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Opportunity Card
To whom does this leaflet apply
Are you looking for a job in Germany?
Are you looking for a recognition of your professional qualifications in order to work in Germany?
Do you have at least a vocational qualification or a university degree?
Do you speak English or German?
Then, the Opportunity Card is a possibility for you to find a job without already being able to speak German or already having a binding job offer.
The Opportunity Card (since 01.06.2024) is a new legal basis in the German Residence Act to manage and facilitate the job search in Germany. Besides looking for a job, the Opportunity Card also allows to look for measures to recognise foreign professional qualifications in Germany.
To whom does this leaflet apply
People looking for a job or self-employment in Germany, holding a German or foreign vocational degree that took at least two years to complete or a university degree, both state-recognised. People, that are looking for measures to receive recognition of their foreign professional qualifications.
Skilled workers (with recognised university or vocational degree as per §18(3) AufenthG), can qualify for an Opportunity Card without the point-based system (privileged Opportunity Card). Everybody else must score a minimum of point and meet the minimum requirements (Opportunity Card for non-skilled workers).
The Opportunity Card is initially valid for max. one year and can be extended to an extra two years in Germany. The Opportunity Card can be replaced by a residence permit in Germany.
The Opportunity Card allows to have one or more part-time jobs totalling 20 hours a week. You can also do qualified job trials for a maximum of two weeks. Job trials must not be the main purpose of residence.
You can only apply for an Opportunity Card within Germany if your previous stay had the purpose of employment or training (e.g., previous stay with purpose of recognition partnership or visit of a language course). Nationals as per §41(1) AufenthV do not need to prove a previous stay for a direct application within Germany.
You can find further information here: www.make-it-in-germany.com. You can also run the non-binding „Self-Check: Chancenkarte“ provided by „Make it in Germany“ in order to find out if you meet the requirements for an Opportunity Card or if you score enough points.
Job search opportunity card Germany
The new opportunity card – what do I need to know?
„Opportunity Card summary“
Explanatory video „How do I get the Opportunity Card?“:
in German
in English
in English (short version)
Digital magazine „Opportunities – Working in Germany“
What kind of documents need to be submitted
These documents depend on the type of visa you are applying for and must be submitted in addition to the standard proofs:
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- minimum 1,091 Euro per month - evidence of your own sufficient fonds of the amount of EUR 13,092 to support yourself during your whole stay of 12 months. If you hold less fonds, you can apply for a shorter visa. |
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own fonds: - Payment of the required amount (less the contractually agreed services) into a blocked account in Germany OR - Bank statement from a Latvian or German bank |
Information concerning the opening of a blocked account can be found on the website of the Federal Foreign Office. - The bank statement must prove that you own enough money to finance your entire stay. - The actual funds must be in your own account (not from a third party!) and must have been in your account for at least 90 days prior to the application. - As proof of own funds, we can only accept bank statements for the last three months prior to the application. |
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OR secondary employment - employment contract or concrete job offer |
The document must show the weekly working time and the monthly income |
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OR Formal obligation according to §§ 66-68 AufenthG. -förmliche Verpflichtungserklärung gem. §§ 66-68 AufenthG (original with one non-certified copy) |
With the statement „creditworthiness proven“ and „Job Seeker“ („Bonität nachgewiesen“ und „Arbeitsplatzsuche“). Please contact the competent Aliens Authority at the place of residence of your sponsor. The Embassy can only accept a declaration of commitment in exceptional cases.[1] |
[1] The German Embassy in Riga can only accept a declaration of commitment if there is no other way to prove that you can secure your livelihood. Furthermore, we must assume that a credit check would be positive and the declaration of commitment would be enforceable in Germany. The obligor must have assets in Germany, e.g. a German bank account, so that the obligor's creditworthiness is „proven“.
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University diploma OR Proof of completed professional training (training period min. 2 years) AND notarized translation (Diploma in the English language do not require translation). (original document with a non-certified copy) |
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AND Proof of equivalence/comparability of your degree (Information on degree’s recognition and ways of proving, you can find in our leaflet „Information on degree’s recognition“) |
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University diploma OR Proof of completed professional training (training period min. 2 years) AND notarized translation (Diploma in the English language do not require translation). (original document with a non-certified copy) |
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Recognised (conditional) comparability of the foreign university degree (excerpt of anabin-database proving your university degree as „conditionally comparable“ and your university listed as „H+“ or „H+/-“). OR Notification of the result of the certificate evaluation procedure at the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) (certificate of recognition), information under: www.kmk.org/zab.html For proof of professional training: Formal recognition of your foreign qualification by the competent recognition office. You can find information here: www.anerkennung-in-deutschland.de (for vocational degree) and www.kmk.org/zab.html (for university degree) OR Confirmation of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) for a vocational training completed at a German Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) |
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Language Skills | |
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minimum basic German language proficiency (level A1) OR minimum advanced English language proficiency (level B2) (original document with non-certified copy) |
- To find out which certificates are currently recognised, please visit https://www.alte.org/Our-Full-Members. - You still need to show a certificate if English is the common or official language in your country of origin - examination date max. 1 year ago |
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Further proofs for point-based system | |
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Possible selection criteria for the scoring system:
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Private health insurance (mostly called „incoming-insurance“), that covers your whole stay in Germany. For more information, visit our website.
General information
Please note:
- Due to the high workload and in order to ensure equal treatment of all applicants, the visa section can only accept applications in the requested form for processing.
- Submitting incomplete documents may lead to the rejection of the application.
- Unsolicited documents cannot be assigned to your application.
- All documents, leaflets and application forms provided by the Embassy are free of charge.
- All information on the application procedure is available on our website.
- Please refrain from submitting status requests. Status requests do not speed up the visa process.
- Processing time: Between two and four weeks, in individual cases shorter or longer.
- If the Embassy has questions during the course of the visa procedure or if additional documents need to be submitted, we will contact you directly.