Up to date as of January 2025. The intention of this post to help those who are specifically a US Citizen looking to live in Germany longer than 90 days as a visitor, and be able to seek employment while living there.

The process of obtaining a visa for any country can be an extremely tedious endeavor to navigate the layers of bureaucracy. I’d Switzerland and Germany is one of the most bureaucratic of them all.

I remember visiting the Swiss embassy in San Francisco (un-related to this visa) and seeing one of the visa applicants go through his 13 or so items in his checklist for the visa. He had all the paperwork except for the 13th item, which is a prepaid shipping envelope (to be obtained from a local post office) for the embassy to ship back his passport. His visa application could not be processed due to this one missing item

I’m planning to move to Germany, which is physically live in Germany past the allowed time for a US National to be in an EU country (which is 90 days), let me walk you through the application process so I can help you cut through the bureaucracy a little bit easier. This is coming from a point of view of person with a USA passport, it may not be the same process for people coming from other countries.

First off, you do a quick internet search on how to immigrate and live in Germany legally, you’ll get many different visa applications, leaving you unsure of which one is right for you. Visit the visa navigator to find out which visa is right for you: https://digital.diplo.de/navigator/en/visa
The result of this visa will say “For nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom or the USA” will just need to apply for a residence permit at the local German foreigners office when you arrive. I was actually planning on just not worrying about it, and just get a residence permit when I got to Germany, but until my employer said they might be able to extend a role for me in the German office, but only if I acquire my own means of a work visa. Hence the pursuit of the Chancenkarte. Here’s a step by step guide on how I went about this:

1. Here’s the information about the Chancenkarte: https://digital.diplo.de/chancenkarte
2. Hopefully you live near a German Consulate office. If you don’t you’ll have to make sure your all your paperwork is completely in order before you make the journey. I’ve had to go to the Consulate twice due to errors in my application the first time. Select your nearest consulate location and apply.
3. Complete the registration with your personal information on the Consular Services Portal
4. Information needed:
   • Passport
   • Parent’s personal info (date/place of birth)
   • Reference person who resides in Germany (your landlord, family member friend, or employer)
   • About $10-13k locked into a German bank account or 3 months of bank statements that can show you have more than $10k
   • When you’ve visited Germany in the past 5 times
   • Your place of residence in Germany (your address that you’ll be living at)
   • If you have any diseases or convicted of a crime or ever been rejected of a German residence application in the past – Answer truthfully.
5. Documents to be submitted:
   • Scanned copy of your passport. Probably colored copy to be safe.
   • Proof of residence at your current address (not in Germany), like an electric bill, rent, mortgage payment, etc.
   • University diploma (PDF)
   • Recognition of your university degree: Look up your major at this website anabin and print the page to PDF. Notice that anabin is in German.
   • Recognition of higher education institution: Look up your university at anabin and print the confirmation in PDF
   • Secured livelihood: your bank statements (3months worth) or a German bank account with at least $10k in it.
   • German Health insurance coverage. This can be submitted later but you won’t get your visa unless you show you have proof of health insurance. I went for https://feather-insurance.com/health-insurance/expat/short-term, which was about $75/month
     I have tried to get the private health insurance through Feather, but was rejected because they claim that I have too many health issues. Which I really don’t, I just go to the doctor often, because I’m always worried about dying. so I always request for all the imaging done to me, and they don’t find anything major like cancer.
   • Welcome to submit any other pertaining documents, like a letter that explains your situation.
6. Embassy Visit
   • Once your application has been processed, probably take a 2-6 days, the portal will say you can schedule your appointment to visit the embassy. If you have to travel far to get to an embassy make sure you have all the documents they’ve requested so you won’t be turned away empty handed for a incomplete application.
   • Fill out the main long-term stay visa application form: https://videx.diplo.de/videx/visum-erfassung/videx-langfristiger-aufenthalt
   • Get Germany-visa photos (get them taken at Staples)
   • Your return address for your passport to return to you.
   • Physical Documents to bring:
     • Passport
     • The Videx PDF filled out form
     • Photos of yourself per the German visa spec.
     • Original University diploma (be sure to order it well ahead of time from your school if you need a replacement it costed me about $50 and took about 3 weeks for it to come in).
     • Unofficial transcripts (printed from PDFs are fine).
     • Card Payment method for the processing of the application (~$85)- Local currency, don’t pay in Euros, because I tried.
     • Health insurance coverage (an actual letter that literally says you are covered in the country of Germany)
7. Processing may take 1-2 weeks before you get your passport back.

I had no idea if my visa application was accepted or not until I got it back physically in my hands, so it was an anxiety inducing experience. It worked out and I’m ready to buy my first 1 way ticket to Deutschland!