Why does hiring someone from abroad to Germany take so long?

No single office decides — that is the main reason

The process is a chain of separate decisions. A residence title for employment requires the approval of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, the German federal employment agency, unless the law, the Employment Ordinance or an intergovernmental agreement makes that approval unnecessary (§ 39 AufenthG). In the visa procedure the local foreigners authority in Germany may also have to be involved (§ 31 AufenthV). Every handover between these offices costs time.

• You as the employer: job description, employment contract, the declaration on the employment relationship, answers to questions from the authorities.
• Bundesagentur für Arbeit: decides on the approval of the employment.
• Competent body for recognition: involved where the occupation requires a recognition decision.
• Foreigners authority in Germany: may have to be involved in the visa procedure.
• German mission abroad: schedules the appointment and decides on the visa application.

The Federal Foreign Office states plainly that the processing time for national visas does not depend on the mission alone. It also depends on the capacity of the authorities inside Germany, including the foreigners authority and, for employment, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit. So a fast reply from one office does not shorten the whole chain. Our page on how the process works shows the order of the steps.

What you control as an employer

Your part of the process is the part that can be done right the first time. Authorities decide on what reaches them. Incomplete or unclear papers create a second round of questions, and every round adds a queue.

• A clear job description that matches the contract.
• An employment contract with working time, tasks and pay stated without gaps.
• The declaration on the employment relationship, filled in completely.
• Fast, complete answers when an office asks for information.
• Early clarification of which body is competent for the occupation.

What you do not control: the workload of an authority, the date of a free visa appointment, the outcome of a recognition check. These are decisions and capacities of the responsible offices. Planning helps more than pushing.

Incomplete documents stop the clock before it starts

In the recognition procedure the processing period only begins once the documents are complete. The competent body tells the applicant which documents are missing. Until then, waiting does not move anything. A missing translation or a missing page can therefore cost more time than the check itself.

The same logic applies to the approval step. Under § 36 BeschV, the time rule for approval does not apply if the Bundesagentur für Arbeit states that the transmitted information is not sufficient for its decision, or if the employer did not provide the required information in time. In other words: your answers set the pace of that step.

Certificates are sometimes lost or hard to obtain. If documents are missing, a qualification analysis can, under certain conditions, establish the actual skills of the person. Whether that route is open is decided by the competent body.

Apostille or legalisation runs on the issuing country's clock

Documents from abroad often need a confirmation of authenticity before a German office accepts them. An apostille confirms the signature and the authority of the issuer, and it is issued by an authority of the state that issued the document. A legalisation is carried out by the German mission in the country where the document comes from.

Which of the two applies depends on the issuing state. In some countries, verification of the document through administrative assistance takes the place of legalisation. For some states the legalisation procedure has been suspended, and the Federal Foreign Office publishes what applies instead.

No German office and no employer can make a foreign authority stamp faster. This is one of the clearest parts that nobody on your side controls. Starting the paperwork early is the only real lever.

Recognition depends on the occupation and the federal state

In a recognition procedure, an authority checks whether a foreign qualification is equivalent to a German reference occupation. The result comes as a formal decision. For regulated occupations, recognition is mandatory before the person may work in that profession.

Many occupations are regulated at federal state level. That means the rules differ from state to state, and some occupations are not regulated in every state. Which body is competent depends on the occupation and on the state.

If the body finds substantial differences, the consequence depends on the occupation. For regulated occupations a compensation measure is set, such as an adaptation course or an examination. For non-regulated occupations, partial recognition is possible. Whether equivalence is confirmed or a compensation measure is required is a decision of the competent body in the individual case. Nobody can promise the outcome in advance.

Visa appointments: the part with the longest queue

The electronic appointment system is meant to use the available capacity of the missions as well as possible. The Federal Foreign Office states that longer waiting times cannot always be avoided, because demand changes. Waiting times therefore differ by location and by season.

What can shorten the process — and what cannot

There are legal routes that are designed to save time. They do not change who decides, and they do not make any outcome certain.

• Preliminary approval (Vorabzustimmung): voluntary, but it shortens the procedure considerably; it is valid for six months (legal status 1 September 2026). Under § 36 BeschV the agency can approve the employment in advance if the employer has provided the required information and the procedure is thereby accelerated.
• Fast-track procedure for skilled workers: a separate, fee-based route under § 81a AufenthG. The employer starts it at the competent foreigners authority with a power of attorney from the skilled worker, and it requires a concrete job offer.
• Priority check (Vorrangprüfung): suspended since 3 November 2023 (legal status 1 September 2026). That removes one check, but the approval remains a decision of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit in the individual case.
• Complete files from day one: the cheapest accelerator you have.

Hirenord is a private recruitment agency, not a German authority and not a mission abroad. We support candidate sourcing, pre-selection, contract and employment documents, the declaration on the employment relationship and the preliminary approval step, and we can file applications on your behalf with a power of attorney where this is legally permitted. We cannot guarantee an approval, an appointment or a visa. If you are a smaller business, you may also want to read whether a small company can hire a foreign worker, and what we do for employers.

If you want to start the paperwork early and keep your part of the chain clean, you can register as an employer and tell us which role you need to fill.