German Work Permits

Greetings gentle Toy Townies,

I'm sure this has come up before but my archive search didn't quite yield what I was looking for.

Anyhoo, I'm one month into my 3 month temporary residence permit and figure I need to get on the ball with the work permit. When I got my Anmeldung, they sent me upstairs to get the Residence permit for which I wasn't quite ready. Fortunately the young lady was fairly pleasant and sent me on my way with a laundry list of things to return with to get my permanent Residence permit.

One of the items is the Arbeitsberechtigung, or work permit. My question is, what all do I need to take with me to the Arbeitsamt? I'm a contractor working for a company in the US and Norway. I have an English language contract that describes my work and defines my pay.

Is this all I need I should I just take every freakin' piece of official looking paperwork (Anmeldung, passport, rent agreement, insurance, etc) with me?

Any helpful hints would be mighty appreciated.

Danke sehr,
Kit

Do you need an Arbeitserlaubnis or a Arbeitsberechtigung? They are a little different. If you have just more or less started here, you are looking at getting a Arbeitserlaubnis most probably. You'll need to show your resident's permit and they will give you a form to fill out. Part of this form has to be completed by your employer, saying why they are hiring you and not an EU member.

I was told to get the Arbeitserlaubnis.

I'm not actually an employee of the company I'm working for. I'm working as an independent contractor for them in EMEA. My former company is basically my client. I'm also not an EU citizen for what that's worth.

My coworker, who came over here last June used a German lawyer who took care of this for him. I'm trying to avoid the lawyer (who bills our company in the US way too much money) so I can leverage that for future favors from my boss.

Maybe I'm assuming this will be too easy? I thought it was maybe just a matter of going to the Arbeitsamt with zeee papers and getting my passport stamped. The nice lady at the KVM/residence permit office seemed to intimate as much.

Of course I find out this morning that it took the German lawyer 6 months to get the work permit for my coworker so maybe it's more complicated than I thought...argh! I'll find out Monday when I go. I'm going to take a German friend to translate if I get into a pinch.

Still, if anyone has anymore advice or interesing stories I'd love to hear them.

thx
Kit

kit, i am not a eu citizen and work for a german company that is why i have a work permit. the first time i used a lawyer b/c i had no idea, it cost me €225 and took 8 weeks, the second time, when i changed jobs, i did not and it took 6 weeks (christmas holiday's in between. lazy asses). each time my german company had to justify why they should take me over a eu citizen.

it sounds to me like however that you are a freelancer which puts you in a whole other situation. is this your situation:
-you worked for a non-eu company.
-you became self-employed as a contractor.
-you hired out your services to your former employer.
-they have asked you to work for their german counterpart.
-you agreed and hoped onto a plane to germany.
-you bill your old company for services done?

my point is, if you are working for a non-eu company and were sent here to work at their german subsiary, then it's just a question of paperwork. it does not need to be justified why you were taken over a eu citizen. this has different rules.

for the work permit you need:
-a copy of your residence permit which is presumably now in your passport.
-a copy of your passport
-a letter from your company saying that you are employed for them and for how long.
-you need your new company's tax number (Betriebsnummer, every business has a classification number)

ideally the employemtn office already gave you the form to fill out because your new employer has to sign it! if not, you then send the form in together with all the information.

there is a TTer here who came over from the US to work for the german subsidiary and she might have a different slant on the paperwork. shit, I can't remember her psyeudonym, i think butterbean, it's b something? i know her real name and where she works, but won't reveal it here.

hope it all helps.

AFAIK it's not over a eu citizen, it's over a german. As an EU citizen, when my german company hired me, they in theory would have to prove this too.