Working remote while waiting for a visa?

Question

I'm a Canadian who has accepted an offer in Germany. My visa is being processed, but if the visa is processed after the start date I'm unsure what I can do.

Would I be able to work remotely for them while physically outside of Europe, or is this against the rules? I haven't found anything very clear on this topic.

Alternatively, in the past I have invoiced US customers for consulting from my Canadian corporation. Would I be able to do something similar to that in for DE? Perhaps I may need to register for business taxes there also, but I suspect it may be possible?

Answer 1

You cannot work as an employee for them, if you don't have a working permit, which is included in your visa. Simply put you won't have a German tax-id and they need that to set up all the paperwork. Doing it without would be illegal on their part.

In theory, if you can legally invoice customers in Canada (paying taxes in Canada etc), the German company might just accept your Canadian invoices.

In practice, setting that up on their part will most likely be too much of a mess for the German company. They won't do it for just a few weeks. Keep them informed about the status of your visa application, so they know what is happening. Ask them to postpone your start date to the day you are actually able to start.

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Just a little context info: German working contracts have long notice periods. Nobody expects you to start tomorrow at a German company. Only unemployed people or expensive consultants could do that. A notice period of 3 months is not unlikely, 6 weeks is the minimum. Waiting for a visa for a few weeks compared to German notice periods is peanuts.