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As being part of IT industry, I am currently working as Senior Software Engineer in India.

I learnt that, Germany is the biggest IT market in Europe. I am not a German language speaker.

I have a plan to apply for a job seeker visa (Germany).

I understand that German language speaking ability, is always an advantage.

But, to seek IT jobs, do we need to have German language skill?

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    Do you want to know whether there is a legal requirement to speak German for a job seeker visa or whether companies want you to speak German?
    – neo
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 8:38
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    There's no legal requirement, but It depends upon the company, their working language and the team you are assigned to. Also, if you are working remotely from India versus in the German economy. At the moment your question is too broad to qualify with a specific answer.
    – Gayot Fow
    Commented Jun 13, 2015 at 20:24
  • @GayotFow my question is, whether IT companies expect German language, mainly software development companies.
    – overexchange
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 2:56
  • Duplicate from the Workplace
    – nvoigt
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 9:28

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German is not mandatory for job seeking. You can apply for some positions in English (some job postings are even in English) and you can also get a work visa for highly skilled migrant or residence permit as a job seeker without demonstrating any knowledge of the German language.

In practice, some companies do hire English speakers but not knowing German will dramatically reduce the pool of potential employers. Unless you have some very specific skills/experience that might convince a large, internationally-active company like SAP or IBM or perhaps a startup to hire you, I don't think you would have much chance on the German job market.

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    Job seeker visa is the common term for a residence permit by § 18c AufenthG and can be granted to anyone who has a recognized university degree. You don't need a job offer for that.
    – neo
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 7:02
  • @neo That's what I alluded to in my parenthesis, but I was under the (erroneous) impression it was restricted to degrees from German university degrees.
    – Gala
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 7:53
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    Those usually stay by § 16 Abs. 4 AufenthG (which is much easier to get and provides more rights). Probably you are confusing it with that.
    – neo
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 8:09
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    @overexchange Most degrees which have been already assessed can be found in the database at anabin.kmk.org/no_cache/filter/hochschulabschluesse.html If your degree is not in the list you must try to apply for an assessment.
    – neo
    Commented Jun 14, 2015 at 14:40
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    There are a lot of job offers in Germany for IT jobs that don't require German, especially in Berlin, but from what I've heard most of them like to hire from within the EU, to avoid any working visa related overhead.
    – SztupY ♦
    Commented Jun 15, 2015 at 8:31

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