German Visa for Work Purposes Reaches New Record in 2024, with a 10% Increase from the Previous Year.
According to a report by “Welt am Sonntag” citing government sources, a total of around 174,000 work-related visas were issued by German authorities in 2024, a new record and a 10% increase compared to the previous year. The number of work-related visas has been steadily rising over the past five years, except for 2020. Among the five major countries of origin, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and India, along with Kosovo, were the top five in each of the four years from 2019 to 2023.
To maintain a constant labor force in Germany in the long term, the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency (IAB) estimates that an annual influx of 270,000 to 350,000 foreign workers would be necessary.
Since the freedom of movement of workers within the EU applies, only individuals from non-EU countries need to apply for work visas. Tanja Fendel, a research associate at IAB, described the number of work visas issued in the previous year as “very encouraging”.
The increase shows that Germany is increasingly successful in attracting skilled workers from outside the EU, but not all visa holders actually move to Germany and join the labor market, as noted by Wido Geis-Thöne, an economist at the Institute of the German Economy (IW) in Cologne. In 2023, only 71,000 people without a prior residence permit received a visa for work purposes, despite 158,000 visas being issued, according to Geis-Thöne. The reasons for this include the long duration and lack of transparency of the visa application process.
Economists consider the influx of skilled workers from non-EU countries to be crucial to meet the demand of companies. The IW reports that the German employment growth between 2022 and 2023 was 62% due to foreign workers from non-EU countries and only 14% due to German workers. Other European countries face similar problems to Germany.
Skilled workers from abroad are particularly essential for eastern Germany, as illustrated by the example of Saxony, where the number of German workers decreased by around 7,500 between 2022 and 2023, but this decline was offset by an increase of around 14,800 foreign workers, with the majority, around 8,700, coming from non-EU countries.