Route: skilled worker and Blue Card

Engineers, IT and other graduates: Blue Card thresholds 2026, §§ 18a/18b, settlement, employer fast-track.

Use this route if you have a qualification and a qualified job in Germany. You apply for a national visa at the Embassy in Yaoundé through the online portal: Visa and embassy. The embassy lists the permits §§ 18a, 18b, Blue Card § 18g and, for qualification measures, § 16d (embassy page, German).

EU Blue Card (§ 18g AufenthG)

• Regular: €50,700 gross a year (2026). No approval of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) needed.
• Lower threshold: €45,934.20 with BA approval for shortage occupations and for graduates within 3 years of their degree.
• IT without a degree (§ 18g (2)): ISCO groups 133 and 25, at least 3 years of experience in the last 7 years at degree level, same lower threshold, BA approval.
• Degree: German, recognised foreign or comparable, checked through anabin or a ZAB statement (Recognition). The embassy asks for the ZAB notice or an anabin print-out.

Source: § 18g AufenthG; thresholds from the BA and Make it in Germany.

Other skilled-worker permits

• § 18a (vocational qualification) and § 18b (academic degree): recognised qualification, qualified job offer, BA approval where required (§ 18a, § 18b). The embassy asks for the recognition notice, the signed contract and the BA employment declaration filled in by the employer.
• Employer fast-track (§ 81a): the employer asks the Berlin immigration office for prior approval before you apply; the embassy's guide value for the prior-approval appointment is up to four weeks (Visa and embassy).
• Recognition partnership (§ 16d (3)): German at A2, which the law calls "hinreichend" (§ 2 (10) AufenthG); B1 is "ausreichend" (§ 2 (11)).
• Regulated professions (doctors, nurses, engineers in some cases, teachers, lawyers) need a German licence first. Which engineering titles are regulated in Berlin was not checked.

Settlement permit (§ 18c)

Skilled workers need German at B1 (§ 18c (1) Nr. 4 with § 2 (11)). Skilled workers: 3 years with 36 months of pension contributions, 2 years / 24 months after German vocational training or study; Blue Card holders: 27 months with A1 or 21 months with B1. Other conditions in § 9 (2). Source: § 18c.

Spouse and children: Family. Parents of skilled workers: § 36 (3), see Family. Fake offers: Scams.