Please consider the information below in case your employer terminates your employment early.
Scenario 1: You are not in Germany yet and waiting for your visa appointment
If you find a new employment that enables you to the same visa category as before, you can keep the appointment.
You cannot work in Germany until you have received your work permit.
Scenario 2: You are not in Germany yet but your work visa has already been issued
You can unfortunately not come to Germany with this work visa. The work visa is only issued for the purpose of picking up employment as agreed on in the employment contract. If the employment is terminated early, this means that the foundation for the work visa no longer exists.
Scenario 3: You are in Germany with a work permit (visa or residence card):
You have the legal obligation to inform the authorities within 2 weeks after knowledge of the termination. Please send an email to your local immigration office.
Picking up a new employment is only possible once the immigration office has agreed to it. (This does not apply if you have worked in Germany for 24 continuous months already - except for IT Specialist and permits after the Balkan regulation -, or if you have lived in Germany for three years. The time on a student permit is only counted half and only up to 2 years.)
If you already have your residence card: the immigration office will get in touch with you to issue you a new appointment. If you haven’t found a new job until the appointment, they will then either give you a fictional permit to look for another job, deliver you a permit as a job seeker if you fulfill the requirements, or ask you to leave the country (option 1 is the most probable). If you have a Blue Card, you have the legal right to stay 3 months after termination to look for another job.
OR
If you are waiting on your appointment: if you haven’t found a new job until the appointment, they will then either give you a fictional permit to look for another job, deliver you a permit as a job seeker if you fulfill the requirements, or ask you to leave the country (option 1 is the most probable). If you have a Blue Card, you have the legal right to stay 3 months after termination to look for another job.
For the appointments, to be on the safe side, we recommend you bring all necessary documents again that are/were needed for the first-time permit application.
In addition to all of the information mentioned above, it's the employer's obligation to inform immigration authorities of the termination of employment within 4 weeks.
We recommend you also reach out to your German health insurance provider and notify them of the changes in your employment.
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