Tag Archives: companies

Immigration to Germany

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Authorities

Recommendation: Employers should be proactive in relocating employees to Germany and should initiate the process as soon as possible to not cause unwanted delays. Due to a lack of resources in the German Immigration authorities authorities and an unexpected high volume of resident/work permit applications the current adjudication times are between 8 and 12 weeks.

The problems include the inability of offering appointments on short notice or answering phone calls relating to applications. Especially affected are complex application which require special consultations and often additional training for staff. In order to address the current capacity problems new people are hired, nevertheless regularizing the lack of resources will take some time as the new staff needs specific and adequate training as well as job experience.

Immigration will remain unchanged for companies, which relocate employees to Germany, however guidance cannot be provided by the authorities to do so at the moment. Further additional requests by the authorities asking for provision of additional documents could be experienced by foreigners and their employers. Additionally, inquiries in relation to qualifications, salary rates, benefits and employment conditions could be requested.

 

Startup scene Germany

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New star on Germnay’s startup scene – Hamburg gains impotance

Berlin is the heartland of the German startup-scene: good infrastructure and low housing price. However, one city is catching up – Hamburg. The Hanseatic town is catching up fast and even leading concerning Tech-Startups.

Following a survey Hamburg meet the current trends for choosing a startup location. Founders of young technology-enterprises estimate that the Hanseatic city will gain in importance even further as a study of PwC indicated. Hamburg ranks with 74% best out of 9 compared cities, followed by Berlin and Frankfurt a. M.

At the bottom maneuver, according to the study, Stuttgart, Dresden and Karlsruhe. Not even 50% of the 500 interviewed Start-up-founders believe that these cities will increase their importance in light of the startup-scene. Munich, Cologne and Düsseldorf reach mean values. The study is based on the European Digital City index, which includes all German cities.

Reasons for the assessment are unknown. Hamburg is amongst other a location for media and trading enterprises. More than half of the respondents operates in the sectors of information- and communication technology followed by E-commerce (25%).

Berlin’s top-employers

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This entry is part of 8 in the series TOP TEN

What do Deutsche Bahn, Vivantes, Charité, BVG, Deutsche Rentenversicherung, Siemens and KPMG have in common? – On the first sight: not a lot besides there large company size and being based in Berlin.
However, you should have a closer look at those companies. In times of scarce employees and problems to fill employment vacancies with talented and appropriate people these companies developed programs to enhance conditions of employment and to create a better working atmosphere.

These programs include flexible and individually adjusted working models, family friendliness as well as diversity. Other points are programs and support for health and leisure activities as well as initiatives to improve the atmosphere between the employed and between the different working levels. Outstanding: KPMG provides every employee with the opportunity to take up to 4 hours per month to follow voluntary activities.

 

Germany – a developing country in regards of digitalization?

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Angela Merkel introduced the national IT-summit, which is now renamed into ‘Digital-Summit’. It was designed to create a digital agenda, increase digitalization in Germany and hence to secure Germany’s competitiveness for the future in a digitalized world. However, after Merkel declared the ‘Internet as new ground for all of us’ in 2013 not a lot happened until now. Germany fell back even further: from place 15 to place 17.

Especially, broadband expansion and the low degree of attractiveness of digitalization to the majority of the German middle- and large-scale companies are the problems. The German broadband infrastructure was ranked 28th out of 32 by OECD. Germany risks loosing infrastructure for its industrial locations. Furthermore, most of the large and middle-scale companies in Germany fear the risks of digitalization more than valuing its benefits and improvements. Even if the companies see the benefits, most of the time the decision to modernize and digitalize is driven by cost-saving factors rather than by developing new business models and concepts.

Room for hope: the increased number of start-ups as well as more and more graduates who rather start their career in those more digitalized as well as future-oriented companies than in more stable, though older and more backwards oriented companies.

In light of this Berlin is on the best way. It is attracting more and more startups.

Tallinn – Berlin: a win-win partnership for startups

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A delegation of several different start-up companies from Berlin visited Tallinn, Europe’s heart of digitalization and start-ups. “48h- Tallinn” was a short trip to the Labs and start-up centres of the Estonian capital.
Both sides would benefit immensely from a partnership between Estonian start-ups from Tallinn and start-ups in Berlin. Estonia being the most digitalized European country, providing its citizens with the opportunity to vote online, make their tax declaration online and providing an extensive e-government, the start-ups from Tallinn are technically advanced to those from Berlin. Berlin’s start-up scene can learn from Tallinn’s start-ups and could digitalize faster and more efficient. The Estonian side however would benefit from the partnership through access to the large German market. By cooperating with start-ups from Berlin, Tallinn’s start-up scene could expand to the German market, as well as attracting more German investors to the Estonian start-up scene.
Therefore, this is a win-win situation and we are glad to welcome the Estonian start-ups here in Berlin!

Germany and the EU Blue Card

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The EU Blue Card is a special residence permit for workers coming from non EU countries. Everyone, having a German university degree or an in Germany acknowledged degree and earning more than € 49600 per year can apply for the EU Blue Card. People in fields of highly demanded qualifications need to fulfill lower conditions of a yearly income of € 38688. EU Blue Card holders enjoy the benefit of being granted the permanent residence permission after 33 or 21 months already.

Germany adopted the EU Blue Card in 2012 in order to combat the rising shortage of specialists. 41624 Blue Cards were issued until the end of 2015, mostly in the states of Bavaria (München), Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart) and Lower Saxony.

German think tanks and economists want to push the EU Blue Card further and want to lower the conditions applicable to university graduates within and outside of the so-called shortage sectors.
Do you fulfill the conditions for the EU Blue Card in Germany? How to apply for it? Special services are provided for EU Blue Card holder and those who want to apply for the EU Blue Card.

  • Supporting you in the application process – Which documents are necessary?
  • Supporting you in moving to Germany – What documents do I need? How to find a flat? What else is necessary?
  • Supporting you during your first time in Germany – Where do I find a language school to learn German?

Find out more here

Pathways to Germany – Part2 Employees

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This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Pathways to Germany

You have a recognized or comparable university degree or a vocational diploma in an understaffed profession? Or you already have a job offer for skilled or highly qualified employment in Germany, which you want to take up?

What do I need to do before going to Germany?
For both cases you first need to make an appointment at the German embassy in your country in order to apply for a visa. The visa is granted for 1-3 months. Bear in mind waiting and processing times at the embassies and do not do it last minute before leaving to Germany.

What do I need to do once I entered Germany?
After having entered Germany it is of utmost importance to register with the municipality of the city as soon as possible. This is a condition to register the with foreign nationals’ registration authority, which is responsible for you in Germany. They tell you which documents you need in order to apply for a residence permit and you apply here for the residence permit and work permit.

If you have a university degree or a vocational diploma in an understaffed profession you do not need to have a concrete job offer in order to apply for a residence permit, in this case you apply for the EU Blue Card which enables you to reside in Germany.

Handy hints:
– make appointments early in time in order to circumvent long waiting times and delays.
– in order to facilitate and accelerate the process you can inform yourself about the forms you need online at various platforms such as gohelp.y. You can print all forms and checklists at home and take them with you for your appointment.

New City, new country: Relocation – do it yourself!

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This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Relocation

You want to work in Berlin, Munich or Stuttgart and you are coming from an EU Member State?

When moving to Germany in order to work here, the most important question is whether your qualifications are accepted.
In the recognition procedure, the relevant competent authority will check whether your foreign professional or vocational qualification is equivalent to a German qualification. The equivalence check takes place on the basis of stipulated formal criteria such as content and duration of training. Any relevant occupational experience you may have is also taken into account. You must be able to show that you have completed a professional or vocational qualification which was not obtained in Germany.
European Centre for Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOD) had designed an European self-assessment grid for language skills and digital competence.

Online relocation tools can support you with this. Most effective are online tools which take into account your individual facts. You just need to provide the system with information about your work status, qualifications and skills; the online tool will then provide a step-by-step path with all steps you need to take. One such online tool is Gohelp.y.

Outlook for the next part of the series: Relocation with children. What is important when moving with children?

Berlin International Games Week

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The annual Berlin International Games Week will start at the 18th of April. For seven days Berlin will welcome representatives  from the digital industry as well as games enthusiasts.
More than 10,000 visitors – developer, publisher, investors and gamers are expected. There are more than ten events in one week at different venues in Berlin, ranging from conferences and recruitment events to games festivals and championships.
Different events will happen. There will be events for games enthusiasts, development conferences open to professional visistors only, a recruitment day for job seekers. Furthermore will happen this year a special recruitment event “Womenize” for female talents.

Do you have digital know how?

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 EUROPASS: self-assessment of digital competences

You can learn more about your own digital competence using the self-assessment of digital competences on Europass. This can be helpful for getting a job.
Europass includes five documents to make your skills and qualifications clearly and easily understood in Europe. You can create your CV online using tutorials or download the template, examples and instructions. Furthermore you can use the Language Passport. It is a self-assessment tool for language skills and qualifications. You can create your Language Passport online using tutorials or download the template, examples and instructions. Since last summer it is possible to carry out a self-assessment of digital competences (information processing, communication, content creation , security, problem solving) through the Europass CV online editor, using levels and descriptors.

The Europass celebrated its 10th birthday last year. Since it was designed more than 100 million visits were recorded, and 50 million CVs were created online in 27 languages. This success is largely due to the active support of National Europass Centres.

In every European country is a  National Europass Centre – the first point of contact if you want to learn more about Europass.

 

The European Centre for the Development of vocational Training (CEDEFOD)