I am currently on a internship at the institute in Tu-Darmstadt for 2 months (ending 2nd August) and thereafter I have another internship at an Institute in Mainz University (3rd August-31st October ).For both these trainings I got the ZAV certificate, the so called work permit made through DAAD office in Bonn based on that I am a student from India who wishes to do a Practical training/Internship in Germany.My visa I guess is the visa they issued to Practikum (people who come to do practical training from other countries).

Now my problem is that I have an offer for another internship from BASF (the Chemical company) for an internship starting January. I talked to the DAAD office again and they told me that you cannot do Prakticum for more than 6 months in a year and that too has to be at a stretch for 6 months. So they can't help me get the student work permit made. Moreover, second problem is that also I have finished my studies in India so I am no longer a student at university so I cannot get a enrollment certificate and therefore can't get the student work permit made.

So i wanted to ask you how to proceed with ur documentation and stuff for visa, i.e. what all letters and permits and from where all. Is there a possibility that tha BASf people can employ me as a skilled labour on a project for 6 months. I will talk to the BASF people and see if they can complete the formalities that u are talking about.

I will be most probably assisting in research projects only at BASF.


Help me find a solution to this.

Regards
Mohit

Hey Mohit,
Call me if possible, I am working in BASF too
0621-6020649

bye
Raghu

HI,
As I know, in your case either you apply for a GreenCard(if BASF is willing to pay GreenCard salary) or
for a FachPraktikum visa (you can get 1/2 year visa depending on your praktikum contract).

Hope this helps and wish you good luck,
Jelda

I did a year-long internship back in 1999-2000 with DaimlerChysler, even though a 6 month internship was standard.

I was already at the University of Tübingen as an exchange student (I studied Computer Science) with a one-year Aufenthaltsbewilligung, and I decided to do a year internship the next year. I simply walked into the Ausländeramt, told them I wanted to do a year internship (I hadn't found one yet), and they gave me a year-long Aufenthaltserlaubnis. It wasn't hard at all, and I didn't even have a Praktikum lined up. I was later told by a Beamter (civil servant) in Stuttgart that they should have given me another student Aufenthaltsbewilligung if I was just doing a Praktikum. Reading other people's experiences, I'm wondering if my experience was unusual.

Within a month, I found an internship with DaimlerChrysler (who were happy to have me for a year). The difficulty was getting the Arbeitserlaubnis (work permit), even though my Aufenthaltserlaubnis said I could get one. They had to go through some intensely bureaucratic process that took a month (I think the Arbeitsamt actually lost the application twice). The Personalabteilung (human resources) at DaimlerChrysler worked with the Arbeitsamt to get it for me. The Personalabteilung was very helpful and friendly, the Arbeitsamt not so much.

From then on, I had no problems. I don't recall showing the Ausländeramt any documentation other than my passport containing my current Aufenthaltsbewilligung. I did have to give DaimlerChrysler some documentation (transcripts from my American university), and they arranged things with the Arbeitsamt.

Since I got the Aufenthaltserlaubnis before my year-long work contract, it expired about a month before my work contract. I lived in Stuttgart by this time, and a visit to the Ausländeramt there got me an extension to my Aufenthaltserlaubnis without any problems.

That was my experience with doing a year-long internship in Germany. Even though it may have been a bit unusual, I hope it proves informative.