Changing the employment contract after the Federal Employment Agency has approved it

What the Federal Employment Agency approved: a described job, not an open slot

The Federal Employment Agency approves a described employment relationship, not any position in your company. Before it decides, you have to give information about the job, in particular pay, working hours and other working conditions. That duty is set out in § 39 of the Residence Act (AufenthG). The same provision allows approval only if the foreign worker is not employed on less favourable conditions than comparable domestic employees.

Those details reach the agency through the form Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis, the declaration on the employment relationship. The form states that the entries should correspond to the content of the employment contract between the named employer and the worker. So after a change the real question is not whether you signed a new document. It is whether the job still looks like the one that was assessed. Our page on what the agency checks about your company shows what else goes into that file. Legal position as at 1 September 2026.

Read the approval and the residence permit first: restrictions on employer, activity and working time

An approval for foreign employment can be restricted, and the restriction is written down. Under § 34 of the Employment Ordinance (BeschV), the Federal Employment Agency may limit the approval as to its period of validity, the establishment, the occupational activity, the employer, the region, and the position and distribution of working time. The approval is granted for a maximum of four years.

That list is the practical checklist for any contract amendment. A new shift pattern touches the position of working time. A move to another site touches the establishment and possibly the region. A different set of tasks touches the occupational activity. Before you amend anything, take out the approval and the employee's residence permit and read which of these points are fixed there. If the planned change hits one of them, treat it as a case for the authority, not as an internal HR matter. Legal position as at 1 September 2026.

Who decides whether a changed contract needs a new approval, you or an authority?

Authorities decide, not your HR department. The Federal Employment Agency decides whether the employment needs its approval and whether it grants one for the changed job. The foreigners authority decides on the residence title and the conditions attached to it. Where a visa is still pending, the German mission abroad decides on it. Your part is to describe the job accurately and to ask before the change takes effect. The page on who decides what when you hire from abroad sets out that division of roles in full.

Can you raise or lower the pay after approval? What the official sources do and do not say

Official sources do not list single changes such as a pay rise, a new job title or a later start date as automatic triggers for a fresh check. Two things are documented instead. Approval of employment presupposes conditions that are not less favourable than those of comparable domestic employees (§ 39 AufenthG). And the Federal Employment Agency may revoke its approval if the foreign worker is employed on less favourable conditions than comparable domestic staff, or if a ground for refusal applies (§ 41 AufenthG).

Revocation is a discretionary power, not an automatic consequence. The Federal Employment Agency decides in the individual case. For your practice the direction of the change matters most. Lower pay, more hours for the same money or allowances that quietly disappear touch exactly the point the approval rests on. Ask the responsible authority in writing before such a change takes effect, and keep the reply with the personnel file. Legal position as at 1 September 2026.

Contract change before the visa is issued versus after the employee has started work

Both columns point to the same first step: compare the amendment with the declaration you submitted, then ask the authority named in that column.

The notification duty that is actually written into the law: early termination within four weeks

German law contains one clear reporting duty for employers in this context, and it concerns the end of the job, not every amendment. Under § 4a of the Residence Act, the employer must inform the responsible foreigners authority within four weeks of becoming aware that an employment for which a residence title under Chapter 2, Section 4 was issued has ended prematurely.

No provision worded in the same general way covers every change to a running contract. That is not permission to stay silent. It means the responsible authority decides what it wants to see in the individual case, so asking is the safe route. If the job ends before it really started, the four-week duty is the one to diarise first; what else follows is described on our page about a new employee who never showed up. Legal position as at 1 September 2026.

What to check before you sign an amendment for an employee hired from abroad

Five checks cover most contract amendments for an employee who came to Germany through an approval procedure. They take a few minutes and leave you with something in writing if an authority asks later.

• Take out the declaration on the employment relationship you filed and compare it line by line with the planned amendment.
• Read the employee's residence permit and the approval for restrictions on employer, establishment, activity, region or working time.
• Check the direction of the change: anything that makes conditions less favourable than for comparable domestic staff is the sensitive case.
• Describe the intended change in writing to the responsible foreigners authority before it takes effect, and ask whether a new approval is needed.
• Keep the authority's answer with the personnel file, together with the amendment and the date it starts.

A change of employer is a different matter again: the declaration form itself names a change of employer as a reason for filing it. If you are filling a role with a worker from Albania or Kosovo and want the paperwork described correctly from the start, you can register as an employer and tell us what the job looks like.