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As a blue card holder in Germany, are you allowed to work from home within Germany for a German company provided all the other requirements for blue card are met?

I am moving to Germany on a work permit and will apply for a blue card as soon as I arrive there. But after that, I plan to apply for remote work flexibility in the same company. The company should give me a new offer letter with the same compensation. And I plan to just work from my house in Germany. Will all this work out?

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  • What did your company say when you asked them?
    – Traveller
    Mar 21, 2022 at 7:57
  • They just said they allow people to work remotely but I have join and then apply for it. I can only talk to my recruiter and not someone from their immigration department yet because I am not yet an employee. The recruiter is only saying so much.
    – expat8
    Mar 21, 2022 at 8:04

3 Answers 3

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The German authorities for work permits do not care where you work exactly (assuming it's somewhere inside Germany). For some jobs, you might not even have a fixed office workplace. But a work permit is a work permit.

Especially with COVID on everybodies mind, remote work has become normal, sometimes even mandatory for periods of time as dictated by the COVID rules of the state.

Your physical workplace is mentioned in your contract, because that is where your employer can expect you to be while working. Allowing you to work somewhere else does not need a change in contract, it can be a simple policy. As long as both parties are fine with it, you can work remotely. A change in contract is only needed to guarantee you, that you can work remotely, even if your next boss doesn't like it or the company tries to change their mind.

You should have no problems with your working contract. Either you sign a new one, more likely it's simply a change in contract that both sides sign. Nothing else changes, just the physical workplace. If you sign a completely new contract, you may need to notify the "Amt", but that is just buerocracy. Like I said, they don't care where you work.

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That works, that's how I work since our company announced its remote-first policy.
My wife and I moved to another city in another Bundesland that we liked. After some time, the Ausländerbehörde (migration office) sent me a letter asking why I work in Munich but live in Mannheim and what is the reason. After a phone call I learned I need a Home-Office-Bestätigung (confirmation) from my work, which I promptly got from my HR.
I don't know if it's needed in 100% of cases, but if you get such a letter, don't get scared, just ask your employer for a confirmation letter in more or less free form, like "This person working in our company as ___ since ___ is allowed to work from home in ___ (city, town, village)".

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From very recent personal experience, the answer is yes. I've just changed my employer by informing KVR. The new position meets all Blue Card criteria(salary, industry, etc.) and the company has a German entity address in my city but works fully remotely. The situation is specified in my contract clearly that I will work from my registered home address.

No problem at all for KVR and they approved my new employer, so your case should be fine.

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