Tell us about your occupations, source countries and fair recruitment practice, and we will reply about possible cooperation.
Berlin is both Germany's capital and a city-state, so one state administration handles immigration, labour protection, and registration for all employers. Employers in Berlin can bring in workers from outside the European Union mainly through routes that test qualifications, pay,y and the job itself. For a recruitment agency abroad, the realistic role is to find and prepare candidates whom a Berlin employer then hires directly, on its own contract and payroll.
Direct hiring isn’t a preference; it’s a consequence of German law. The Federal Employment Agency must refuse its approval whenever a non-EU national would be hired out as a temporary agency worker, so any permit that depends on that approval is unusable for agency placement. Hiring out through a German temporary work agency stays possible only for someone whose residence title opens the whole labour market without that approval, a settlement permit being the clearest case.
The partner agency sources and prepares candidates in its own country under its own licence rules. AtoZ Serwis Plus would check that an employer request is genuine, that the role fits a lawful route and that documents move in the right order. For clarity, AtoZ Serwis Plus operates neither as a German job placement business nor as a German staffing firm, has no office in Germany, and nothing here describes an existing Berlin vacancy or job order. The Berlin employer remains responsible for the contract, pay, and its legal duties as an employer. Berlin’s clusters and what they mean for sourcing
Berlin and neighbouring Brandenburg follow a joint innovation strategy organised around five clusters: health economy; ICT, media and creative industries; transport, mobility and logistics; energy technology; and optics and photonics. They map skills, not headcounts; labour market figures belong with the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) or the joint statistical office of Berlin and Brandenburg.
The health cluster combines pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical technology and digital health with hospitals, inpatient care facilities and care services. The care side is the most tightly regulated area of recruitment: nurses need recognition and a state licence, and private agencies may not actively recruit health and care workers from countries on the WHO safeguards list at all—laboratory and production staff in pharma or medical technology point instead to the vocational skilled worker route.
This cluster spans software and games development, telecommunications, digital security, publishing, film, design and advertising. Degree-level IT roles can qualify under the EU Blue Card, and IT specialists without a degree can qualify through documented professional experience. Creative and media roles fit only where a qualified post exists, and the candidate’s qualification is recognised or meets the experience route.
The Senate economic administration notes that the region represents every mode of transport, with electromobility and digital change among the cluster’s themes. Lorry and bus drivers have their own admission rules, and a haulier with an EU Community licence needs a driver attestation for each non-EU driver on international journeys. Fleet maintenance and warehouse supervision fit only as qualified posts. We would check shift rotas and night work in each written offer.
Both clusters rely on electrical, mechatronic and precision engineering skills. Because vocational qualifications are compared with a German reference occupation, we check these roles for recognition first rather than as a formality at the end.
Sourcing for Berlin starts from the permit route, not from a headcount. Before any advertising, the parties would confirm which route a role fits and what evidence the recognition body will expect. You can’t fill a labour request without qualifications through a general route, because Germany has none: outside the Western Balkans regulation, seasonal farm work, and quota-based short-term employment, workers without a recognised or state-recognised qualification have no way in.
First screening is kept narrow on purpose. It gathers just two things: a CV and proof of the one skill the Berlin role depends on, such as a diploma, a training certificate, or samples of IT work. Identity documents, civil status records and police certificates come later, and only when the employer lists them in writing for a concrete offer.
No charge to candidates is accepted in any cooperation with AtoZ Serwis Plus. German law allows a placement agency to agree a fee with a jobseeker, but only in a written contract that states the amount, is payable only on success, and is capped at the legal maximum; mini-jobs and trainees may not be charged at all.
If a suitable, verified request arises, the parties would agree to run the following checks and keep a written record of each.
The offer must also describe a qualified post where the route requires one, with pay and conditions comparable to those of domestic staff, because the Federal Employment Agency checks exactly that. Several signals would end a request: hiring out to a third company, a workplace that keeps changing, pay below comparable staff, a demand for candidate fees, or a hint that the candidate could fly in as a tourist and fix the papers afterwards. Betterpaperwork can’t fix any of these, so it would decline the request.
EU citizens enjoy free movement. They need no work permit for a Berlin job, can be employed through temporary work agencies like any German worker, and still register their address after moving in. Berlin lies close to the Polish border, and EU-based partner agencies can place their own nationals without the permit steps described below.
Candidates from outside the EU are a different matter. Germany is part of the Schengen area, and anyone coming to work needs a national D visa from a German embassy or consulate before entering. Tourist entry, with or without a Schengen visa, never covers paid work. The candidate’s first conversation would therefore cover which mission is responsible for their place of residence and whether it uses an external service provider.
Two special schemes need careful handling. The Western Balkans regulation lets nationals of six Western Balkan states take any employment, including jobs without a formal qualification. Still, each approval comes from an annual quota allocated by month and nationality; the Federal Employment Agency applies a labour market test, and the visa application goes to the German mission in the candidate’s own Western Balkan state. The government plans to reduce that quota, so anyone planning to hire in Berlin on this basis should check the current quota first. Harvest and farm jobs are reserved for citizens of the few states that have signed a placement deal with the Federal Employment Agency, capped at 90 days in a 180-day window, and they may have little bearing on a Berlin request.
Germany’s model is skills-based. The main routes for a Berlin employer are the skilled worker routes for people with recognised vocational training or a recognised or comparable degree; the EU Blue Card; the experience route, where two years of practice plus a qualification valid in the home state can stand in for German recognition, provided the employer meets a set salary threshold or applies the collective agreement it is bound by; the recognition partnership, which allows qualified work to start while recognition continues in Germany; the opportunity card for a year of job search; vocational training; the rules for nurses and nursing assistants; and the driver route. Employers bound by a collective agreement can also use quota-based short-term employment for a few months a year.
When the Federal Employment Agency has a say, its question is narrow: is there a real Berlin post, and would a local colleague in the same job earn and work on similar terms? Most skilled routes skip searching for priority local applicants, and a Berlin employer may seek the agency’s advance consent before the candidate books a visa slot.
The accelerated procedure sets short deadlines for each authority, and the Federal Employment Agency’s approval is deemed granted if it does not answer within its deadline. Neither feature guarantees a visa, so travel plans wait for the decision.
We check every Berlin job offer against federal employment law before candidates see it. The Evidence Act requires employers to provide the main contract terms in writing, or in text form where the law allows, and to record pay and hours from day one. Below every wage sits the statutory hourly minimum, which the federal government fixes by ordinance after the Minimum Wage Commission makes its proposal, and certain sectors add their own higher floors. Partners should never quote a figure from memory; the employer states the gross pay in the offer.
Every pay run produces a written breakdown of the period, extras, allowances and anything taken off. Any charge for accommodation, meals,, or transportmust be agreed in writing before departure and shown on the payslip. Partners should ask the employer how any deductions or benefits in kind will be handled and get it in writing. Social insurance enrolment is also the employer’s job; building sites, hotels and restaurants, passenger transport, logistics, and building cleaning need to notify the pension insurance immediately, no later than the day work starts.
Shared lodging arranged by a Berlin employer, whether it owns the building or books rooms through someone else and whether rent is taken or not, falls under workplace safety law: bedrooms, kitchens and washrooms have to fit the number of people and the length of their stay. The employer assesses the risks in writing and logs each property, its beds and its residents. Partners would never call housing free unless the employer has said so in writing.
Every new arrival registers a home address within two weeks of moving in. In Berlin, this is done in person at the citizens' office (Bürgeramt), and the landlord or housing provider must provide signed confirmation; a rental contract does not replace it. German law s forbids providing a registration address that nobody lives at, so convenient entry at an office or friend’s flat is never an option.
Berlin and Brandenburg are one economic region, and a role advertised as being in Berlin may be based across the state border. Partners would ask for the exact workplace address, shift start and finish times and how the worker would get there, particularly for night or early shifts. A workplace outside Berlin may also fall under a different foreigners authority, which the employer should confirm before the procedure starts.
Document requests grow only as a candidate moves forward. Asking for everything at the start creates risk without helping the employer decide.
The GDPR and Germany’s own data protection statute (BDSG) govern every CV and certificate in this process, and the supervisory authority for private companies with their seat in Berlin is the State of Berlin’s data protection authority. Each party would need a lawful basis, inform candidates how they use their data, keep it secure, and delete it when no longer needed. When personal data travels from AtoZ Serwis Plus inside the EU to a partner agency outside the EU, the cooperation agreement would include a recognised transfer safeguard, such as the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, before any CV changes hands.
Originals stay with the candidate; copies go only to whoever formally asks.
Berlin employers make their own hiring decisions, and interviews happen there. Partners would prepare candidates for a video interview with the employer, explain the role in plain language and check that the candidate understands the hours, pay and location before saying yes. The candidate’s own language level is part of what is being assessed.
Skills tests would match the cluster. A medical technology manufacturer may ask for a practical assembly or measurement task; a software employer may set a coding exercise; a care provider will focus on the recognition file and German. Tests would be arranged by or for the employer and would never be charged to the candidate.
Hypothetical example: a Berlin optics company asks for two precision opticians with completed vocational training. The partner agency shortlists candidates whose training certificates match the German reference occupation, the employer interviews them by video and sets a short practical test through a local training centre, and only the selected candidates are asked for identity documents and certified copies. Recognition and approval then proceed through the accelerated procedure before booking any travel.
Preparation would start once the visa is issued. When a placement agency places a worker across a border, it must provide written information, at its own cost and in a language the worker understands, before the worker signs the employment contract. The sheet names the Berlin employer, when the job begins and how long it lasts, where and what the work is, the hours, gross pay and any deductions, holidays, notice rules and collective terms, and where the worker can get independent advice.
Employers also keep a copy of each worker’s residence title on file for the duration of the job, after checking it, and have four weeks to report to the immigration office if a job tied to that title ends before its planned end. Candidates would hear about these duties before they fly.
Workers on a job-tied permit cannot simply move to another Berlin employer. A switch first requires approval from the immigration office, and the Federal Employment Agency may also have to approve the new post. The State Office for Immigration offers an online application for a change of employe. It explainss that after two years of insured employment, or one year for an EU Blue Card, workers no longer need a new permit to change employers. Nationals covered by the Western Balkans regulation must always apply.
Complaints are logged in writing and answered, and workers always retain the right to contact authorities directly. The Faire Integration network gives free, confidential advice on labour and social law. Suspected trafficking or forced labour goes to the police, and undeclared work or illegal employment goes to German Customs, whose Financial Control of Undeclared Work inspects workplaces and payroll records. In Berlin, the State Office for Occupational Safety, Health Protection and Technical Safety supervises occupational safety and working time and can issue binding orders.
Fraud prevention protects candidates first. Partners would warn them that no one can sell an embassy appointment, a permit, or a job; that genuine employers do not ask for money; and that they can check every offer against the register. German criminal law punishes labour exploitation, including exploiting a worker’s helplessness in a foreign country, and brokering such jobs or renting housing to exploited workers is also an offence.
Public authority pages to check each rule before acting.
Recruitment agencies that can source qualified nurses, IT specialists, technicians, opticians, mechatronics staff or professional drivers, and that already follow fair recruitment practice, are welcome to introduce themselves. Pl ease tell uswhich occupations you recruit for, which countries you work fin how you verify qualification , and how you protect candidates from fees. Germany-wide context is on the Germany recruiter page.
Registering opens a conversation about fit and written terms if a suitable, verified request arises. To begin, complete the recruiter registration form.
Share your agency profile and the qualified occupations you can source. We will reply about possible cooperation if a suitable, verified Berlin request arises.
Rarely. German law tells the Federal Employment Agency to say no to any consent for hired-out work, which shuts down agency placement for every title built on that consent. Only a worker whose title opens the entire labour market, for instance through a settlement permit, can go through a German agency. Everyone else joins the employer’s own payroll.
The hiring company does, and it remains the employer of record from day one: its name appears on the contract and payslip, and its payroll office handles social insurance. The partner agency prepares candidates abroad, and AtoZ Serwis Plus would check that the request and route hold up before introducing candidates.
No. AtoZ Serwis Plus does not run an office in Germany, is not a German placement or temporary work agency, and does not hold Berlin vacancies or job orders. The aim is to prepare for cooperation if a suitable, verified request arises from an employer who will hire directly.
The State Office for Immigration (Landesamt für Einwanderung) is Berlin’s immigration authority. Its Business Immigration Service handles employment and residence permits, including the EU Blue Card; advises employers with staff living in Berlin; and runs the accelerated skilled worker procedure for employers with a Berlin site.
Yes, the Berlin State Office for Immigration states that companies, or service providers and lawyers acting for them, must register before the Business Immigration Service will process an application. The service works by appointment only. Registration is for the employer, not the partner agency or the candidate.
Only an employer in Germany can start it, for a skilled worker who is still abroad and has not yet applied for a visa. In Berlin, the Business Immigration Service handles it. The employer acts under a power of attorney from the worker, and a contract, or at least a draft contract, should already exist.
No. Its value lies in the tight time limits for the recognition body, the Federal Employment Agency, and the mission, which end with advance consent from the Berlin authority. The German mission still decides the visa application, and a refusal remains possible. Travel bookings and resignations from current jobs would wait for the actual decision.
The joint innovation strategy of Berlin and Brandenburg names five clusters: health economy; ICT, media and creative industries; transport, mobility and logistics; energy technology; and optics and photonics. They indicate the skills employers may look for, from nurses and laboratory staff to software developers, drivers, electricians and precision technicians, without implying any open request.
Yes, within strict rules. To work as a registered nurse in Berlin, you need a recognised diploma and a state licence, plus solid German, medical fitness, and a clean record. Where recognition is only partial, a bridging course in Germany can close the gap. The EU Blue Card does not apply to nurses, and some countries are closed to private recruitment.
Yes. The WHO maintains a list of states whose health systems are under strain, and in Germany only the Federal Employment Agency may recruit care and health staff from those states. Private agencies and Berlin employers must not approach nurses or nursing trainees there, so partners should consult the list before any campaign.
Faire Anwerbung Pflege Deutschland, owned and supervised by the Federal Ministry of Health, marks ethical nurse recruitment. Holders recruiting nurses from outside the EU commit to the employer-pays principle, so the nurse pays nothing for recruitment, and accept open dealing, written terms in a language the nurse can read, and checks by outside auditors.
Possibly. Federal rules allow IT specialists without a university degree to qualify for an EU Blue Card with several years of degree-level IT work experience and a job offer that meets the reduced salary threshold. Extensive practical experience can also support the experience-based route. Berlin’s ICT cluster makes this a realistic route to discuss with employers.
It can, if the developer holds a recognised or comparable degree, the offer matches that qualification, and the salary meets the pay floor. Shortage occupations and early-career workers face a lower floor. Partners would ask the employer to confirm the salary in writing because the threshold changes and isn’t quoted here.
Yes, with Federal Employment Agency approval that checks only pay and conditions. To drive, a person must hold a European licence in the correct category plus the code 95 professional qualification. Drivers who lack either may start in a different job and gain both within a set time window, provided the same firm has committed to a driving post at the end.
You can use it for half a year once you’re settled in Berlin, after which a German licence replaces it. Some issuing countries qualify for a direct swap, others require partial testing, and the rest require full theory and road tests. Heavy goods and bus categories add a doctor’s check and an eyesight test.
Drivers of vehicles with a digital tachograph need a personal driver card. The driver applies in person at the office for their main German address; the card must be in EU card format and lasts five years. A Berlin driver would therefore apply after registering the address.
Not a general one. Germany admits non-EU workers mainly based on qualifications. Outside the Western Balkans regulation, seasonal agricultural work from agreement countries and quota-based short-term employment for collectively bound employers, a worker without a recognised or state-recognised qualification has no route into a Berlin job.
Citizens of the six covered states may accept jobs of any skill level. Still, the Federal Employment Agency first prioritises applicants and draws each consent from a yearly allocation split by month and country. The agency plans to cut that allocation, so check the current quota before raising hopes.
Employers report demand to the Federal Employment Agency, which arranges the placement and issues the work permit. Workers come only from states that have signed a placement arrangement with the agency, and stays run for at most 90 days within 180. This kind of farm work may have little bearing on Berlin itself.
Yes. A firm covered by a collective agreement may take non-EU staff for short spells in any industry, inside a yearly Federal Employment Agency allocation. It must honour the agreed collective pay, cover travel, and limit stays to a few months a year. Harvest work sits outside the present allocation.
Two things: that the post genuinely exists and that wages, hours and conditions would satisfy a comparable local employee. The employer supplies the facts on a standard employment declaration. In most skilled routes, employers don’t search for priority local applicants first, but they always refuse hired-out agency workers.
Yes. Before the visa stage, a Berlin company can put its offer to the Federal Employment Agency for an advance decision. This gives the Berlin employer an early decision on the comparability check.
A candidate can arrive and begin a skilled job in Berlin while the recognition file is still open. Requirements include two years or more of training recognised at home, basic German, a firm offer, and a signed commitment between the worker and employer to complete recognition. The company needs a track record in training staff, and agency approval follows.
The opportunity card lets qualified people from outside the EU spend up to one year in Germany looking for work. During the search, they may work part-time and do trial work with an employer. They must support themselves. It suits candidates who want to meet employers in person before a contract.
No.AtoZ Serwis Plus does not charge candidates for any services, including screening, introductions, tests, or paperwork. Partner agencies that cannot work on that basis would not be a fit. Agencies that accept it can introduce themselves through the recruiter registration form.
German law requires a placement contract with a jobseeker to be in writing and to state the fee. Payment is due solely when a job contract results; nothing may be taken in advance, and a statutory ceiling applies. Mini-job placements carry no fee, and trainees may not be charged.
Before the employment contract is signed, the placement agency must give the worker written information at its own cost, in a language the worker understands. It covers the employer, start date and duration, workplace, tasks, hours, pay and deductions, leave, notice, collective agreements, and contact details for free advice services.
Two items: a CV and proof of the key skill, for example, a diploma, a training certificate, or work samples. Nothing more is collected at that point. Identity documents and other personal records are requested later, and only when the employer has put its list in writing for a concrete offer.
The recognition body, the German mission and the Berlin State Office for Immigration each say which certificates must be certified or translated. Partners would follow those lists rather than ask for translations at first screening, and the Berlin employer would confirm in writing which copies it needs. Originals stay with the candidate unless an authority asks to see them.
By agreement, the company’s register entry would be pulled, its filed accounts read, its VAT number obtained from the employer and confirmed through the EU VIES system or by the employer, and a written job profile with the Berlin address, hours and gross wage requested. Registration with the Business Immigration Service would also be confirmed.
A plan to hire workers out to another company, pay below comparable domestic staff, a vague or changing workplace, a request that candidates pay fees, or a suggestion to travel on a visitor visa and fix the permit later. Any of these would end the request, because the permit or the worker’s protection would fail.
Yes. EU citizens have free movement, need no work permit, and can be employed directly or through temporary work agencies, as German workers can. They still register their Berlin address within two weeks. The agency work restriction applies to people from outside the EU whose title rests on the agency’s consent.
No. A German residence permit for employment covers work only in Germany. Trips to other Schengen countries are fine, yet any job there needs a permit from that country. The EU Blue Card offers additional mobility under EU law, which is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
No. Germany is in the Schengen area, and visa-free stays or Schengen short-stay visas do not permit paid work. A non-EU worker must obtain a national D visa from a German mission before crossing the border, then apply for a residence permit at the Berlin State Office for Immigration after arrival.
Within two weeks of moving in. You register in person at a Berlin citizens’ office and need an identity document and a signed confirmation from the landlord or housing provider. A rental contract does not replace that confirmation, and you cannot register at an address where nobody lives.
Group lodging that an employer arranges is treated as part of workplace safety: rooms, kitchens and bathrooms must suit the residents, the employer documents a risk assessment, and it keeps a register of each address and who sleeps there. The employer would never describe housing to candidates as free unless it confirms it in writing.
The Berlin State Office for Occupational Safety, Health Protection and Technical Safety supervises workplace safety and health and work time, including rest periods for professional drivers, and can issue enforceable orders. erman Customs separately checks for undeclared work, illegal employment, and minimum-wage breaches.
Eight hours is the daily norm. p to ten-hour days are lawful when shorter days elsewhere bring the average back to eight, so no week goes beyond 48 hours on average. he employer logs every hour past the eighth.
German statute sets no extra rate for overtime. ny bonus, or time off instead, comes from the individual contract or a collective agreement. ach hour still counts when checking the wage against the statutory minimum, so the offer would spell out how extra hours are treated.
By law,, a full-timer on aMonday-to-Fridayy pattern gets no fewer than 20 days off a year, the five-day equivalent of the 24 days set for a six-day week. ontracts and collective agreements may give more. he leave entitlement belongs in the written terms of employment and in the information given to the worker before signing.
A statutory minimum hourly wage applies to almost all employees, including foreign workers. ts level is set by the government based on proposals from the Social Council, and it is revised periodically. The Berlin employer states the actual gross pay in the offer.
The period covered, gross pay and every component of it: shift extras, allowances, advances and whatever was deducted. The employer issues it in text form whenever pay changes. Rent or meal charges agr ed in writing before departure would appear as separate l nes so that the worker can check them.
In sectors at high risk of undeclared work, including construction, hospitality, passenger transport, logistics, building cleaning and security, employers must notify the pension insurance no later than the day work starts. This is in addition to normal social insurance registration, and failing to notify is treated as undeclared work.
Faire Integration. When an employer hires a non-EU worker from abroad, it must provide, in writing an by the first working day, how to reach the Faire Integration counselling centre closest to the job. Workers can ask questions about contracts, pay, or social insurance there, in conf dence and at no cost.
With a title linked to one company, the workers should ask the workers shoulddficethet, and the Federal Employment Agency may also need too clear tmay alsoojo. toin accepts suchjobjobpplications online. After two years of insured employm t, or one year with an EU Blue Card, a cha ge no longer needs a new permit.
It must inform the foreigners authority within four weeks. Throughout the employment,, it must alsocheckd the residence permit andkeept a copy. These duties apply to every Berlin employer of a non-EU national and are separ te from theworker’ss own obligations under the permit.
The customs service’s unit against undeclared work (FKS) visits workplaces. It checks payroll for unregistered staff, foreigners without the right title, issing contributions, and pay below the legal minimum. Employers caught using workers without a valid title face substantial fines, a d repeated or exploitative cases can end in prison.
Faire Integration counsellors listen in confidence and charge nothing. Trafficking or forced labour belongs with the police, and undeclared work with the customs service. A worker would keep these contacts from day one, independent of the employer a d agencies.
The GDPR and the German BDSG, with the state’s data protection authority supervising Berlin-based private companies. Data sent from AtoZ Serwis Plus in the EU to a partner outside the EU would be covered by a recognised transfer safeguard such as standard contractual clauses.
Spouses and children can join a skilled worker with a residence permit, settlement permit, or EU Blue Card, provided they have health insurance and means of support. Spouses of skilled workers do not need to prove German language skills and may work without restrictions once their permit is issued.
The federal government plans a digital Work-and-Stay agency to bring the steps of skilled immigration onto one platform for employers and workers. It is not operating, and no start date has been fixed. Until it exists, Berlin procedures run through the existing authorities and th German missions abroad.
No official average exists. The accelerated procedure sets deadlines for each authority, and the Federal E ployment Agency’s approval is deemed granted if it misses its deadline. Outside that procedure, waiting times depend on the German mission abroad and e Berlin State Office for Immigration, so partners should check each mission’s own information.
Describe your occupations, source countries, qualification checks and no-fee policy, and register through the recruiter registration form. Registration starts a conversation about fit, the routes your candidates could se and the written terms that would apply.
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