New Form for Many Foreign Workers Requires More Extensive Employer Information

The situation

The German Federal Employment Agency is requesting additional employment information for pre-approval applications for certain permit types through a new, more detailed form.

A closer look

• Affected work permit types. The following permit types fall within the scope of the new form:
  • Work permits for locally-hired or assigned workers who are nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and the United States (known as the ‘Best Friends’ permit); and
  • EU Blue Card applications for locally-hired workers in shortage occupations.
     
• Unaffected work permit types. This form will not apply for the below work permit types, which require a pre-approval but have their own form:
  • International Staff Exchange;
  • Intra Company Transferee (ICT) Card; and
  • Assignments for specialists up to 90 days.
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• Additional information on form. Due to the new form, affected employers must now provide the below additional employment information to the Federal Employment Agency:
  • Salary based on employment contract or collective agreement;
  • Salary group (if based on collective agreement);
  • Whether employee is required to work overtime;
  • Extent of overtime and compensation for overtime; and
  • Holiday entitlement in business days per year.

Impact

This new form may increase the document gathering time during the work permit application process.

Employers should clarify their overtime, compensation and holiday entitlement policies to be able to provide this information on the new form.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to frankfurtinfo@fragomen.com.