The EU Blue Card - An Opportunity For Highly Qualified Professionals

Non-EU Physicians who are considering to continue their career in Germany, may also be thinking about the requirements for permanently settling in Germany.

Luckily, medical doctors fall into the category of highly qualified professionals who are entitled to the so called EU Blue Card residency, which comes with certain benefits.

Purpose of the EU Blue Card

The Blue Card EU is a residence title for university graduates which intends to ease and promote the immigration of highly qualified professionals from non-EU countries to the European Union.
It aims to address the well known shortage of e.g. doctors, engineers, natural scientists, mathematicians, and IT-specialists within the EU and particularly also Germany.

The EU Blue Card Comes With Certain Benefits

To attract highly skilled graduates, the EU Blue Card comes with the following benefits:

• Relaxation of the conditions for family reunification:

With less strict conditions for family reunification, spouses are entitled to a residence permit without, for example, requiring knowledge of German and receive immediate and unlimited permission to take up gainful employment.

• Faster acquisition of a settlement permit:

  You can apply for a permanent settlement permit after 21 months of highly-qualified employment in Germany, if your knowledge of German is at B1 level.

What Are The Requirements For The EU Blue Card?

These conditions apply for obtaining the EU Blue Card:

• You are a university graduate: If you did not obtain your degree in Germany, it must either be recognized or comparable to a German degree.

• You already have a binding job offer or an employment contract.

• You have a minimum annual gross salary of EUR 56800 (as of 2021).
  A reduced minimum annual gross salary of EUR 44304 (as of 2021) applies to employment in the occupational fields of
  for instance human medicine (including assistant doctors, but excluding dentistry).

  Those salary requirements are easily met - you can read more about how much physicians in German hospitals earn here.

The same would apply for university graduates in mathematics, information technology, natural sciences and engineering.
Please note that the mentioned salaries are for 2021 - the salary thresholds will be adjusted for each calendar year.

• The employment offer must correspond to the qualification.

The EU Blue Card - How To Apply For It?

Application for EU Blue Card:

• If you live outside the EU, you will usually need a visa for the purpose of gainful employment, which is issued by the relevant German diplomatic mission abroad. You can enter Germany with this visa.

• Before this visa expires, you must apply for the EU Blue Card at the foreigners’ registration office at your place of residence.

• The processing of the EU Blue Card application can take up to three months and an EU Blue Card issued in Germany can be valid for a maximum of 4 years.

Costs For The EU Blue Card

The costs for a EU Blue Card application in Germany is 140 Euros and we believe that it is an investment well spent.

Summary

If you are a physician, you benefit from the EU Blue Card with relaxed conditions for family re-unification and a fast track to obtain your permanent settlement permit.

If you fulfil the above mentioned pre-requisites, CareME2 can facilitate the necessary steps for you to obtain the EU Blue Card residency.

You are having more questions around the EU Blue Card?

Contact us at CareME2 and we will be glad to get back to you.

Disclaimer

CareME2 is not a law firm, hence, it doesn't offer any legal counsel. Rather, the information it provides is purely for general informational purposes. The content on this website is delivered 'as is', without any guarantees of being devoid of errors.