Up to 18 months to find qualified work, with no limit on the hours you may work while you look. The catch is who it is for — and it is not who most people searching this term assume.
For years there was one answer: a six-month visa to come to Germany and look for qualified work. The skilled-immigration reforms took that apart. What remains under § 20 AufenthG is a job-search permit for people who earned their qualification in Germany — graduates, people finishing an Ausbildung, researchers, and those completing a recognition procedure.
If you qualified abroad, your route is the Chancenkarte instead. Same goal, different statute, different rules on hours and length. Most of the confusion around this search term is people reading the rules for one route and applying under the other, so the first section below is simply working out which one is yours.
Qualified in Germany? § 20, up to 18 months, work as much as you like while you search. Qualified abroad? The Chancenkarte, one year, 20 hours a week. Either way you must prove you can support yourself for the whole period before it is issued.
Degree, Ausbildung, research or recognition completed here. Up to 18 months, unrestricted work while you search, livelihood to be proven. This is the permit this page is about, and it is applied for from inside Germany as your student or training permit ends.
There is no longer a separate six-month job-seeker visa for skilled workers with foreign qualifications. That route is now the Opportunity Card: one year to search, extendable, with up to 20 hours of work a week and two-week trial employment. If you are reading this from outside Germany with a foreign degree, that page is the one you want.
A job-search permit is for the gap before an offer. With a contract in hand you go straight to a work permit — usually the EU Blue Card if your degree and salary fit, which is faster and counts toward settlement sooner.
The largest group by far. If you studied here under § 16b or § 16c and graduated, § 20 gives you up to 18 months to find qualified work, and you may work without restriction while you look.
A completed Ausbildung in Germany under § 16a opens the same route on the same terms. This is routinely missed by people who assume the job-search permit is a graduate-only benefit.
Researchers coming off a § 18d or § 18f residence permit qualify once the research activity is complete, again for up to 18 months.
If you came on a § 16d permit to get a foreign qualification recognised or to obtain the permit to practise your profession, finishing that process puts you in the same 18-month window.
The one category on different terms: up to 12 months, extendable once by up to 6 more if your livelihood is still secured.
For the first four categories. It is a one-time window for one purpose, and the statute rules out extending beyond the maximum — so the clock is the real constraint, not the paperwork.
This surprises almost everyone. During a § 20 job search, gainful employment is permitted and needs no separate approval. You are not confined to the qualified role you are looking for while you look for it.
Lebensunterhaltssicherung — proof you can support yourself for the whole period without public funds. Missions apply a monthly reference figure in the region of €1,100; the exact sum and the accepted form of proof are set by the mission handling your case.
Category five runs on a shorter clock with a single extension, and only if your livelihood remains secured at the point you ask for it.
The money figure is the one to check, not to assume. § 20 Abs. 2 requires that your livelihood is secured; it does not name a number. The reference figures missions use move, and what counts as acceptable proof differs between them. Confirm the sum with the mission or office handling your case before you lock funds into a blocked account for eighteen months.
Almost every § 20 problem is a timing problem: the application went in after the student permit expired, or the money proof did not cover the full window.
The § 20 permit is a switch from the permit you already hold. Filing before that one expires keeps your status and your right to work running while the office decides — file late and you lose both until it does.
Not a snapshot balance. The office wants the period covered, which in practice means a blocked account, a formal declaration of commitment, or documented income. We work out which your office accepts before you tie up any funds.
The search permit is not the destination. As soon as an offer lands, the file switches to a work permit, and having that conversion prepared in advance is what stops a start date slipping.
This page sets out how § 20 AufenthG and the Chancenkarte differ in general terms. It is not advice about your case, and the answer can turn on where you studied, what your current permit says and when it expires. Case is a case-preparation service, not a law firm: our AI builds and checks the file, and a licensed German immigration lawyer reviews it, confirms the route and signs it.
On the § 20 permit, yes — during the job search, gainful employment is permitted and requires no separate approval. On the Chancenkarte under § 20a the rule is different: an average of up to 20 hours a week, plus trial employment of up to two weeks at a time. People routinely assume a job-search permit forbids working; for § 20 that is simply wrong.
Up to 18 months under § 20 for graduates of German universities, people who completed vocational training or research here, and those who finished a recognition procedure. Assistant and helper training in health and care gets up to 12 months, extendable once by up to 6. The statute rules out extending past those maximums — it is a one-time window.
Not as a standalone permit for skilled workers with foreign qualifications. That route was folded into the Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card) under § 20a, which runs for a year and can be extended. A lot of guidance online still describes the old six-month visa, which is why people arrive at the embassy asking for something that no longer exists.
Enough to cover the whole search period without public funds — that is what Lebensunterhaltssicherung means in § 20 Abs. 2. German missions apply a monthly reference figure in the region of €1,100, so a long window means a substantial sum, usually held in a blocked account. The precise amount and the acceptable proof are set by the mission handling your application, so confirm before transferring anything.
The § 20 route is built for people already here, finishing a German degree, Ausbildung, research post or recognition procedure, and switching permits before the current one expires. If you are abroad with a foreign qualification, the Chancenkarte is your route and it is applied for at the German mission in your country.
The permit cannot be extended beyond its maximum, and it exists for one purpose only, so it does not roll into something else by default. What can be done depends on what you have achieved by then — a part-finished recognition, a pending offer or a change of circumstances can each open a different permit. That assessment is a legal question and it is worth asking well before the last month.
No. Case builds the case file — your dates, your qualification, the money proof and the switch that has to happen before your current permit expires. A licensed German immigration lawyer reviews it, confirms which permit applies and signs it. Nothing is filed without that approval.
Tell us what you studied or trained in, where, and when your current permit ends. We map the right permit, the money proof it needs and the deadline to switch — before the clock starts working against you.
Last reviewed 28 August 2026. German immigration rules, salary thresholds and fees change, sometimes in the middle of a year, and local offices apply them differently from city to city. Anything below that date may have moved since.
This page is general information about German immigration law. It is not legal advice, it is not a substitute for advice on your own situation, and reading it does not create a lawyer–client relationship. The figures and deadlines on it have not been checked by a lawyer against your case.
Case is a case-preparation service, not a law firm, and does not give legal advice. Legal advice is given by independent licensed German immigration lawyers, who review and sign every file before it is submitted.
Found something out of date or wrong? Tell us and we will correct it: permanaharianja@gmail.com.