Hi,

I landed in Germany on Sunday and joined my employer. My work Visa is only valid for 90 days. Back in India German Consulate informed that I've to renew it here after arrival in germany. Could someone explain me what is the procedure for this? How much time it takes for renewal of this visa? when is right time to renew it? I mean one month/1week before its expiry. Is there any document/checklist which tells all things to do after landing here? (like registration or tax card etc)

Welcome in DE.

You can already do it right away: just take your contract, your work permit and go to the nearest Foreign office and as your German is surely not good enough, jut go with a friend or someone from your company (this last is better). It doesn't last more than an hour for that normally, but sometimes, you have to take an appointment for that. Inform yourself first then.

After you extend it, just go to the Bürgeramt from which the place you live depends on, you can then register yourself, but for that, you need to have a rental contract.
You have to request the tax card (Lohnsteuerkarte) at the same Bürgeramt, just after registering, you can get one right away (I always got mine when I request one in 5 minutes).

D.

Hi samdcha,

I completely agree with NoBody and will add just some more information:

In some states in Germany, residence registration (Meldebescheinigung), tax registration (Lohnsteuerkarte) and residence permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis/Niederlassungserlaubnis) are done in the same place. The officials will inform you also.

One point you shall pay attention to, is, that your 90-day temporary residence permit is probably valid for Germany only, not for Schengen countries.

So before you convert it to a normal residence permit, be careful with that. If it says "Germany" on your passport stick when you came to Germany, but not "Schengen countries", you cannot go to another country, or you may have trouble at the border.

Klenze17.

This depends on the visa if it is a "C" type or "D" type.

Hi pwehrli,

yes, true. I had the problem I described.

After my IT-ArGV (Greencard) work permit has arrived to me while I was in my home country, I have applied for a entrance visa in German Embassy, to come to Germany and start to work.

The German Embassy has given me in this case D-type, 90-day valid visa. This type of visa is valid only for Germany.

After that I have applied for a normal residence permit in Alien Office (Ausländerbehörde). The officials said the visa above is not valid for Schengen states, ie. I could not travel abroad before having converted that D-type 90-day visa to a normal residence permit, because I have Turkish citizenship and almost all countries in Europe asks me to have a visa to enter.

So samdcha must read the type of visa he received from the German Embassy in his home country.

Regards,
Klenze17.

Yes, I had the similar problem. I had the wrong visa, and i was asked to make a trip back to my home country to get the right visa for conversion. So check it properly.

Indian

My visa is D type. I don't think it would be that bad. Only thing is I can't move outside Germany except for India, as it is multiple entry visa. That is fine, which I don't intend to travel in this period out of Germany. and after that once I get normal residence permit, it hardly matters.

Hi Nobody & Klenze17,

I got my visa extended. To my surprise I got extension of 3years. I was expecting that they would give me extension for 1 year. Good that I don't have to go through stupid AMC too early. Only thing is that it is company bound visa.

Thnks again.

Glad to know that you did it, wish you all the best in Germany. There's a long way to walk by if you want to stay here, but the end line is always worthing it in case that's what you want.

D.

Samdcha, congratulations from my side, too. Like NoBody, I also wish you good luck with the work. Enjoy your time in Germany. Travel around as much as you can. Don't think about the visa bound to company now. Have a nice time in Germany.

Hi again,

I first went to Einwohnameldeamt (or something like this) for anmeldung. They do register at hotels's address (temporary address, till now i don't have any permanant address in Germany ). I asked for Lohnsteurkarte, but they asked me if I'd been registered before anywhere in Germany. As matter of fact I was registered in Stuttgart, in march, had done abmeldung in May and I was on temporary 90 days visa ( we are not allowed to work with it ). She asked me to get in touch with stuttgart office and they are responsible for giving my Lohnsteur Karte. I called stuttgart office and they were very friendly, they mailed the card and it was with me in two days. It was something strange. I was thinking that they must be sharing common database and would be able to give the card immediately. And then yesterday I got my visa extended. Till now everything is fine, except for opening bank account. they rejected my application as they were having copy of my temporary entry visa. They said they need proof that i intend to stay longer than 6 months in germany. but i hope they pass my applicaion now.

Regards,
S