Route: skilled worker and EU Blue Card

Blue Card, skilled-worker permits, the experience route, salary thresholds 2026 and the fast-track procedure.

This route needs a job offer from a German employer and a qualification Germany accepts. Which of the permits below fits depends on what you have, not on what you want.

EU Blue Card (§ 18g AufenthG)

• Regular threshold: €50,700 gross a year (€4,225 a month). No approval of the Federal Employment Agency needed.
• Lower threshold: €45,934.20 (€3,827.85 a month) for shortage occupations (for example STEM, doctors, nurses, teachers), for career starters with a degree from the last 3 years, and for IT specialists without a degree who have at least 3 years of IT experience in the last 7 years. Here the Federal Employment Agency must approve.
• Your degree must be a German degree, a foreign degree recognised in Germany, or one comparable to a German degree. You show this with an anabin printout or a ZAB Statement of Comparability, see Recognition.
• Settlement permit (§ 18c) after 27 months with German at A1, or after 21 months with German at B1, plus pension contributions.

Other skilled-worker permits

• § 18a (vocational qualification) and § 18b (degree): full recognition in Germany, a job offer and approval of the Federal Employment Agency.
• Experience route (§ 19c (2) AufenthG with § 6 BeschV), for non-regulated jobs: no German recognition needed if your qualification is recognised in Indonesia (at least 2 years of training, or a degree), you have at least 2 years of work experience in the last 5 years, and your salary is at least €45,630 (not needed if the employer is bound by a collective agreement). In IT jobs the qualification requirement falls away entirely.
• Recognition partnership (§ 16d (3)): your qualification is recognised in Indonesia, you have German at A2, an employment contract and a partnership agreement with the employer, and the recognition procedure starts only after you arrive. Permit for 1 year, extendable to 3.
• Qualification measure (§ 16d): coming to Germany to complete recognition, for example an adaptation course. Embassy Jakarta requires living costs of €1,200 gross a month (about €941 net); a blocked account covers any shortfall. Processing up to twelve weeks.
• Regulated professions (doctors, nurses, teachers and similar) always need a German licence. In Berlin: doctors at LAGeSo, other health professions at the Landesprüfungsamt für Gesundheitsberufe.
• Age 45 or over for a first employment permit: salary of at least €55,770, or proof of adequate pension provision (§ 18 (2) no. 5 AufenthG).

Steps

1. Get free advice on your qualification from ProRecognition at AHK Indonesia: Recognition.
2. Find a job through the official portals: the Federal Employment Agency job board and Make it in Germany. ZAV placement is free, and the EU portal EURES is only for EU citizens.
3. Apostille and translations: Documents from Indonesia.
4. Visa through digital.diplo.de and the Embassy in Jakarta, or through the fast-track procedure below.
5. Residence permit at LEA Berlin: After arrival in Berlin.

Fast-track procedure (§ 81a)

Only the employer can start it, at LEA Berlin (Business Immigration Service), with your power of attorney. Fee €411 plus the €75 visa fee. The Foreign Office target is up to about 4 months in total, with an embassy appointment within roughly 3 weeks. These are target values from guidance, not deadlines set in the statute.