I have been working in Germany since 2003, I am expecting my Niederlasungserlaubnis by Dec 2009 (There was a confusion and I was not eligible for NE as soon as I completed 5 years. Thats a seperate topic though)

Now that my company is asking me to take up a temporary assignment in France (anywhere between 1 to 3 years), what will happen to my visa status?

1. My company is located in Frankfurt and I do have a valid job contract issued from Frankfurt. If I accept the job transfer to France, my company wants me to relocate to France completely. This means, I will get a new contract from France, salary will be processed in France. I am exploring the possiblity of taking up the assignment but keeping my current contract as it is in Frankfurt so that I get paid in Germany. This means, I only move there physically but the contract and salary is still based in Germany. This is just an option I am exploring which I am yet to discuss with my employer.

2. In case if I am able to convince my employer to keep the current contract and salary as it is (based out of Germany), what should I do as for as house is concerned? Do I completely vacate and do an Abmeldung or do I still maintain my flat here without doing an Abmeldung.

Bottom line is : I am looking for ideas as to how to keep my current status even though I move to France.

Any help will be great !!

1) Abmeldung --> NO
2) You must not be outside Germany for more than 180 days if you receive salary and get taxed here.
3) Even if you get NE, its invalid after 6 months of stay and maintaining a residence is also not a good choice for 3 yrs.

Try to get Daueraufenthalt-EG instead of Niederlasungserlaubnis and then you will be safe.

For DG , the resident status of Germany will be lost if one works in EU and I think they are not eligible for Citizenship or is there some EU law for that?

Is my understanding correct as following.
1. Abmeldung - NO
2. Obtaning new contract from France - No
3. Keep my German contract and work from France - Yes
4. Visit Germany regularly within 180 days - Yes

Please clarify

You can ask the foreign office for a letter saying your Residence Permit in Germany does not expire, by taking a letter from the Company saying it is because of company transfer and that you will come back after a period of time

Visiting Germany would not help as companies would not like to pay for its employees who are working outside and do German taxation for more than 180 days..
Not sure but this is what I reckon ..You might ask your HR and check.

I had to face the similar situation in 2007. I had to go to austria for a 9 months assignment.
A few tips from my experience.

1. Abmeldung in germany --- NO.
You should keep your german residence as primary i.e Hauptwohnsitz
. If you switch to france, register there as a Nebenwohnsitz.

2. You should get the salary into your german account and should be employed on the contract by the german company.

3. Regarding the visa for France--- with your current status i.e German residence permit you can stay in France for a maximum of uptp 90 days in a period of 6 months. don't ask me how they could find you exact no.of days? So you need to apply for a long term visa to france. It would be type C/D Schengen visa.

kranthi.

Or tell you company that you will shift to France after getting Daueraufenthalt-EG. Because with D-EG, one can stay within Europe for 6 years without losing it.

Thanks a lot for lot of information. Just now I got back from foriegn office in Duesseldorf. Surprisingly the lady spoke to me only in English although I was trying to speak broken German :-)

She suggested that I should go for Daueraufenthalt-EG although she dint confirm firmly. She said, I will have to satisfy certain criteria and prove that I have been integrated in to the society. She took my phone number and bought couple of days of time before she calls me and informs me on the next steps.

As Raj mentioned, the lady in Foriegn office confirmed that one can leave Germany for a max period of up to 6 years in case of countries within EU and max 1 year for countries outside EU

She also said that I can choose to apply either Daueraufenthalt-EG or NE now as I seem to fulfill required ceriteria for both irrespective of weather I take up France job or not.

As Rajendra mentioned, it appears that I would loose the count down for German citizenship/passport if I take Daueraufenthalt-EG and go abroad (e.g. France).

I am still wondering if I should pursue in the above direction or just keep the Germany house without doing Abmeldung, ensuring that I stay on a German contract and travel to France taking up a small apartment and comming back to Germany once in couple of months (Ofcourse the company will not bear travel cost)

Any further suggessions??
I am available on my mail as well balucan@gmail.com

>>As Rajendra mentioned, it appears that I would loose the count down for German citizenship/passport if I take Daueraufenthalt-EG and go abroad (e.g. France).

Not necessarily. Someone recently gave the link for the exceptions

http://www.aufenthaltstitel.de/stag.html#12b

>>As Rajendra mentioned, it appears that I would loose the count down for German citizenship/passport if I take Daueraufenthalt-EG and go abroad (e.g. France).

>>Not necessarily. Someone recently gave the link for the exceptions

http://www.aufenth...itel.de/stag.html#12b


Could you please mention as to which line in the link talks about this aspect.

I think it is (1).