Residence permit renewal after the first year: what your employee needs and what you supply

Who decides a residence permit renewal in Germany, and on what basis?

The competent foreigners authority decides on the renewal of a residence permit, in each individual case. The same provisions apply to the renewal as to the first issue of the permit (§ 8 AufenthG). Nothing about a renewal is automatic, and no employer or agency can decide it.

Because the rules on issuing apply again, the general requirements of § 5 AufenthG come back into play. They include a secured livelihood with adequate health insurance cover and without recourse to public funds, a clarified identity, no interest in expulsion and a fulfilled passport requirement.

Two further points in § 8 AufenthG concern the renewal itself. The renewal may be refused if the authority excluded it when the permit was issued or last renewed and the purpose of stay is only temporary. Before renewing, the authority also checks whether a duty to attend an integration course properly was met; a breach is taken into account in the decision.

When must the renewal be applied for, and what happens if the permit expires first?

The renewal of a residence permit should be applied for before the current permit expires. If the application is made in time, the existing permit is deemed to continue from its expiry until the foreigners authority decides (§ 81 AufenthG). The authority issues a certificate about the effects of the application, known as a Fiktionsbescheinigung.

If the application is filed only after the permit has expired, that continuation does not follow automatically. § 81 AufenthG allows the authority to order that the effects of the former permit continue, but only to avoid undue hardship. Whether it does so is its decision.

Can the employee keep working while the renewal application is pending?

Work during a pending renewal is governed by § 81 AufenthG: where a renewal or another residence title is applied for, the employment described in the future title is permitted from the issue of the certificate until the document is handed over. That rule covers the employment titles in chapter 2, sections 3 and 4 of the Residence Act.

The starting point stays the same for you. A foreign national may only be employed, or engaged for paid services or work, if he or she holds a residence title and no prohibition or restriction stands in the way (§ 4a AufenthG). So do not rely on a verbal statement that an application has been made.

Ask to see the certificate and read what it says about employment. Restrictions and secondary provisions of the permit itself are stored on the chip of the electronic residence title and printed on an additional sheet handed out with the card. More on the documentation side in employer obligations when you employ a third-country national.

Which information does the Bundesagentur für Arbeit expect from you as the employer?

Where approval of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit is needed, the employer supplies the facts about the employment relationship. § 39 AufenthG names in particular details of pay, working time and other working conditions, of the obligation to pay social insurance contributions and of permits required under professional law.

• Pay and working time for the position as it will be after the renewal
• Other working conditions, for example holiday and duration of the contract
• Whether the employment is subject to compulsory social insurance
• Permits required under professional law, where the occupation needs one
• Answers to further questions of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit within one month of its request, a duty § 39 AufenthG places on employers who employ or have employed a foreign national

The yardstick in § 39 AufenthG is comparability. The Bundesagentur für Arbeit may approve if the foreign national is not employed on less favourable working conditions than comparable domestic workers. It uses a form for the employer's declaration on the employment relationship, available through its employer pages.

Does a renewal need a new approval from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit?

Whether the Bundesagentur für Arbeit has to approve again depends on the case, and the authorities decide it. § 18 AufenthG makes residence titles for employment subject to approval under § 39, unless a statute, an intergovernmental agreement or the Beschäftigungsverordnung declares the employment free of approval. The same provision requires the foreign national and the employer to declare that the employment is actually being carried out.

§ 9 BeschV names situations in which no approval is required. Among them is the employment of foreign nationals who hold a residence permit and have lawfully carried out employment subject to compulsory insurance in Germany for two years, and a case of three years of uninterrupted residence under the conditions set out there. Certain periods do not count towards those times.

Do not treat this as a checklist you can tick off yourself. Whether the conditions are met in a specific employment relationship is assessed by the competent authority. Our overview of who decides what when hiring from abroad sets out the division of roles.

What must you report if the job ends early or the employee changes employer?

An employer must inform the competent foreigners authority within four weeks of becoming aware that the employment has ended early, where the residence title was granted for that employment under chapter 2, section 4 of the Residence Act (§ 4a AufenthG). The same provision prohibits other gainful activity where the title was granted for a specific job, for as long and as far as the competent authority has not permitted it.

Ending the job does not end the permit on the spot. § 18 AufenthG provides that where the employment ends early and the foreigners authority is informed, a subsequent shortening of the validity period is to be made so that at least six months remain from the end of the employment. The period is at least nine months where there are sufficient grounds to assume particularly exploitative working conditions within the meaning of Directive 2009/52/EC.

Duties also fall on the employee. § 82 AufenthG sets out the duties to cooperate with and notify the foreigners authority, including the duty of EU Blue Card holders to report every change of employer during the first twelve months. Agree inside your company who watches these dates, as described in onboarding foreign employees in the first weeks.

What can follow the renewal: the path towards a settlement permit

A settlement permit is the permanent title that can follow renewed residence permits, and the law sets out conditions rather than a timetable. For skilled workers, § 18c AufenthG names among other things holding a job of the kind listed there, at least 36 months of compulsory contributions to the statutory pension insurance or proof of expenditure for a claim to comparable benefits, and the conditions of § 9 (2) AufenthG. Shorter periods apply in the cases named in the provision, and separate periods apply to EU Blue Card holders.

The general route under § 9 AufenthG works differently. It names, among other things, 60 months of compulsory or voluntary contributions to the statutory pension insurance or comparable proof, and knowledge of the legal and social order in Germany.

These periods are statutory conditions, not a promise of a result; the foreigners authority decides. Contribution periods are shown in the Versicherungsverlauf, the insurance record of the Deutsche Rentenversicherung, which employees can request through its online services. If you want to fill a position from Albania or Kosovo and plan the paperwork from the start, you can register as an employer and tell us what the role needs.