Working in Germany from Bosnia and Herzegovina: the route, and the queue that (for now) isn't there

Which route applies to you as a Bosnian national?

§ 26 (2) BeschV lets the Federal Employment Agency approve any kind of employment for nationals of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, without your professional qualification having to be recognised in Germany. The residence permit that goes with that approval is issued under § 19c (1) AufenthG.

The Federal Employment Agency names one carve-out on its own Western Balkans page: regulated professions are excluded from the no-recognition feature, with doctors as its example. The hook is § 18 (2) Nr. 3 AufenthG — a professional practice licence is a matter of professional law, and no residence permit substitutes for it.

What you do need, under § 18 (2) AufenthG: a concrete job offer, the Federal Employment Agency's consent, a practice licence where one applies, and a declaration from both you and the employer that the job will actually be carried out.

Why has the Employment Agency's queue not been Bosnia's problem?

Because the 50,000 annual approvals are split into monthly quotas per nationality, and as of 21 August 2026 the Federal Employment Agency's own status page listed Bosnia and Herzegovina as "tagesaktuell" — meaning applications were being processed on the day they came in. Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia were in the same position; Albania had a four-and-a-half-month backlog and Kosovo a seven-month one.

That is a snapshot, not a guarantee. The agency states plainly that it does not set the monthly quotas itself and cannot change them, and that applications can only be processed while a nationality's monthly quota still has room. A quota that is unused today can fill up before your employer files.

The trade-off other Western Balkans applicants accept — a labour market priority check in exchange for skipping recognition — applies to you exactly the same way. Bosnia's advantage right now is speed, not a different set of conditions.

What does the priority check mean for the job you accept?

It means the Employment Agency first asks whether someone else could fill the post. § 26 (2) Satz 1 BeschV grants the approval expressly with a priority check, defined in § 39 (3) Nr. 3 AufenthG: consent is given only if German workers, workers legally equivalent to them, or others with a right of priority access under EU law are not available for the position.

That is the trade at the centre of this route: the skilled worker permits under § 18a and § 18b AufenthG are granted without a priority check, under the closing sentence of § 39 (2) AufenthG. This route drops the recognition requirement and picks up a labour market test instead.

Pay and conditions are checked too. Under § 39 (3) Nr. 1 AufenthG you may not be employed on terms less favourable than comparable domestic employees, and the employer discloses pay, hours and conditions to the agency. An employer who breaks that rule repeatedly can be excluded from the procedure for up to five years under § 36 (4) BeschV.

How do you get an appointment in Sarajevo?

Through VisaMetric, which has handled visa applications for the German Embassy in Sarajevo — including the Western Balkans category — as an external service provider since 18 July 2023. Applications and appointment booking both go through it rather than the embassy directly.

There has never been a lottery for this appointment system. The embassy's own page on booking states, in as many words, that its booking system is open to everyone and that every available slot is visible and bookable by anyone — a structural difference from Kosovo, where a lottery for slots existed until the pre-consent procedure replaced it in June 2024.

The pre-consent still speeds things up: once your employer has the Federal Employment Agency's consent, you book directly and, per the embassy's Western Balkans page, get an appointment within a few weeks rather than through the general queue.

Appointments are free. The embassy's own page says it charges no fee for booking, that no earlier appointment is issued for a fee, and that agencies or travel agencies cannot book different appointments than you can yourself — so there is no reason to pay one.

Which documents does Sarajevo ask for, and what is different for Bosnia?

The core requirement is the same as for every Western Balkans applicant: your employer's pre-consent from the Federal Employment Agency, plus the Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis — a five-page form the agency provides, always used in its current version.

The visa fee is 150 convertible marks (KM), and the embassy states it prefers cashless payment, accepting Visa and Mastercard — a different payment path from Pristina's exact-cash-only 75 euros, though it rests on the same underlying national visa fee set in § 46 (2) Nr. 1 AufenthV.

Foreign diplomas and certificates from Bosnia and Herzegovina are consistently required with an apostille — for higher-education diplomas, for the four-year medical secondary school certificates that nursing applicants submit, and for adoption or custody judgments. The embassy's document page does not ask for the fuller legalisation chain that Kosovo's civil status documents require, because Bosnia and Herzegovina is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention and Kosovo is not recognised as one.

Which language certificate does the embassy in Sarajevo accept?

The same five providers as in Pristina: Goethe-Institut, ÖSD, ECL, TestDaF-Institut and telc gGmbH, all certified by the Association of Language Testers in Europe. The embassy's FAQ states that a certificate only counts as proof once all four test components have been passed, and that sitting different components with different ALTE-certified providers is acceptable as long as every component was taken with one of them.

The exam must be no more than a year old at the time you apply, counting from the oldest passed component if you combined several. Unlike Pristina, the Sarajevo embassy's published documents do not name any excluded test location for Bosnia — check directly with the embassy or your provider before paying, since a rule like that can exist without being the headline of the page.

Can you fly in visa-free and sort the permit out in Germany?

No. The embassy's own Schengen page states that Bosnian nationals with a biometric passport need no Schengen visa for a visit, business trip or tourism of up to 90 days in any 180-day period — three purposes, and employment is not one of them. Bosnia and Herzegovina has held this visa-free status since December 2010, considerably longer than Kosovo's since January 2024, but the restriction to non-work purposes is the same.

§ 41 AufenthV lists the nationalities allowed to obtain a residence title after entering without a visa — Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States in paragraph 1, plus Andorra, Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Monaco and San Marino for non-work stays in paragraph 2. Bosnia and Herzegovina is in neither list.

§ 26 (2) Satz 2 BeschV closes the loop: the first-time approval may only be granted if the residence title application is filed at the competent German mission in one of the six states — for a Bosnian national, that means Sarajevo.

What if you are 45 or older?

You need to show a gross monthly salary of at least 4,647.50 euros (55,770 euros a year in 2026) — 55 percent of the contribution ceiling in the general pension insurance, per the embassy's own FAQ, which sets out that ceiling at 8,450 euros a month for 2026 — or proof of adequate old-age provision instead.

Unlike Pristina, which explicitly excludes Kosovo's Trusti pension fund from counting as proof, the Sarajevo embassy's published documents do not name any Bosnian pension institution one way or the other. That silence is not a yes: confirm with the embassy what evidence of Bosnian pension entitlements it will actually accept before you rely on it.

How long does the permit last, and what happens after five years?

The permit runs for up to four years. § 18 (4) AufenthG sets that for §§ 18a, 18b, 18g and 19c together — or, where the employment contract or the agency's consent covers a shorter period, that period plus six months, never more than four years total. A one-year contract produces an 18-month permit, not a four-year one.

If the job ends early, § 18 (5) AufenthG leaves you at least six months on the permit from the end of employment once the immigration office is informed — at least nine months where the working conditions were particularly exploitative under the EU definition.

The route does not lead to the three-year settlement permit for skilled workers: § 18c (1) AufenthG lists §§ 18a, 18b, 18d and 18g, and § 19c is not among them. Instead, § 9 (2) AufenthG applies — five years holding the residence permit, 60 months of pension contributions, B1 German under § 2 (11) AufenthG, basic knowledge of the legal and social order, and adequate living space.

One further point carries a long tail: § 26 (2) Satz 5 BeschV disapplies § 9 BeschV, the rule that would otherwise free you from needing the agency's consent again after two years of insurable employment. On this route, that shortcut generally stays closed.

Is there a faster route than the Western Balkans regulation?

Check it first, because it carries no quota at all. § 6 BeschV allows consent for a qualified job based on pronounced practical experience: at least two years of relevant experience in the last five, a state-recognised qualification or degree from where you obtained it, and a salary of at least 45 percent of the pension contribution ceiling.

Two details decide whether it fits. § 6 (1) Satz 2 removes the salary threshold entirely where the employer is bound by a collective agreement and employs you on its terms. § 6 (1) Satz 3 drops the qualification requirement altogether for information and communication technology jobs.

The Federal Employment Agency itself points this way on its Western Balkans page: routes such as § 6 BeschV carry no quota, so it can process a pre-consent request faster once a monthly or annual Western Balkans quota is exhausted — and appointments at the missions are, in its own words, usually about as quick either way.

The honest recommendation is therefore two steps, not one: have your employer check § 6 BeschV before defaulting to the Western Balkans route, even while Bosnia's queue looks favourable — a queue with no backlog today can still fill up, and a route with no quota never will. Finding an employer willing to make that offer and file it is the part we take on, free for you because the employer pays our fee.