Working in Germany under the Western Balkans rule: 50,000 places, but not all at once
Germany still keeps the door open for workers from Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia — 50,000 approvals a year, for any occupation, with no recognition of qualifications required. The quota is split by month and by country, though, so places can run out before your turn comes.
The Western Balkans regulation lets citizens of six countries in the region obtain a work visa for Germany regardless of whether their school or vocational qualification is recognised. What it takes is a concrete job offer from a German employer, pay and working conditions equal to those of a local worker in the same position, and approval from the Federal Employment Agency. Up to 50,000 approvals are issued each year. What is rarely mentioned is that the quota is not handed out on a first-come basis: it is divided by month and by nationality. Once a country's monthly quota is used up, the remaining applications wait for the next month, even if they were filed earlier. Last year the annual quota was exhausted in early December, and new applications were only possible again from January. Since June 2024 the procedure has been considerably better. The employer can obtain pre-approval from the Federal Employment Agency before you even book an appointment at the embassy. That removes the appointment lottery which was the main obstacle for years, and cuts the wait to a few weeks. If your employer knows nothing about it, show them this — for them it is one online application. The documents required are similar everywhere: a passport valid for at least nine months, photos no older than six months, a declaration of employment no older than six months, travel health insurance for the first 90 days, and the fee of 75 euros, in cash and exact. Jobs in healthcare require German at B1 level. Anyone over 45 has to prove adequate provision for retirement. Processing takes from a few weeks to several months. Embassies explicitly ask that you do not enquire about the status during the first three months — enquiries only slow the work down. At the moment there are backlogs for Kosovo and Albania, while applications from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia are being processed without delay. One reason to keep an eye on this: the coalition agreement states the intention to halve the quota from 50,000 to 25,000 a year. No date has been set and the rules remain unchanged until then — but anyone planning this route would be wise not to wait. And finally, what I repeat in every episode: an embassy appointment is not for sale. Applications go through the official service centre, and anyone promising you a "guaranteed appointment" for a few hundred euros is selling something they do not have. If you have come across an offer like that, write to me — I collect such cases.
