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Sri Lankans in Germany
Questions, timelines and warnings from people going to Germany or already living there.
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Opportunity Card points: does an NVQ level 5 count as a qualification?
I have an NVQ level 5 in automobile technology from Sri Lanka plus six years of workshop experience, no degree. The Opportunity Card asks for a recognised qualification before you can even start counting points. Does a Sri Lankan NVQ 5 get recognised, and is anybody here through on a vocational qualification rather than a degree? I have looked at ANABIN and I cannot find our NVQ system listed at all, which is what worries me.
A2 or B1 German for an IT job in Berlin, honest answers please
Every recruiter tells me "English is fine in tech in Berlin". Every person who actually lives there tells me something different. I am at A2 and deciding whether to spend six more months getting to B1 before applying, or apply now. What I want to know is not whether you can do the job in English, it is whether you get shortlisted without German, and whether it changes once you are past the startup layer into larger companies.
Blocked account funded from a Sri Lankan bank, three weeks start to finish
For students, since the blocked account is the step that decides whether your visa appointment is worth attending. Opened the account online, approved in 2 days. The transfer was the slow part: our banks need an outward remittance approval and the education purpose documentation, and my branch had not done one before, so it sat for eight days before anybody touched it. Total: 21 days from opening the account to the money showing as confirmed. Start it before you have your admission letter if you can, not after. Exchange rate cost me more than every fee combined, so compare the provider rate against the bank rate rather than looking at the fee alone.
Job seeker visa to Blue Card in five months
Arrived on a six month job seeker visa with about EUR 6,000 saved and no offer. Weeks 1 to 3: Anmeldung, bank account, SIM. Do the Anmeldung first, everything else needs the certificate. Weeks 3 to 9: applications. 60 sent, 7 replies, 4 interviews. Week 11: offer, EUR 58,000, above the Blue Card threshold for my field. Week 14: appointment at the Ausländerbehörde, which was the hardest thing to book. I refreshed the portal for nine days. Week 20: Blue Card in hand. What mattered: a German-format CV with a photo, applying to Mittelstand companies rather than only startups, and having the degree recognition sorted before I flew.