Hello everyone,
I am a PhD student and had a work contract for 3 years and have paid all the taxes as per german laws. Now I am towards the end of my PhD work and wanted to apply for ALG. I have my visa valid until October, 2015. But I was told by Arbeitsagentur that I am not eligible for ALG because I have a student visa. I wanted to know if it is now possible to change my visa class from student to 'Beschäftigung erlaubt' or some other class so that I can get ALG? Does anyone had a similar experience? Please help...

u can apply for job search visa.. they would probabbly give u 1 year.

Thank u for your answer. But for the job search visa I think I would need a degree from a german university which I don't have now. I will finish my PhD in 3-4 months. But my contract is ending in DEcember, 2014. But I have a student visa until October, 2015. I needed ALG during this period. I have paid all the taxes and so...But since I have this student visa it does not work.

Hi,

the problem is that as a student you have to pay some salary taxes, but no social security things, like unemployment insurance payments.

So if you do not pay for it, how you can expect unemployment money?

Even 'normal' employees have to pay for a minimum number of month into this insurance, before they are eligible to get some money in case of job lost.

Detlef

No. I have paid all the taxes like normal employee for 3 years. I had a work contract as a wissenschftilcher mitarbeiterin. I have been to Arbeitsgentur and they have looked into my salary slips and annual Elektronish Lohnsteuer Ausdrucken. Everything is fine with that but since the visa is a wrong class, I am not eligible. So they say if I can get my visa changed then everything is fine.

Okay, but we do not talk about salary taxes. I talk about social security payments. But if you have paid this, I do not see any reason not to pay you unemployment money.

Maybe you should just ask another officer at the Arbeitsagentur! 

Sometimes one gets a wrong information and does have a lot of trouble for nothing. Maybe one of our t7 Students has some experiences.

I would even ask a lawyer before I believe this!

Good luck

Detlef

Thank you so much for your replies.
I also believe that because my other colleagues (non-german) with a student visa were able to get this unemployment money. And by taxes I mean all the social security taxes included.