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Germany §18b Visa: Eligibility, Salary Review, and Application Evidence
A §18b permit is the German skilled-worker residence route for a person with a German, recognised foreign, or comparable university degree taking qualified employment. It is not merely a salary fallback from the EU Blue Card. The file must first establish the applicant's qualification, a concrete qualified job, any required professional licence, and any Federal Employment Agency approval; salary and comparable working conditions are then part of that route decision. The federal qualified-professional guidance does not present the Blue Card salary threshold as a universal §18b floor.
The practical task is therefore not to prove that salary crosses a universal number. It is to prove the full §18b route and make the offer legible: duties, hours, fixed pay, variable pay, location, seniority, and any collective-agreement classification should tell one coherent story.
Complete the §18b eligibility screen
Check the federal qualified-professional guidance together with the directly accessible official text of section 18b:
| Question | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Skilled worker with a university degree? | German degree, anabin result, recognition decision, or ZAB comparability evidence |
| Concrete qualified job? | Signed contract or binding offer, job description, hours, work location, and start date |
| Professional authorisation required? | Licence, recognition decision, or documented route to authorisation |
| BA approval required? | Employer declaration and any pre-approval or authority request |
| Conditions comparable and lawful? | Salary, hours, leave, collective agreement or pay band, and benefit terms |
Only after this route screen should the reviewer perform the salary comparison below. The federal guidance adds a separate condition for a person over 45 who is coming to work in Germany for the first time: the job must pay at least €55,770 gross a year in 2026 or the applicant must prove adequate pension provision. That is a conditional branch, not a universal §18b salary floor.
Test the offer in this order
- Qualification: Is the foreign degree recognized or comparable, and is the evidence ready?
- Qualified employment: Do the real duties normally require academic knowledge?
- No degree-to-job test: The job must be qualified employment, but the federal guidance expressly says it does not have to relate to the applicant's qualification. Do not invent a subject-match requirement.
- Employment conditions: Are salary, hours, leave, and other conditions stated clearly?
- Comparability: Can the employer explain how the offer fits its internal bands, a collective agreement, or reliable market evidence?
- Approval path: Does the case require Federal Employment Agency involvement?
The official qualified-professional visa guidance should be the baseline; a Blue Card calculator should not be used as a proxy for section 18b approval.
Make salary comparable, not merely large
Convert the offer into an effective annual and hourly picture:
- fixed gross monthly and annual pay;
- contractual weekly hours;
- guaranteed allowances;
- variable compensation shown separately;
- overtime and on-call terms;
- work location and remote-work arrangement;
- probation and fixed-term duration; and
- job grade or collective-agreement group, if applicable.
Do not use equity, discretionary bonuses, relocation benefits, or personal savings as though they were guaranteed salary. They may be relevant context, but they do not repair unclear base pay.
Employer evidence that helps
A strong employer letter can state:
- why the role is academically qualified;
- the core duties and required knowledge;
- why the duties are qualified employment, without claiming that the degree subject must match the job;
- the employer's pay band or applicable collective agreement;
- why the offered salary fits the role, region, and experience;
- the fixed/variable split; and
- whether the employer has completed any requested BA form or pre-approval step.
Generic claims such as “this is market rate” are weaker than a named internal band, tariff group, or documented comparison.
Red flags to resolve before filing
Pause if the title sounds skilled but the duties are mainly routine; weekly hours are missing; most compensation is discretionary; salary changes after probation without a guaranteed figure; the work location conflicts across documents; or the employer proposes contractor status for what is actually employment.
A salary below Blue Card eligibility is not automatically a section 18b refusal. A salary that is low relative to the duties, hours, classification, or the employer's comparable workers is a different problem and needs evidence or correction.
If salary is questioned
Ask for the exact concern in writing. Then respond to that issue:
- correct inconsistent contract figures;
- add hours and guaranteed components;
- provide the job description and show that the duties are qualified employment;
- add tariff or internal-band evidence;
- explain a genuine junior or public-sector classification; or
- renegotiate fixed pay if comparability cannot be supported.
Do not switch routes merely to avoid explaining a weak offer. Compare section 18b with the Blue Card and other work routes only after the facts are stable.
Applicant readiness note
Keep one indexed packet containing the contract, job description, qualification evidence, recognition result, employer letter, pay comparison, and authority correspondence. If the employer will not clarify basic working conditions, that is both an immigration-file weakness and a possible employment-risk signal.
Once §18b is the chosen route, use the Germany pre-arrival and 90-day checklist to coordinate the visa, address, insurance and employer records.