The Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz (Skilled Immigration Act) at a glance: origins, figures, glossary

Origins: from the FEG 2020 to the Further Development Act

The original Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz entered into force on 1 March 2020 and for the first time expanded labor market access for skilled workers with vocational training from states outside the EU; newly made possible were, among other things, entry to look for a training place and to look for a job. Around three and a half years later, the Bundestag and Bundesrat passed the "Gesetz zur Weiterentwicklung der Fachkräfteeinwanderung" (Act on the Further Development of Skilled Immigration, colloquially FEG 2.0 or Weiterentwicklungsgesetz), with the aim of significantly increasing the number of skilled workers from third countries. It consists of two legal acts: an amendment of the Aufenthaltsgesetz (Residence Act; lead: Bundesministerium des Innern, Federal Ministry of the Interior) and a "Verordnung zur Weiterentwicklung der Fachkräfteeinwanderung" (Ordinance on the Further Development of Skilled Immigration), which mainly amended the Beschäftigungsverordnung (BeschV, Employment Ordinance; lead: Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs). Both entered into force in three staggered stages.

The three stages of the Further Development Act

Stage 1 – 18 November 2023: The salary thresholds of the Blaue Karte EU (EU Blue Card) were lowered (to 50 % or, for shortage occupations and career starters, 45.3 % of the contribution assessment ceiling of the general pension insurance, newly set each year since then), access to the Blaue Karte EU was extended to career starters with a degree from the last three years and to IT specialists without a formal university degree with at least three years of relevant professional experience (§ 18g Abs. 2 AufenthG), and from this point on, recognized skilled workers were allowed to work in any qualified employment instead of only in one matching their qualification. At the same time, the initially time-limited Westbalkanregelung (Western Balkans regulation) was made permanent.

Stage 2 – 1 March 2024: The Anerkennungspartnerschaft (recognition partnership) was introduced (§ 16d Abs. 3 AufenthG in conjunction with § 2a BeschV), with which a skilled worker can already work in qualified employment in parallel with the ongoing recognition procedure, provided the employer and the skilled worker agree to this by contract. In addition, § 6 BeschV facilitated employment on the basis of professional experience alone (without a formal determination of equivalence) under certain conditions, the priority check for vocational training was abolished (§ 8 Abs. 1 BeschV), and there were new rules on nursing assistants (§ 22a BeschV) and on temporary quota-based employment of up to eight months (§ 15d BeschV).

Stage 3 – 1 June 2024: With the Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card, § 20a, § 20b AufenthG), a new, points-based residence title for job search was introduced. At the same time, the annual quota of the Westbalkanregelung was doubled from 25,000 to 50,000 approvals, and the skilled-worker residence permits under § 18a AufenthG (vocational training) and § 18b AufenthG (academic training) were changed from a discretionary to an entitlement rule ("Anspruchstitel", entitlement title): if the statutory requirements are met, there has since been a legal right to issuance, no longer merely discretionary issuance. Details on all four residence titles mentioned – requirements, period of validity, Berlin responsibilities – are on the topic page "Residence titles for work: overview for Berlin".

Further developments 2025/2026

Since 1 January 2026, a new information obligation for employers has applied (§ 45c AufenthG): anyone who employs a person from a third country recruited from abroad must, at the latest on the first working day and in text form (e.g. by email or as an annex to the employment contract), inform them of the possibility of free, multilingual, and confidential counseling on labor and social law questions and give the contact details of the nearest counseling center. The legal basis of the counseling centers themselves is § 45b AufenthG; the nationwide network "Faire Integration" (Fair Integration), with one contact point per federal state, was placed on a new statutory basis on the same date. According to the Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, the aim is protection against exploitation and against wage dumping at the expense of domestic employees.

For the Westbalkanregelung, the coalition agreement of the Federal Government in office since 2025 (CDU/CSU/SPD) provides for a reduction of the annual quota from 50,000 to 25,000 approvals. According to the available sources, this change has been politically agreed but not yet implemented by law (see the "Attention" section above for the exact state of evidence).

Statistics: labor migration to Germany

According to a joint review by the Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office), the Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, and the Bundesministerium des Innern of 19.11.2024, around 200,000 visas for employment purposes were issued in the first year after Stage 1 entered into force (18.11.2023 to November 2024), an increase of around 10 % over the previous year's figure of 177,578. In the same period, visas for students from third countries rose by more than 20 %, for trainees by around two thirds, and for procedures for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications by almost 50 %.

According to a press release of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit of 18.02.2026 ("Five years of the Skilled Immigration Act"), labor migration has more than doubled since 2020: in June 2025, 420,000 employees subject to social insurance held a residence or settlement title based on their employment, compared with slightly more than 200,000 in 2020. A good quarter of the employees subject to social insurance with a work-related residence title come from the six states covered by the Westbalkanregelung (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia). By the end of 2025, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit counted 360,000 digital counseling sessions with interested persons from abroad, of which 23,600 in 2025 alone concerned professional recognition. In December 2025, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit had to reject around 18,000 requests under the Westbalkanregelung because the annual quota was already exhausted.

According to a BAMF press release of 31.03.2026 on education and labor migration in the first half of 2025, labor migration according to figures from the Ausländerzentralregister (AZR, Central Register of Foreign Nationals) was 19.4 % higher in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2024, but did not yet reach the level of the first half of 2023 and roughly corresponded to the level of the first half of 2022. Education migration, by contrast, was 40.6 % higher in the first half of 2025 than in the first half of 2024 and 2.7 % higher than in the first half of 2023. On the Blaue Karte EU, the same evaluation names declining first issuances without a previous residence title in each first half-year: 12,430 (2023), 7,750 (2024), 7,385 (2025). According to its own announcement, the BAMF research center intends to publish the complete annual figures for 2025 only in mid-2026 in the "Monitoring zur Bildungs- und Erwerbsmigration" (Monitoring of Education and Labor Migration).

Glossary

Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card, § 20a, § 20b AufenthG, since 1.6.2024): residence permit for looking for qualified employment or for the recognition of a foreign professional qualification, granted either with already recognized skilled-worker status or with at least 6 points in a points system (qualification, language skills, professional experience, age, connection to Germany). More on the topic page "Residence titles for work".

Blaue Karte EU (EU Blue Card, § 18g AufenthG): residence title for persons with a university degree (or, for certain IT occupations, with at least three years of relevant professional experience instead of a degree) and a job offer above a minimum salary threshold newly set each year. With Stage 1 of the Further Development Act (18.11.2023), the thresholds were lowered for the first time to 50 % or 45.3 % of the contribution assessment ceiling; the current euro amounts are on the topic page "Residence titles for work".

Fachkräfte-Aufenthaltserlaubnis (skilled-worker residence permit; § 18a AufenthG for vocational training, § 18b AufenthG for academic training): residence title for qualified employment that requires knowledge from the respective training. Since Stage 3 (1.6.2024), there is a legal right to issuance if the requirements are met.

Anerkennungspartnerschaft (recognition partnership, § 16d Abs. 3 AufenthG in conjunction with § 2a BeschV, since 1.3.2024): makes it possible to work in qualified employment in Germany already during an ongoing procedure for the recognition of a foreign professional qualification, if the employer and the skilled worker agree to this by contract – instead of having to wait for the result of the recognition as before.

Westbalkanregelung (Western Balkans regulation, § 19c Abs. 1 AufenthG in conjunction with § 26 Abs. 2 BeschV): facilitated labor market access for nationals of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia, without having to prove a formal professional qualification; requirements are a concrete job offer and the approval of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit within an annual quota (currently 50,000, as of 07.09.2026; planned reduction to 25,000 according to the coalition agreement, not yet in force).

Make it in Germany: the official, free, and ad-free information portal of the Federal Government for international skilled workers and for employers, with general information on entry, recognition, job search, and life in Germany as well as a job board. It is not an authority portal and not a substitute for individual legal advice or an application to the Landesamt für Einwanderung.

Faire Integration (Fair Integration, § 45b, § 45c AufenthG, since 1.1.2026): nationwide network of free, multilingual, and confidential counseling centers on labor and social law questions for employees recruited from abroad, with one contact point per federal state; employers must inform recruited employees about it at the latest on the first working day.