Working in Germany from Kosovo: the route, and the queue nobody mentions

Which route applies to you as a Kosovo 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 Government uses exactly this pairing in its answer of 4 August 2025 to a parliamentary question (Bundestag document 21/1126).

The Federal Employment Agency names one carve-out on its own Western Balkans page: regulated professions are excluded from the no-recognition feature. Doctors are its example. The legal hook is § 18 (2) Nr. 3 AufenthG, which requires a professional practice licence wherever one is needed — and a licence is a matter of professional law, not immigration law, so no residence permit can substitute for it.

What you do need is what § 18 (2) AufenthG lists for every employment permit in this part of the Act: a concrete job offer, the consent of the Federal Employment Agency, that licence where one applies, and a declaration from both you and the employer that the job will actually be done. Pristina asks you to sign a separate form for that last point.

Why does the Employment Agency's queue decide your timeline?

Because the 50,000 annual approvals are not one pool: they are split into monthly quotas per nationality, and Kosovo's share runs out faster than most. The Federal Employment Agency states on its Western Balkans page that the monthly quotas are set for it and that it cannot change them, and that applications can only be processed while that nationality's monthly quota still has room.

The agency publishes which applications it is currently working on, and as of 21 August 2026 the picture was this: Kosovo 21 January 2026, Albania 2 April 2026, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia all up to date. Kosovo had the longest backlog of the six — roughly seven months between filing and being looked at.

The agency's own illustration of the effect names Kosovo specifically: you may only receive the pre-consent in December although you filed the application in June. That sentence is on the page, not our inference.

This is where two official statements have to be read together. The Federal Government told the Bundestag in August 2025 that appointment waiting times had been reduced to a few days by moving to the pre-consent procedure, and that is accurate — but it describes the appointment, not the pre-consent. The waiting did not disappear; it moved from the counter in Pristina to the quota queue at the Employment Agency. Plan around the queue, not around the appointment.

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

It means the Employment Agency first asks whether someone else could do the job. § 26 (2) Satz 1 BeschV grants the approval expressly with a priority check, and § 39 (3) Nr. 3 AufenthG defines that check: consent may be 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 post.

That is the trade at the heart of this route, and it is worth naming plainly: the skilled worker routes under § 18a and § 18b AufenthG are granted without a priority check — the closing sentence of § 39 (2) AufenthG says so. This route drops the recognition requirement and picks up a labour market test instead. Neither is free.

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

One more sentence of § 26 (2) matters before you plan: Satz 4 bars the approval entirely if you received benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act in the 24 months before you apply.

How do you get an appointment in Pristina?

Through VisaMetric, and only after the employer has the pre-consent. The German Embassy in Pristina states on its Western Balkans page (status 5 February 2026) that applications under § 26 (2) BeschV are accepted by its service provider VisaMetric at Rr. Kaçaniku 25, Pristina, and that appointments are booked directly with VisaMetric rather than at the embassy.

The pre-consent is what changes the waiting. Since 1 June 2024, according to the same page, an applicant whose future employer has already obtained the Federal Employment Agency's consent is taken out of the lottery for appointment slots and gets an appointment within a few weeks. Booking before the pre-consent exists puts you back in that lottery.

The employer applies for it, not you — and the embassy says it cannot answer questions about pre-consents at all, because issuing them falls solely to the Employment Agency. § 36 (3) BeschV is the provision that lets the agency give its consent before the visa application, and § 36 (2) BeschV sets the general rule that consent counts as granted if the agency does not respond within two weeks of the enquiry.

Do not pay anyone for a faster slot. The embassy's own appointment page states that appointments are free, that no earlier appointment is issued for a fee, and that agencies and travel agents have no access to more or different slots than you can book yourself.

Which documents does Pristina ask for, and what is different for Kosovo?

The embassy publishes the full list; these are the items where applications come apart. Kosovar civil status documents generally have to be presented in legalised form — that is on the embassy's national visa page and it is a Kosovo-specific step that takes time you have to budget for.

An employment contract on its own is not enough. The embassy requires the completed Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis, no older than six months, filled in and signed by the employer at every point, and says in as many words that a contract alone does not suffice. The alternative it accepts is the printout from the Employment Agency's employer e-service, which is generated when the pre-consent is applied for there.

• 75 euros in cash, the exact amount, and the embassy does not accept coins below 50 cents.
• A passport valid for at least nine more months, original plus one copy.
• A copy of the pre-consent from the Federal Employment Agency.
• Travel health insurance (INCOMING) as an original, valid for 90 days and starting from the date of application.
• Two signed briefing forms: one on completeness and false statements, one under § 18 (2) Nr. 4a AufenthG on the existence of a concrete job offer.
• If the job involves driving anything — delivery, courier, excavator, crane — a copy of the licence plus the employer's signed confirmation of which vehicle types will be driven, including tonnage, and whether on company grounds or public roads.
• For work in the health or care sector, a German language certificate at level B1 or above.

Which language certificate does the embassy in Pristina accept?

For the care-sector B1 requirement above, the provider matters as much as the level. The embassy's national visa page requires a certificate from a standardised examination meeting the standards of the Association of Language Testers in Europe, and lists the providers it currently accepts for German: Goethe-Institut, ÖSD, TestDaF-Institut, telc gGmbH and ECL. Confirmations that merely record attendance at a language course are not accepted.

The footnote is the part that catches people: the embassy does not accept telc certificates from test locations in Serbia. A telc certificate is otherwise on its list, so this is about where you sat the exam, not which logo is on the paper. Check the test centre before you pay, not after.

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

No, on two separate grounds. Holders of a valid biometric Kosovar passport have been able to travel to the Schengen area visa-free for short stays since 1 January 2024, up to 90 days in any 180-day period — and the embassy's own page on that change says plainly that visa-free travel does not allow you to work in the Schengen area, and that anyone intending to work should apply for a D visa at the relevant consulate.

German law says the same twice over. § 17 (1) AufenthV removes the exemption from the residence-title requirement for a short stay as soon as the person pursues employment in Germany. And § 41 AufenthV, which lists the eight nationalities that may obtain a residence title after entering without a visa, does not include Kosovo.

§ 26 (2) Satz 2 BeschV closes the last gap: the first-time approval may only be granted if the application for the residence title is filed at the competent German mission in one of the six states. For a Kosovo national that means Pristina — not an authority in Germany, and not a third country.

What if you are 45 or older?

Expect to prove your old-age provision, and bring the proof in a form Pristina accepts. The Federal Employment Agency lists this among the personal conditions for the Western Balkans route: where consent is being obtained for the first time for someone over 45, the gross annual salary must reach 55 percent of the contribution ceiling in the general pension insurance, which the agency states as 55,770 euros for 2026 (as of August 2026) — or adequate old-age provision must be shown instead.

For the sake of precision: that 55 percent figure comes from § 18 (2) Nr. 5 AufenthG, and the wording there covers the first issue of a permit under § 18a or § 18b. The Employment Agency and the embassy in Pristina both nonetheless list the proof for this route, and they are the offices that decide. Bring it.

The Kosovo-specific trap is in what counts. The embassy states that proof of pension entitlements built up in Kosovo through Trusti cannot be taken into account. What it does accept: pension rights earned in another state, evidenced by a current confirmation from that pension institution quantifying the entitlement; real estate in your name, shown by a land register extract plus a current certificate of appraised value; or other assets.

§ 18 (2) Satz 2 AufenthG does allow the requirements to be waived where there is a public, regional, economic or labour market interest, and it names the case where the age limit is only slightly exceeded. That is a discretionary door, not a plan.

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

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

If the job ends early, you do not have to leave the next day. Under § 18 (5) AufenthG, once the immigration office has been informed, the permit is shortened so that at least six months remain from the end of the employment — at least nine months where there are sufficient grounds to assume you experienced particularly exploitative working conditions within the meaning of Article 2 (i) of Directive 2009/52/EC.

The long-term difference is the one least often mentioned, and it is worth knowing before you choose this route. § 18c (1) AufenthG grants the settlement permit after three years, but only to holders of a permit under §§ 18a, 18b, 18d or 18g — § 19c is not in that list. This route therefore runs on the general rule in § 9 (2) AufenthG: five years of holding the residence permit, 60 months of pension contributions, sufficient German (B1, per the definition in § 2 (11) AufenthG), basic knowledge of the legal and social order, and adequate living space.

One further sentence of § 26 (2) has a long tail. Satz 5 disapplies § 9 BeschV, the provision that otherwise frees residence-permit holders from needing the agency's consent after two years of insurable employment or three years of residence. Unless your consent was granted under the version in force until the end of 2020, that shortcut is not open on this route.

How many people actually get this visa, and what are the odds?

For all six countries together, the numbers are published; for Kosovo alone, they are not. The Federal Government's answer of 4 August 2025 (Bundestag document 21/1126) reports 28,634 visas issued under § 26 (2) BeschV in 2024, with 4,568 refused, 118 withdrawn and 33,320 applications processed. Earlier years: 26,659 issued in 2022, 25,736 in 2023, and a pandemic trough of 5,188 in 2020.

The breakdown by country of origin in that same answer is classified as restricted and deposited with the parliamentary secretariat. So nobody can honestly tell you how many Kosovars received this visa last year, or what the Kosovo refusal rate is. Anyone who quotes you such a figure is not reading the source.

The Federal Government also states in that answer that average processing times are not recorded, because a case can only be decided once the documents are complete and the German authorities involved have replied. Pristina takes the same line, saying only that several weeks to months should be expected, that the time can lengthen if you previously spent a longer period in Germany, and asking applicants not to enquire about progress in the first three months.

Is the quota about to be halved?

It is planned, and it has no date. § 26 (2) Satz 3 BeschV still reads 50,000 approvals per calendar year as of today. The Federal Government confirmed to the Bundestag in August 2025 that the quota stood at 25,000 until the end of May 2024, that the coalition agreement intends to return it to that level, and that — quoted exactly — there is still no concrete schedule for the legal changes required.

For planning purposes, treat the 50,000 as the current law and the 25,000 as a risk with an unknown date. If the cut comes while Kosovo already has the longest backlog of the six countries, the queue described above gets worse rather than better — which is an argument for filing early, not for waiting to see.

Is there a faster route than the Western Balkans regulation?

For some people, yes — and it is the first thing to check, because it has no quota at all. § 6 BeschV allows consent for a qualified job on the basis of pronounced practical experience: at least two years of relevant experience gained in the last five, a state-recognised professional qualification or higher education degree from the country where you obtained it, and a salary of at least 45 percent of the contribution ceiling in the general pension insurance.

Two sentences of that provision 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 jobs in information and communication technology.

The Employment Agency itself points this way. On its Western Balkans page it notes that routes such as § 6 BeschV are not subject to a quota, that it can therefore process a pre-consent request faster when the monthly or annual quota is exhausted, and that appointments at the missions are usually about as quick as with a Western Balkans pre-consent.

So the honest recommendation is a two-step one. Check whether § 6 BeschV fits you before you join the Kosovo quota queue; if it does not, the Western Balkans route is the right one, and the only lever you genuinely control is how early in the calendar year your employer files the pre-consent. Finding an employer willing to make that binding offer and file it is the part we take on, free for you because the employer pays our fee.

Free migration counselling inside Kosovo also exists, and the embassy points to it: the APPK employment agency offers it under the project "Vorbereitet und erfolgreich nach Deutschland".