What is the recognition partnership?
The recognition partnership is a specific kind of residence and work permit for Germany. It enables non-EU citizens to come to Germany in order to improve their professional qualification further while working at the same time. It may provide the basis for a permanent residence permit in Germany.
Video: The recognition partnership
Goal: Obtain the right qualification in Germany
Germany has made a deliberate decision to facilitate the immigration of persons who have a qualification that is considered useful for the German economy. It has defined what these qualifications are. People who do not quite meet these criteria must qualify further to be able to come to Germany. For a long time, they had to do that from abroad. They had to study or obtain a professional qualification in their own country or another country. Only after they had done that, they could obtain a visa and residence permit for Germany. This procedure was long and cumbersome and deterred many people.
This is why the procedure was changed and the so-called recognition partnership was introduced on 1st of March 2024. Recognition partnership means that people who have qualifications that do not quite match the requirements for a specific job in Germany can find an employer in Germany, come to Germany and cooperate with him to improve their qualification and bring it up to the required level.
In most cases, that means that the person works for this employer and at the same improves his or her qualification so that they match the requirements for a residence permit. So, other than before, the person can come to Germany immediately and can also start working immediately. Since the person can work and get a salary, the requirements in terms of finances are much less stringent.
Who is eligible?
Qualification
So, who can enter a recognition partnership? You must have undergone full-time professional training for a period of at least two years in another state. This training must be recognised by the state in which you have obtained it
Or, you must have a university degree which is recognised in the state in which you obtained it.
In the procedure, you must prove that you meet these requirements. That is done via a statement by a German authority, the so-called Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen, which means Central Office for Foreign Education.
This body has the task to establish whether foreign qualifications or degrees are recognised by the state in which they have been issued. In short, they want to make sure that the degrees and diplomas are legit.
You submit your degrees or certificates to the Central Office for Foreign Education; then the Central Office for Foreign Education issues a kind of digital declaration to the effect that your qualification or degree obtained can in principle be recognised in Germany.
If you have a university degree, the Central Office of Foreign Education will issue a so-called “Statement of Comparability”.
If you apply with a vocational qualification, it will issue a so-called Confirmation of State Recognition.
This confirmation is not a valid recognition yet. It just means that the degree can in principle be recognised. This confirmation is a requirement to obtain a visa. When you have entered Germany with the visa, you will initiate the procedure for formal recognition of his qualification.
Job or valid job offer
You must already have a job. That means you must either have an employment contract or a verifiable, concrete job offer. The job which you are going to do must be connected to the qualification you have obtained, it must be in the same field of work. In the context of the recognition partnership, you cannot get a visa to do a job which is unrelated to his or her qualification or education.
Recognition partnership agreement
However, the contract which you conclude with the employer goes beyond a mere labour contract.
There are additional obligations for both parties. You and the employer conclude a recognition partnership agreement. By that agreement, the employer enters an obligation to support you in obtaining the additional qualification you need. This can for example mean that the employer gives you days off to participate in courses, that the employer provides on-the-job-training, that he helps you identify offers for training which may be useful and so on.
You enter an obligation to initiate the procedure for the recognition of the certificates or degrees obtained abroad immediately. You also enter an obligation to participate actively in activities which are designed to bring your skills to the required level, for example by taking courses and exams, participating in on the job training and so on.
There is an authority in Germany which is competent for various administrative questions regarding employment, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, which translates to Federal Agency for Employment. This Federal Employment Agency checks if the recognition partnership agreement meets the requirements. It also checks if the employer is suitable. That means if the employer has the necessary skills to provide the training which is required.
If the job requires a professional practice license (e.g., in healthcare), the employer must meet additional strict criteria. They must be either bound by a collective bargaining agreement (Tarifbindung), or be a licensed care institution pursuant to § 72 SGB XI, or be an employer of church law to be eligible to enter into a Recognition Partnership
Required language skills
Finally, you must have sufficient knowledge of the German language. In general, that means that you must have knowledge at least the level A 2 of the European Reference Framework. However, it is noteworthy that this is only the minimum requirement set out in law. In practice, you will not go very far with knowledge at level A 2 – neither for the purposes of your job nor in everyday life in Germany. So, it is desirable to have a better command of the German language. If you obtained your visa with A 2, you should start working on your German skills as soon as possible when you arrive in Germany.
Procedure
Obtaining a visa
These are the requirements. So, how does the procedure work?
If you are interested in obtaining a visa and residence permit in the frame of a recognition partnership, you should first get a pre-liminary assessment that your training, education or degree can be recognised. They must obtain a digital declaration from the Central Office for Foreign Education.
Then or parallel to that, you should find an employer who will offer you a job and a recognition partnership. Obviously, that can be difficult. There is not one central portal of all employers which are offering jobs in the frame of a recognition partnership. Rather, there are several portals and channels via which you can find an employer or a job offer, there are private agencies offering support, unofficial networks and so on.
If you already have a declaration from the Central Office for Foreign Education, that may make it easier to find a potential employer, because then the employer knows that he can continue with you. It also shows that you have done your homework.
Once you have found an employer, you conclude the recognition partnership agreement with him.
The next step is to obtain a visa. That can be done in two ways. There is the classic way and there is the accelerated procedure.
The classic way is a follows:
Your future employer will fill out a number of documents and forms and send them to you. You are going to need them when you submit your visa application.
You submit your application for a visa in the context of a recognition partnership at the embassy of your country of residence. In this application you include inter alia copies of the agreements you have concluded with your future employer and the paperwork that your future employer gave to you.
The embassy or other competent authority will then forward your application to the Federal Agency for Employment. The Federal Agency for Employment checks if all requirements for a recognition partnership are satisfied, for example if, based on your agreement with the future employer it can be assumed that you will obtain the qualification you need.
The Federal Agency for Employment then gives its approval (or, if things do not go well, it does not) and sends this response to the embassy. The assessment by the Federal Agency for Employment is binding on the embassy. If the assessment is positive, you will be issued a visa. With that visa, you can enter Germany.
The second possibility is the accelerated procedure: In this procedure, the employer is entrusted with most of the formalities. The employer enters an agreement with the local immigration office. This authority initiates the procedure for recognition of the education obtained and the approval by the Federal Agency for Employment. The Immigration Office issues a preliminary approval. This is sent to the applicant, who submits it to the German embassy in his country of residence. Since all checks have already been carried out, the visa is usually issued fast.
Next steps in Germany
With the visa, the applicant enters Germany.
Once you are in Germany, you must submit a request for formal recognition of your foreign qualification immediately.
In addition to that, you request a residence permit at the local Immigration Office, that is the authority competent for issues related to foreigners in Germany. The Immigration Office will in most cases issue a residence permit for twelve months. This can be renewed up to a maximum stay of three years.
And you start working as agreed with your employer. If things work as planned, you will bring your training or education up to the standards which are required under German law and can obtain a permanent residence permit. Should you not achieve full equivalence within the maximum three-year limit, you may be eligible to transition to a residence permit for Experienced Professionals (Berufserfahrene) to secure your continued employment.