Willkommen auf den Seiten des Auswärtigen Amts
Selfemployment
Who does this information sheet apply to?
- Self-employed persons who work in their own name and on their own account for an indefinite period of time and not just occasionally. The self-employed person is not bound by instructions and the economic result of his activity must be to his advantage or disadvantage.
- Both company founders and sole proprietors as well as managing directors and legal representatives of partnerships and corporations, as long as they are not considered employees (otherwise see information sheets on taking up employment).
- Freelancers who independently carry out scientific, artistic, literary, teaching or educational activities.
- One-person companies which on the basis of special professional qualifications and creative skills provide personal, autonomous and professionally independent services of higher quality (for dependent employment, see information sheets on taking up employment).
- Shareholders of a general partnership or members of another group of persons, insofar as they are appointed to represent the group of persons by law, statute or partnership agreement.
- Holder of a start-up grant (e.g. „EXIT“ program)
- Senior employees are not viewed as self-employed because working as a manager in a company that is already active in Germany is rather classified as employment (see information sheets on taking up employment).
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:
| ☐ |
a structured and detailed description of the business idea in German or English OR Scholarship from a German business organization or scholarship from a German public body granted from public funds |
This plan should contain the following information: - Presentation of the company profile - Business plan / business concept - Capital requirements plan and financing plan - Marketing strategy - Earnings preview - Information about the number of jobs and/or training positions expected to be created - Explanation of the extent to which the areas of innovation and research will be positively influenced by the project |
| ☐ | If applicable, partnership agreement and commercial register extract with entry of the general power of attorney/procuration (for companies already founded in Germany) | |
| ☐ | Complete curriculum vitae in tabular form in German or English | In your CV, please summarize all previous activities, trainings and qualifications up to the current application date in one table. |
| ☐ |
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) |
|
☐ |
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“) |
|
Minimum salary of 43.130 Euros gross per year or proof of adequate retirement provision (original document with a non-certified copy) AND notarized translation (English-language proofs do not need to be translated) |
Proof of additional retirement provision can be, for example, claims in a statutory pension scheme in your country of origin or other countries, private pension or life insurance policies or real estate or other assets. |
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 6 months and 1 year, 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.