change the moment they got their job offer.
After I passed probation and knew that the job was something I truly liked and enjoyed doing, I finally sent my application to change my visa status. Then I got my Blaue Karte EU. Yayyy! This status is usually valid for up to 4 years.
The next step was the Niederlassungserlaubnis, or permanent residence.
It is worth noting that if you have B1 German level, you usually only need to wait 21 months before you can apply for this status. If you have A1 German level, the waiting time is usually 27 months.
In my case, I waited 21 months. So now you can see the impact of the 6-month delay I mentioned earlier. If I had applied for the Blue Card immediately after getting the job, I could have received my permanent residence 6 months earlier. Because they do not count from the day you start working and paying taxes. They count from the day your Blue Card is issued.
Documents Needed for Permanent Residence in Germany
For permanent residence, the required documents might vary a little depending on the federal state, but normally you will be asked to submit documents like:
- Valid passport — copy
- Employment contract or job description with details of your gross salary, or the completed form “Declaration on the employment relationship”
- Proof of livelihood — salary statements for the last six months
- Current pension insurance history from the German Pension Insurance — you can request this from Deutsche Rentenversicherung, and you can download it directly from their portal
- Proof of current health insurance cover
- Proof of basic or sufficient German language skills, usually A1 or B1, from a certified language course provider such as Goethe-Institut, TestDaF-Institut, telc, or Ă–SD
- Proof of basic knowledge of the legal and social order, for example the “Leben in Deutschland” certificate, naturalization test, or proof of completing an integration course
- Current rental agreement, including proof of your current rent amount, for example a bank statement, or proof of housing costs if you own property
The two things that might need your early attention are:
(1) German language certificate
and
(2) Leben in Deutschland / EinbĂĽrgerungstest
These two are very important.
I strongly recommend preparing them while you are waiting to reach the 21-month or 27-month threshold. Most people I know already had everything else ready, but they were still missing these two certificates and had to wait longer. So plan early. At least 1 year before you can submit the documents.
Some of my friends took the Goethe test. Some took telc. I personally took TestDaF.
I actually did the test when I was still doing my Master’s. Back then, when I was still young hahahaha, I thought I might want to challenge myself and do another Master’s in Linguistics in German, and TestDaF was required. Although I did not do it eventually, I never regretted taking TestDaF. Actually, it was one of the best decisions I made.
For the other test, I took Leben in Deutschland.
Normally, you will not get an appointment for the test immediately. It might take a few weeks, or even months. So register early, and then start learning.
I downloaded the app with the same name to practice the questions. There are 310 questions in total, all in German. In the actual test, you will get 33 questions from this pool, and you need to answer at least 17 correctly to pass.
Flexing here: I got 33/33 hehehe.
So no worries. If you put in some effort, you will pass it.
A tip here:
Instead of immediately answering questions in the app, spend some time reading about Germany first. That way, when you start practicing, you can absorb the knowledge more easily.
Below are a few links I read before practicing with the app:
- How does the political system function in Germany? And then read more “related content” from that site.
- If you want to get nerdy, visit germanhistorydocs.org. I did not check everything there, but I found it useful because you can learn based on different historical periods. There are also many photos there, which makes it more interesting.
My conclusion? What I Would Do Differently
This whole journey was a long one. From the first day I arrived in Germany in October 2020 to the day I finally held my permanent residence card in my hand, it took me 5.5 years. Now that I got it, it seems quite “fast” but there were a lot of small things along the way that needed careful preparation and a bit of long term planning.
Again, it could have been just 5 years (just 5 years đź‘€) if I had been more decisive and less insecure hahahaha. But well, we learn. During these 5.5 years, you can actually do A LOT of things besides working and waiting for the next visa appointment.
One of them is building more financial freedom. I shared a little bit about my journey in this blog Living in Germany: Set up these accounts
I am now in the process of applying for an EU permanent residence permit (this offers more mobility rights to live and work in other EU countries compared to German Permanent Residence) and getting my driving license , and I will write about that in another blog post – actually, the dirving license alone deserves 10 blog posts hahaha
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To be continued… :)))
Have a LOVELY day!