I didn’t know that getting work permit in German is really this hard. It’s been 3 months and I haven’t got my work permit yet 🙁

It’s quite surprising for us. We did a consultation with immigration lawyer a week before I applied my work permit. The lawyer said it won’t be a problem for us to get work permit. The job requires skilled worker (J2ME programming), I have 3 years experience on J2ME, got a bachelor degree in Informatics Engineering, and currently finishing my master thesis in Digital Media in Germany (it’s our third year in Germany). My wife also has the same qualification like me, and she even speaks better German than me.

The problem is not in the immigration office. In fact, they are really helpful. They respond all my e-mails (in English!!). We went to the immigration office in Berlin and it’s far nicer than the one in Bremen. The person are so kind and friendly (including the security guys).

The problem is on the Arbeitsagentur (the state job agency). The immigration office has to send my documents to the Arbeitsagentur and wait for their approval. Normally, it takes 3 –4 weeks for the Arbeitsagentur to approve the document, or 2 weeks if they reject you. Even the person in the immigration office was confused that there’s no answer yet from Arbeitsagentur, even after more than 2 months.

So on the last one month, me and the HRD person from the company have been in contact with the Arbeitsagentur. It’s quite hard to work with the Arbeitsagentur. The response was quite slow, hard to find the contact person, and they keep on asking for some extra documents.

They keep on arguing that I have to finish my master degree first. I found it untrue because I know some indian friends who managed to get work permit (after dealing with them for 3 months) while finishing their master thesis.

Fortunately, the person at the immigration office is really kind and aware of our problem. She gave us temporary permit for 3 months as students, which means I can start working in the company immediately while waiting for the permit approval, and also finishing my thesis 🙂 We were so happy when she gave the permit because my student permit was supposed to ended on May 31st. Otherwise, I have to go back to my home country. At least, our financial problem will be solved at the moment.
We really really hope to get our real permit soon. We love Germany, we have close friends and good memories here, and it feels like our second home country.

This issue has to be changed since almost 95% of foreign students in German choose to work at other country or go back to their home country after finishing their study (Spiegel, August 2007). I find it kinda true since only a few of my foreign friends can get a job in German. Maybe it’s hard to get a job here, or maybe the horror stories about German bureaucracy?

I guess we are still lucky.