Germany Accelerates Appeal for Foreign Skilled Workers

By Milan Korcok

Since introduction of Germany’s Skilled Immigration Act in 2020, over 60,000 visas for foreign workers have been issued despite the pandemic-induced border restraints that still linger in parts of the EU and abroad.

According to a report from SchengenVisaInfo, during first nine months of the Act’s implementation in March 2020, 30,000 visas to qualified workers and trainees from third world countries were issued, and since then the numbers have continued to soar. During those first nine months, German embassies in Serbia, the Philippines, India and Turkey have issued to most visas. In addition, skilled workers from four Balkan countries—Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Serbia—have been among the main nationals benefitting from the Skilled Workers Immigration Act.

 Robert Habeck, Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action notes that: “In spite of the higher number of visas issued in 2021 for highly skilled workers, the number is still not enough to fill the vacant positions in Germany…as the country needs about 400,000 new workers annually to close the labour shortage gap.

 Skilled Workers Immigration Act benefits are available to persons who have completed qualified vocational training in Germany, or those who have acquired a vocational qualification abroad that is recognized as equivalent to German vocational training.  Applicants who hold higher education degrees comparable to German ones are also eligible for the program.

Milan Korcok is a national award wining medical writer who has been covering international medical and travel health issues for leading professionals journal in the United States, Canada, and the UK for many years. He works and resides in Florida.