Western Balkans regulation: prior approval, quota, and the path to a residence title in Berlin
The Western Balkans regulation (Westbalkanregelung) makes it easier for nationals of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia to access the German labour market: they can take up practically any employment without having to prove a formal vocational qualification. The legal basis is § 19c Abs. 1 AufenthG in conjunction with § 26 Abs. 2 of the Beschäftigungsverordnung (BeschV, Employment Ordinance). Regulated professions such as doctors are excluded – there the qualification must first be recognized, for example as part of a recognition partnership (Anerkennungspartnerschaft).
The process does not start with you but with your future employer: they apply online to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) for a so-called prior approval (Vorabzustimmung). Only once it is granted do you apply for the visa at the competent German mission abroad in one of the six states named – the first application must be made there, not in Germany. After entry, in Berlin the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA, State Office for Immigration), Keplerstraße 2, takes over issuing and later extending your residence title.
The regulation has a fixed annual quota of up to 50,000 approvals, divided by month and nationality. If the quota for your country is used up in a given month, processing is delayed until the next free time slot – sometimes by several months. A reduction to 25,000 approvals agreed in the coalition agreement between the Union (CDU/CSU) and the SPD was not yet in force at the time of writing.
- Secure an employment contract or binding job offerYou need an employment contract or a binding offer for a job in Germany. The working conditions must correspond to those of a comparable employee in Germany, and the pay must cover your living costs.
- Employer applies for prior approval at the Bundesagentur für ArbeitYour employer submits the application for prior approval online to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency). For employers based in Berlin, ZAV-Team 285 in Neuruppin is responsible. Without prior approval, processing of the later visa application is considerably slower.
- Check the monthly and country quotaApprovals are divided by month and nationality; if the quota for your country is used up in the current month, the application is only processed in the next free time slot, in extreme cases only months later.
- After prior approval: apply for the visa at the mission abroadOnly after the prior approval has been granted do you apply in person for the visa at the competent German embassy or consulate in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia or Serbia. The first application must be made in one of these six states.
- After entry: residence title at the LEA BerlinIn Berlin, the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA, State Office for Immigration), Keplerstraße 2, 10589 Berlin, issues or extends the actual residence title under § 19c AufenthG/§ 26 BeschV. Required documents include colour passport copies, the employment contract, the "Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis" (declaration on the employment relationship) completed by the employer, a registration certificate (Meldebescheinigung) or landlord's confirmation (Wohnungsgeberbestätigung), and proof of health insurance.
- The text of the ordinance itself expressly speaks of an "approval with priority check" (Zustimmung mit Vorrangprüfung, § 26 Abs. 2 Satz 1 BeschV) – legally, the Western Balkans regulation is therefore not free of a priority check, even though often only its other core feature is emphasized, namely that no formal qualification has to be proven. How this priority check is carried out in practice is not described as a separate review step on the Bundesagentur für Arbeit's own employer page – there only "operational requirements" (comparable working conditions) and "personal requirements" (nationality, no receipt of asylum seekers' benefits in the last 24 months, and for people over 45 additionally proof of salary or pension provision) are named. No confirmed information is available on whether and how an independent labour-market priority check of individual applications takes place.
- Status of research for this page (direct retrieval of the BA page on 16.09.2026, still marked there as "Stand: 07.09.2026"): the annual quota remains unchanged at up to 50,000 approvals. The reduction to 25,000 agreed in the coalition agreement between the Union and the SPD has therefore still not entered into force after 07.09.2026 either – nothing has changed compared with the earlier topic page "The Skilled Immigration Act at a glance" (Das Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz im Überblick). No confirmed information is still available for a specific date of entry into force.
- For workers over 45 years of age for whom a BA approval is obtained for the first time, an additional condition applies: a gross annual salary of at least 55 % of the contribution ceiling of the general pension insurance (2026: 55,770 euros/year) or proof of adequate retirement provision.
- Regulated professions – such as doctors – are excluded from the Western Balkans regulation. Here the professional qualification must first be recognized, among other ways via the recognition partnership (Anerkennungspartnerschaft); the Western Balkans regulation itself does not replace this procedure.
- According to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, prior approval is expressly not granted to persons who want to extend a residence title they already hold in Germany under the Western Balkans regulation – for this the competent Ausländerbehörde (immigration authority; in Berlin the LEA) is responsible, not prior approval via the mission abroad.
- The sources evaluated contain two details on the LEA Berlin address for this service: service.berlin.de names Keplerstraße 2, 10589 Berlin as the location, but Friedrich-Krause-Ufer 24, 13353 Berlin (main location of the LEA) as the postal address. Which address actually applies for the in-person appointment should be confirmed via service.berlin.de before the appointment.
In depth · Legal basis, figures and practice – for counsellors and professionals
Legal basis and states covered
The Western Balkans regulation is based on § 19c Abs. 1 AufenthG in conjunction with § 26 Abs. 2 BeschV. It covers nationals of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. According to its wording, the regulation applies "in principle to any type of employment"; recognition of the professional qualification in Germany is expressly not a requirement. Excluded are regulated professions (for example doctors), where the qualification must still be recognized first.
Procedure: prior approval before the visa
The decisive practical step runs via the employer, not via the person concerned. The employer applies online to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) for the so-called prior approval (Vorabzustimmung) for the employment. This considerably speeds up the subsequent visa procedure and should therefore be used. A requirement is an employment contract or a binding job offer; the working conditions must correspond to those of a comparable employee in Germany, and the other visa requirements (in particular means of subsistence secured through the pay) must be met. Only after the Bundesagentur für Arbeit has granted prior approval can the future worker apply for the visa at the competent German mission abroad. The first application for the residence title must be made at the German mission abroad in one of the six states named (§ 26 Abs. 2 Satz 2 BeschV) – applying from a third country or directly in Germany is not provided for first issuance. For extensions of a residence title already held in Germany, by contrast, no prior-approval procedure is provided; the Ausländerbehörde (immigration authority) is responsible for this, in Berlin the LEA.
Priority check: legal text and practice
The Western Balkans regulation is often described solely by the fact that no formal qualification has to be proven. The text of the ordinance itself goes further: § 26 Abs. 2 Satz 1 BeschV permits "approvals with priority check for the exercise of any employment" (Zustimmungen mit Vorrangprüfung) – the priority check is thus legally part of the approval, regardless of the absent qualification requirement. In practice, however, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit's employer page on the Western Balkans regulation does not describe a separate, active review step on labour-market priority; it names only operational requirements (comparable working conditions) and personal requirements (nationality, no receipt of benefits under the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz in the last 24 months, and for first applications for people over 45 additionally proof of salary or pension provision). How far the priority check goes beyond these criteria in administrative practice cannot be seen from the available sources for this page. No confirmed information is available on this.
Annual quota and current status
According to § 26 Abs. 2 Satz 3 BeschV, the number of approvals is limited to up to 50,000 per calendar year. The Bundesagentur für Arbeit cannot change this ceiling itself; the monthly quotas per nationality are prescribed to it by ordinance. If the monthly quota for a nationality is used up, an application made in the same month is only processed once quota is available again – according to the BA's example, possibly only months later. When retrieved directly on 16.09.2026, the BA page still showed the processing status as of "07.09.2026", with very different backlogs per nationality (example: Albania 08.05.2026, Kosovo 03.02.2026, the other four states up to date). According to a source dated 02.12.2025, the 2025 annual quota was already fully used up at the beginning of December 2025. The reduction to 25,000 approvals per year agreed in the coalition agreement between the Union and the SPD was still not in force at the time of writing – this matches the status on the topic page "The Skilled Immigration Act at a glance" (last checked there on 07.09.2026); no source evaluated names a specific date of entry into force.
Personal and operational requirements in detail
In addition to nationality of one of the six Western Balkan states and no receipt of benefits under the Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz in the last 24 months, an additional hurdle applies to workers over 45 years of age on first approval: a gross annual salary of at least 55 % of the contribution ceiling of the general pension insurance (2026: 55,770 euros per year) or proof of adequate retirement provision. Operationally, there must be an employment contract or a binding job offer, and the working conditions must correspond to those of a comparable employee in Germany.
Implementation in Berlin: competent BA office and LEA
Within the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, the Zentrale Auslands- und Fachvermittlung (ZAV, Central Foreign and Specialized Placement Office) is responsible for prior approval. According to the ZAV's regional responsibility list (as of 27.04.2026), ZAV-Team 285, Trenckmannstraße 15, 16816 Neuruppin, [email protected], is responsible for employers based in the Berlin agency district (as well as Brühl, Cottbus and Frankfurt/Oder). For general queries and status enquiries on labour-market admission, the ZAV's Kompetenz Center Arbeitsmarktzulassung (Competence Centre for Labour Market Admission) is also available at 0228 713 2000. After entry, the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA) is exclusively responsible for issuing and extending the actual residence title; according to service.berlin.de, the location for this service is Keplerstraße 2, 10589 Berlin (postal address: Friedrich-Krause-Ufer 24, 13353 Berlin). Required documents include colour passport copies, the employment contract (for certain visa-exempt nationalities a draft is sufficient according to service.berlin.de; for the Western Balkan states with a visa requirement the concluded contract or the binding offer is decisive), the "Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis" (declaration on the employment relationship) completed by the employer, a registration certificate or landlord's confirmation stating living space and rental costs, and proof of health insurance. The fees correspond to those for other residence titles at the LEA: 56 euros for first issuance as a sticker, 49 euros for its extension, 100 euros for first issuance as an electronic residence title (eAT) and 93 euros for its extension; the eAT takes around 4–6 weeks until collection.
Federal law vs. Berlin implementation
Prescribed by federal law are: the states covered, the annual quota, the priority check according to the wording, the personal and operational requirements, and the obligation to make the first application at the mission abroad in the country of origin. Berlin-specific is the assignment of prior approval to ZAV-Team 285 in Neuruppin (responsible for the Berlin agency district) and the processing of the actual residence title by the LEA at the Keplerstraße location.
Frage zu Ihrer Situation, die diese Seite nicht beantwortet? Schreiben Sie uns eine E-Mail – wir melden uns persönlich zurück. Das ist ein Testangebot ohne Anspruch auf Rechtsberatung im Einzelfall.