Legislative reforms to streamline immigration of skilled workers and professional recognition in Germany

The immigration of skilled workers has become increasingly important in recent years. Almost every industry is now experiencing a shortage of skilled workers but, despite simplifying and easing the Skilled Worker Immigration Act, there are still too few international talents coming to Germany.

The Federal Government has a mandate to tackle the shortage of skilled workers and promote the immigration of skilled workers. And there has been a lot of movement in this regard in recent days. The Federal Government is taking action on several points. At the heart of these changes is the digitalisation and centralisation of administrative processes.

A key proposal by Labour Minister Bärbel Bas involves establishing so-called “work-and-stay agencies”. The aim of these agencies is to centralise and digitalise the entire process of skilled-worker immigration and residence permits for foreign skilled workers.

The aspiration is not only to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for international skilled workers and companies, but also to significantly reduce the administrative burden on the responsible authorities.  

It should also be possible to submit applications for the recognition of foreign qualifications via the work and stay agency. However, the recognition itself will remain the responsibility of specialised bodies.

Another important legislative package concerns the recognition of foreign qualifications in the healthcare professions, such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists and midwives. The aim here is to significantly accelerate the recognition process by reducing bureaucracy, standardising procedures and digitalising processes.

A key component of this reform is the introduction of knowledge testing as the norm. This will allow doctors to demonstrate their skills directly in practice. This knowledge test replaces the previous equivalence test, which uses documents to verify equivalence with the qualification in Germany. An equivalence test can then still be carried out if desired.

In addition, applications and notifications will then be transmitted electronically. These innovations are intended to speed up the recognition process for doctors.

However, there is also criticism of this proposed legislation, as it does not cover the much-needed nursing professionals. Associations suggest that one solution to this could be the so-called presumption of competence for nursing professionals from abroad. This would allow nursing professionals from abroad who have already completed three years of training and have German language skills to work in their profession while the recognition process is ongoing.

The current legislative changes regarding skilled worker immigration and the recognition of professional qualifications represent a significant advance towards tackling the shortage of skilled workers in Germany. By digitalising these processes, Germany is taking an important step towards the future. Time will tell how well this digitalisation will work.

Also crucial is whether legislators will extend their ideas to other occupational groups, such as the urgently needed nursing staff.

Sources:  

Article Süddeutsche Zeitung

Press release Federal Ministry of Health 

Article BibliomedPflege