Which do I believe ?

I am a UK Expat. I. was offered a job in mid December by a large firm in Germany that is in an industry that is struggling to find enough staff. I signed the contract a couple of weeks back and I have a start date of 1st March.

Now trying to sort out a work permit ( can't get an appointment at the embassy in my country of residence until Late February.)

I am somewhat confused as to the differences in information for work permits.

One site says I can go to Germany and apply once there. But I can not start work until I have the permit.

The same site ( the federal one) says I can work as I have an EU Permanent Residency permit as I live in Cyprus.

I think my issue is I fall "between" categories. I am a UK citizen ( with all the post Brexit issues) but I am also an EU resident..

I have arranged flights and have rented an apartment. If I can not work when I get there I will probably lose the job.

My contract also says failure to start on the stated date ( 1st March) will incure a penalty equal to 1 months salary. Can anyone help or advise where I stand on this ?

4 Comments

Reply (4)

Yara_Community Manger

Hello @Graham61 , thank you for reaching out to us. With an EU permanent residency they are theoretically allowed to work in Germany. You would need to contact you local immigration office for further information. https://www.bamf.de/EN/Themen/MigrationAufenthalt/ZuwandererDrittstaate… I would also suggest that you reach out to the Make it in Germany hotline, they should be able to provide you with further information. https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/service/contact-us/hotline If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Graham61

Thank you Yara. I have most of the info I am working with from "Make it in Germany" this is the federal site I mention in my post and had a lot of confising info, certainly in my case or anyone with similar problem. However I will try the hotline as I have not tried that yet. ( didnt know about it until today) thanks once again

Yara_Community Manger

Updated:

Sure, you can also chat with them or e-mail them, since you will probably be charged calling with a non german number. https://www.make-it-in-germany.com/en/service/contact-us/chat Please do get back to us if they were not able to help you further. Best wishes

Seoyoung_Community Management Support

Hi @Graham61 ,

I wanted to check if you could sort out the issues and start working from March. Have you tried out the hotline of make it in germany? If so, we'd like to know how your experience was like.

Best wishes

Seoyoung

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