Obtain­ing a work per­mit (for Non EU-Citizens)

Whether you are allowed to work in Ger­many depends on your Aufen­thalt­sti­tel (res­i­dence per­mit).
Your res­i­dence per­mit is in your pass­port. It affects the sta­tus of your Arbeit­ser­laub­nis (work permit):

• EU cit­i­zens may work in Ger­many, look for a job or be self-employed with­out pri­or permission.
• If you have not applied for a work per­mit via a visa in your coun­try of ori­gin, you must sub­mit an appli­ca­tion to the Aus­län­der­be­hörde (Aliens’ Reg­is­tra­tion Office) in Karlsruhe.

Apply for a res­i­dence permit

• Appli­ca­tion by e‑mail - (Please do not send orig­i­nal files, only scanned copies)
  Please send the com­plet­ed and signed appli­ca­tion and the required doc­u­ments in good time before the expiry date — as a PDF file by e‑mail to: abh@oa.karlsruhe.de
• Appli­ca­tion by post or by drop­ping it in the let­ter­box
  Address: Aus­län­der­be­hörde, Kaiser­allee 8, 76133 Karlsruhe.

📝 Appli­ca­tion for a res­i­dence per­mit
💻 Appli­ca­tion for a res­i­dence per­mit (online)

✍🏽️Doc­u­ments required to sub­mit the application

The for­eign­ers author­i­ty checks the appli­ca­tion. If doc­u­ments are miss­ing, they will be request­ed. Appli­cants will then ini­tial­ly receive a tem­po­rary res­i­dence per­mit. This states that:

• An appli­ca­tion for a res­i­dence per­mit in accor­dance with § 24 of the Res­i­dence Act has been sub­mit­ted. This allows the appli­cant to receive social ben­e­fits in accor­dance with the Asy­lum Seek­ers Ben­e­fits Act.
• Gain­ful employ­ment is permitted.

❗The “Fik­tions­bescheini­gung” (tem­po­rary res­i­dence per­mit) is usu­al­ly valid for six months and can be extend­ed.
It is impor­tant that the appli­can­t’s name is on the letterbox.