Do I need a recognized university degree to get a visa to work as developer in Germany?

Question

I work as a developer in the Middle East (Lebanon). Lately, I got a job offer and a contract from a great company in Germany, but I found that my university degree is not recognized (actually its H+/-, that means: no clear statement about the university degree) so I looked into it and found that I need to apply for recognition, but the problem is, it might take about 3 months, which I don't have!.

So I am wondering if I can apply for the visa using the job contract and my unrecognized degree, or it most probably will be rejected?

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Update:

So after contacting the ZAB service in Germany, I got the recognition in 1 week! because I was applying for a Blue card. Other applications might take 3 months but for the blue card, it is one to two weeks. So make sure to mention that you are recognizing your degrees for a blue card application.

Also, you cannot apply for a blue card without a recognized degree.

I got the visa after 4 months of the application! But here in Germany, the processes are very complicated and not well organized. So I applied for a family reunion visa for my family and after 7 months, I was checking and they don't know anything about the application and no one is helping. So for me till now it is a bad experience here.

Many Thanks

Answer 1

The relevant rules can be found on the website of the Bundesargentur für Arbeit. A good general summary can be found here, but the specific rules are here. (The second link is more likely to suffer link rot in future.)

There are a number of different grounds for being granted a visa. The two most relevant ones are:

• Foreigners that practise a shortage occupation and whose salary is at least 52 per cent of the annual contribution assessment ceiling for the statutory pension fund 2020 = 43,056 Euro
• Foreigners with a recognised foreign university degree or one that is comparable to a German university degree

Unfortunately your degree has not been recognized or declared comparable to a German university degree. (According to this answer the degree has to be recognized by ZAB - although that was in the context of Blue Card rather than direct German visa.)

The current list of shortage occupations lists "software developer" at the "specialist" level. "Specialist" level means:

Specialist - is assigned to occupations that require special knowledge and special skills, which usually require a master or technician training or an equivalent technical college or university degree.

Note that they do not say that it has to be a recognized degree, just that your employer was looking for a graduate rather than a school leaver.

Conclusion:

I believe you can obtain a German work visa even though your specific degree has not been recognized. The fact that your position is for a software developer where a degree is required should be enough. Your salary also needs to be at least 40,000€ (precise figure above).

I would recommend

1. Apply for visa
2. Apply for your degree to be recognized
3. When that has happened, you can apply for a Blue Card