Germany Rethinks High-Skilled Immigrant Visas

Berlin is to make entry easier for high-salary foreigners offered jobs in Germany, a government spokeswoman said in Berlin on August 4, after the existing high-skills plan flopped. Germany offers fast-track work visas to anyone winning a job with annual pay of at least 84,000 euros or offering to employ 10 people. But only 900 people benefited from the scheme last year, reported the Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper. The paper said there was a consensus in the German ruling coalition to lower these thresholds. The spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry said the new thresholds had not yet been decided. Marianne Demmer, a spokeswoman for the teachers’ trade union GEW, said the existing pay threshold was so high that not even the salary of a university professor was enough to qualify. Fast-track status means German labour authorities have no veto over the visa. Wives and children gaining automatic entry will remain the same. With Europe facing shortages in its skilled workforce, other European countries should also question whether their immigration policy is reasonable and helps national businesses.
Extracted from: Germany to Ease Threshold for High-Skills Immigrants, Expatica News, 4 August 2006