Hello,
Let me state my scenario and then it will be easy for the expert to answer.

1. I am an Indian working for an IT company and have been working in Germany in IT for that company since 2006. My visa says that I can work for that company only.
2. I have recently received an offer - contract letter from another company in Germany. They have said that they will process my new work permit.

First Question : - Is it not possible to change the company name by Visa offciers in the same work permit which I have till Jan 2009(offcourse I will submit my contract document and other relevant docs).

Second Question : - If the offering company processes for my new work permit it will take around 2-3 months. That time if I resign from my current company, I will have to go back to India to serve the notice period. Will it be possible for me to enter into Germany with the same permit if I do not de-reister my address and do not close my bank account.

Thrid Question : - Incase I do not serve my notice period and just continue in Germany with the current company and if my new work permit gets approved, will there be any problem to stamp the new visa and invalidate the old one.

Were you transferred from India to Germany in the same company?

Is it stated that you have to serve the notice period in India?

Continuing with your registration at the Townhall does not entitle you to a right to residence.

Hello,
Thanks for the quick info. well, I am on deputation to Germany from India. The company has a sister company in Deutschland and my Germany contract is with the sister company.

In India, as per our company policy whether I resign from here or in India, I have to serve the notice period.

However, in the German contract it is stated that if I resign or intend to end my contract, I need to serve a notice period as per a rule which for me is 1 month as I have worked for the sister company for less than 3 years.

Since you are on deputation or "austausch", I am not sure whether you have BE (work permit free status).

If you do not have BE, then you will have to undergo the labour market test. Your application will be forwarded from the foreign office to Labour office.

Your German contract will be in force regards notice period. Once get your work permit resign from your current German company and serve 1 month.

Q.1 Workpemit is company specific. If you have BE, then you can change companies without going through 2-3 month process.

Q.2 & Q.3

Once u get your work permit resign from your current German company and serve 1 month and join new company.

Thanks again for the quick response. Yes, I am on a project and do not have BE visa. I will resign only when i get my new work permit approved by the offering company. However I wanted to know whether I can enter into Germany even after I resign from my current company. Also, is it possible to have the company name changed to the new one by proper visa processings when I do have a work contract offer.

Not possible to change company name in ur visa directly, you have to go through the normal labour market checking process and get visa.

May be your company can speed up the process. Ask your new company, whether they have posted your job advertisement in www.arbeitsagentur.de and when if they did. If they had done 1 month ago, then it is possible to get the visa within 15 days(my experience).

If you dont want to take risk, wait for ur visa processing and then resign to serve 1 month notice. You inform the new company, you could join only little later. All the best.

Thanks for the reply. I will definitely ask the new company whether they have advertised in the proper way for 1 month. Once I go through this process, I will write the edtails in this forum so that it could help others who are going through this phase. Thanks again.

Have you signed any kind of Bond in India ?
If so, be prepared to take the risk of consequences(based on the terms & conditons of your Bond)

The ideal option is: 1. Get the new Arbeitserlaubnis, 2 Resign, 3 Back to India, 4 close the formalities, 5 Back to Gerrmany & start the new job.

But if the risk of your employer not relieving you is very high(which is obvious), take a call whether to resign directly from Germany & probably you can compensate with your Bond Amount & skip steps 3 & 4.

Hope this helps,
Truster

Thanks for your suggestion. You are right, I have signed a bond with my current company in India. I understand the consequences of not serving the bond period but as the bond period is too long I would rather take avoid the bond period. If the amount as fine is practical, then I would pay it else I will have to let it go.

On the same side - I would like to know if anyone from us has had such experience of breaching such bonds and handled the consequences. But I also understand that staying in Germany would not be impacted of breaching a bond in India.

My dear friend don't take the consequence of bold so lightly.As you said you are deputed here by a Indian company which very much has a presence in Germany.If they issue you a legal notice then you should forget to ever work or stay here or anywhere else.These companies can file a legal notice with a very hefty amount which you can never even imagine about if you breach the bond so it would be safe to return to India and either serve the bond period or give the amount to break the bond which would be less,but never let them know you are joining some other company.
I have a very good example of one of my friend who worked with TCS here and in same situation breaching the bond for which he was served a legal notice of € 70,000 don't ask me how they come up to this amount.Now he works in India and still fighting the case.

@mkirstens

First Question : - Is it not possible to change the company name .............

It is not possible and you need a new work-permit, which is not difficult since you aleady have been issued a work-permit before.

Second Question : - If the offering company processes for my new work permit......

First let the new company apply for your work-permit and when the work-permit is processed, get the new visa stammped in your passport in germany.

Now resign from your old company but don't tell them you are joining a new company in Germany. Tell them something like..... you are going to Africa to teach english....going to Tibbet in search of enlightment....want to make a world tour of bordells......etc. etc.

Third Question : - Incase I do not serve my notice period and just continue in Germany.......

Tell them to screws themselves....there is nothing your company can do about it. The only thing you would lose is a good Zeugnis.

Thanks PrasadP and Akshay for the answers. Yes, a new work eprmit is required and the new company will do it as I have discussed with them.

All my worries are now concentrated with the notice period as I intend not to serve the required notice period in India because my offer might get invalid in that case. 1 month is OK, but 3 months notice period is not OK for the new company. After reading Prasadp's message, I am taking this seriously as my company might take such action. Akshay has suggested encouraging ideas. But I really need to find out a way to get the best i.e. not to receive any legal notice.

Mkirstens,
Consequences may not be so bad.
For ex: my friend who had signed the bond did not return to his office in Kormangala. Since this One-sided bond was signed between Employer from India & himself, it did not effect his career in Germany. Of course he did receive some Notice from the company, but he gave Power of Attorney to his father who inturn sent return notice to the Employer in India. Labour Law always favors Employee not the Employer & Of course Legal battle is long drawn process (but you can nominate if it is really so).
Plan out properly & your Employer has no moral right to stop you. And never disclose your whereabouts to your Bonded-Employer:-)

Good luck

Thanks Truster. That was really clear and good. I understand that the bond which I have signed with my company is solely recognized in India only. As per the German contract which I have with its sister company, I can well serve the notice period in Germany without any problem as it is very less. I though first of sending a notice to my company in India before they send me any legal notice. Well we as employees do have lots of things which can be legally taken against our company for eg: - billing resources to clients when they are in Business Visa etc. Though I do not want to do such an act, but to be safe I want to take this action first so that their next moves go wrong.