The issue of skilled migration is centralized in Article 19 of the Immigration Law. The title of Section 19 is "Settlement Permit for Senior Professionals". Article 19 (1) reads: "A residence permit may be granted in exceptional cases to a foreigner with a high level of expertise if the Federal Labour Office has given its consent in accordance with Article 39 or if the legal provisions of Article 42 or an interstate agreement stipulate that the consent of the Federal Labour Office in accordance with Article 39 is not required, and if the integration into the state of life of the Bundesverband*** and the State and the guarantee of a secure life can be achieved without State support. be achieved without state support the setting is reasonable. The L?nder can decide whether the granting of a settlement permit under point 1 requires the approval of the highest L?nder body or whether it is to be granted by a body designated by it."
This card is a bit hard to "green"
Article 19, point (2), specifies three types of people who can be described as "possessing a high level of professionalism".
The first: "scientists with special expertise" (sic: Wissenschaftler mit besonderen fachlichen Kenntnissen.)
The second: "teaching personnel in a prominent position or in a prominent position" (sic: Wissenschaftler mit besonderen fachlichen Kenntnissen.)
The second: " Teaching person in a prominent position or scientific researcher in a prominent position" (sic: Lehrpersonen in herausgehobener Funktion oder wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter in herausgehobener Funktion)
The third group of people: "Specialists with special professional experience and staff in leading positions who earn an income equal to at least twice the statutory health insurance premium measurement threshold." (Original: Spezialisten und leitende Angestellte mit besonderer Berufserfahrung, die ein Gehalt in Hoehe von mindestens dem Doppelten der Beitragsbemessungsgrenze der gesetzlichen Krankenversicherung erhalten.)
What is the "statutory health insurance premium measurement line"? It is a line set in Germany, above which annual income does not require and cannot continue to be covered by the statutory health insurance, but only "voluntarily" by the statutory health insurance or by a private health insurance. This line fluctuates from year to year, and in 2004 it was 41,850 euros.
This means that a person with a high level of qualifications who can directly obtain an unlimited permit to settle in Germany must have an annual income of more than 83,700 euros, or 6,400 euros per month (gross) for 13 months.
This threshold is quite high! People who exceed the threshold measured by the statutory health insurance premiums can already be considered highly paid in Germany, and beyond double that, how many German companies are willing to hire such highly paid people? Is that too high a threshold?
Another problem is that this wage condition is written in bullet point 3, which literally applies only to the third category of people, while the first two are not subject to it. But the local aliens bureaus and the state agencies involved can read it differently. It is conceivable that, even if it can be interpreted as being limited to the third type of person, the localities will have a certain yardstick for the wage income of the first two types of people, or at least will not be allowed to stray too far from it. The scope of application of this restriction should be further clarified in the regulations implementing the immigration law.
Another point that needs to be repeated is that, as mentioned in "Interpretation (1)", due to the abolition of the "right of abode" (Aufenthaltsberechtigung), there is now only indefinite abode, and therefore no permanent abode. There is no longer any permanent residence, so it can be said that the "green card" no longer exists in Germany, or at least the "green content" of the "green card" is no longer 24K.
Working residence
Besides high-level technical talents, what kind of Chinese people can get a working residence in Germany? From the recent years and the current situation in Germany, one is the German enterprises and institutions; the second is the various Chinese enterprises and Chinese-run enterprises employees, in fact, the two can be categorized as a category, that is, are "German enterprises". These include Chinese university students who will graduate in Germany; chefs in Chinese restaurants; family members of Germans or Chinese with residency in Germany; and temporary laborers, such as the 500 Chinese workers and engineers who dismantled a large piece of equipment in Dortmund a year ago for shipment to China's Shagang (and who have stayed in Germany for about a year), or the expert workers who are constructing Chinese gardens in a number of locations.
The regulations on work permits in the Migration Act focus on section 8, "Involvement of the Federal Labor Office". This section includes articles 39 to 42***4. Article 39, "Authorization of the employment of foreigners", is noteworthy for the following points.
The prerequisites for the granting of a work permit (a prerequisite for residence for work) are stipulated in Article 39, point (2), subparagraph (1), as a) and b).
Subparagraph a) stipulates that the employment of foreigners may not have a negative impact on the labor market, especially with regard to the structure of employment, the regional system and the economic sector. This subparagraph is very general, but in due course it may serve as a sort of excuse for certain authorities.
Subparagraph (b) states that the job is not available to Germans or to foreigners with priority (e.g. members of the European Union or Chinese and their family members and German family members with residence permits). This rule has always existed in practice. A Chinese person seeking a job in Germany must be unique, e.g. he/she must be available for a certain job, a Chinese person must not be available for a certain job, he/she must have experience in China in this field, he/she must have his/her connections in China, etc. The work of a chef in a Chinese restaurant is also unique, but of course this is specified in an agreement between the two countries. Foreigners looking for a job in Germany are often faced with a situation where the labor office says that they have to wait a month to see if there are any Germans (or people from other EU countries) who want to take the position. The labor office then advertises the position. If your prospective employer simply says that a Chinese speaker is needed, that is not enough, because it is not difficult to find a German, an EU person or a former Chinese person who has learned Chinese and has become a German. So the reasons for using a foreigner have to be well thought out.
The second bullet point of Article 39 (2) actually raises three issues: firstly, the occupation of a job by a foreigner must be responsible for the labor market policy and integration policy; secondly, the labor conditions of the employed foreigner must not be "unfavorable" (i.e., unequal) in relation to those of the Germans; and thirdly, the enterprise employing the foreigner must keep a record of all payments made to the foreigner in question. Thirdly, enterprises employing foreigners are required to inform the Labor Office of the wages, working hours and other working conditions offered to the foreigners concerned.
Article 40 is "reasons for refusal". The Labor Office may refuse to grant a work permit (and thus the foreigner will not receive or be able to renew his or her residence permit) for reasons such as the fact that the working relationship was created through an impermissible job intermediary or an improper job-seeking process, or that the foreign employee wants to work as a rent-a-employee.
Article 41 "Withdrawal of authorization" is noteworthy: a work permit that has been granted may be withdrawn if the foreigner has been employed under unfavorable (unequal) conditions compared to those of a comparable German employee, or if several of the "reasons for refusal" mentioned above are met.
For example
For example, if a Chinese company hires a full-time employee and pays him or her only 300 euros a month (not for an internship), the labor office can deny him or her a work permit. That's why immigration law requires employers to provide the labor office with data on wages, hours worked, etc., for foreigners they hire.
Article 42 says that the Federal Ministry of Economy and Labor decides on which issues with the consent of the Federal Senate and on which issues it can decide alone.