Blog Post

Before you apply for the Germany job seeker visa, there is something worth knowing: for most people the Opportunity Card is a better version of the same idea. Twice as long, and it lets you work 20 hours a week while you look.

Both routes still exist and both are worth understanding, because which one suits you turns on a points test rather than on preference.

The two routes, side by side

The 20 hours is the part that changes the arithmetic rather than just the comfort. On the job seeker visa the money you bring is a burn rate with a fixed end date. On the Opportunity Card it can be topped up, which means a slow search does not automatically become a failed one.

Proof of funds, and the option nobody mentions

Both routes require you to show you can support yourself, and the Opportunity Card figure is EUR 1,091 a month. What most guides get wrong is implying there is only one way to demonstrate it. There are three:

1. A blocked account, the Sperrkonto. The familiar route, and the one that ties up the most cash. Withdrawals are normally capped at EUR 1,091 a month, which is the point: it is designed to fund a year rather than be emptied in March.
2. A formal declaration of commitment, the Verpflichtungserklarung, from someone resident in Germany. If you have family or a partner there, this can replace the deposit entirely. The declarant takes on a real legal obligation, so it is not a favour to ask lightly, but it is available.
3. A part-time employment contract inside the 20-hour limit, for the Opportunity Card.

If a consultant has told you a blocked account is mandatory, they have described the most common option rather than the only one.

What you are searching for

Worth having in mind while you look, because it decides which offers are worth pursuing. The route you convert onto is usually the EU Blue Card, and it has a salary floor:

• EUR 50,700 is the standard threshold.
• EUR 45,934.20 is the reduced rate, and it covers more people than most realise: shortage occupations, recent graduates, and IT specialists qualifying on experience.
• That last group is worth spelling out. Under Section 18g of the Residence Act an IT specialist can hold a Blue Card with no degree at all, on three years of relevant experience within the past seven.

One contract detail that catches people at startups: the threshold must be met by a fixed annual gross salary. Bonuses, equity and variable commission do not count towards it. More in what the EU Blue Card is and how Germany’s Blue Card rules loosened.

Why it is worth the trouble: 21 months

Germany’s real advantage is not the search visa, it is what happens after you find the job. A Blue Card holder can apply for a settlement permit after 21 months with B1 German, or 27 months with A1, subject to pension contributions and the Living in Germany test.

Set that against five years of continuous residence almost everywhere else in Europe and it is a different offer entirely. Two things to get right: A1 is mandatory either way, so there is no version of this without some German, and the clock starts when the Blue Card is issued rather than when you arrive.

Six months of permanent residence, bought with the difference between A1 and B1, is the best-value language study available in European immigration, and the courses are often free: see free German language courses for visa holders.

Before you go

1. Check your points for the Opportunity Card first. If you score, take it: a year with the right to work beats six months without. See our Opportunity Card guide.
2. Start qualification recognition now, from home. It is the step everything else waits for, and arriving with it unstarted is how six months disappears.
3. Work out which funds option suits you before committing to a blocked account.
4. Establish whether you qualify for the reduced Blue Card rate. It is nearly five thousand euros of difference.
5. Build a shortlist before you fly. A search visa gives you access, not a pipeline.

Related: getting your degree recognised, Germany’s bottleneck professions and eight countries with job seeker visas. Browse German shortage jobs with visa sponsorship on our board.

Last checked September 2026. Blue Card thresholds are recalculated each January and the funds requirement is revised annually. Confirm with the German mission in your country before applying.