Germany's opportunity card and how its points system works

The opportunity card under section 20a of the German Residence Act is a residence permit for finding work or completing recognition measures. An applicant who is not already a recognised skilled worker needs six points from the catalogue in section 20b. The holder may work 20 hours a week on average.

For employers this is an unfamiliar construction. The card arrives without an employment contract, without Federal Employment Agency approval and without a job offer. The candidate enters on their own account and searches inside Germany. The company enters the picture only when the search turns into employment, and that seam is where the mistakes sit.

The entry threshold and the points catalogue

Section 20a first requires three things regardless of points: secured means of subsistence, one of three recognised forms of qualification, and language ability. The qualification may be a state recognised foreign vocational qualification with at least two years of training, a state recognised foreign university degree, or a qualification issued by a German chamber of commerce abroad. On language, basic German or English at level B2 is enough.

An applicant already recognised as a skilled worker receives the card without a points assessment. Everyone else is scored against the annex to the Residence Act. The minimum is six points.

The language scores exclude one another. Three points for good German rule out a further two for adequate German. The same applies to experience: five years score three, two years score two, and the two are not added. An electrician from Nepal with seven years of practice, English at C1, aged 33 and holding a partial recognition decision reaches ten points and clears the bar comfortably. A 42 year old applicant with no recognition decision and no German often stops at four points despite a long record on site.

One year to search, two years to follow

The search card is issued for a maximum of one year. A follow-up card of up to two years is then possible, and this is the first point at which the Federal Employment Agency appears: the extension requires an employment contract and the agency's approval. The Act provides for no further extension. Within three years at the latest the holder must have moved to a regular residence title, normally under section 18a or section 18g.

During the search phase work is limited to 20 hours a week on average, plus trial jobs of up to two weeks each that must be qualified, directed at training, or suitable for a recognition measure. The statutory minimum wage applies here as everywhere: 13.90 euro gross per hour from 1 January 2026 and 14.60 euro from 1 January 2027, as German customs states for the Minimum Wage Act. Twenty hours a week at 13.90 euro comes to roughly 1,200 euro gross a month, which rarely covers subsistence on its own, and that is why the search phase in practice runs shorter than the year printed on the card.

What the company actually has to check

For an employer the opportunity card is not a hiring route but a candidate status. Three points decide the hire.

The first is remaining validity. A card with four months left does not carry a six month induction. The move to a work title must be filed before the card expires, and the Employment Agency's approval for the follow-up card is not automatic.

The second is recognition. Four of the twelve points come from the criterion that a recognition body has found adaptation measures to be necessary. That describes a partial recognition, not full equivalence. The route from there to skilled worker status under section 18a runs through the Professional Qualifications Assessment Act with its three month decision period from a complete file, set out in foreign qualification recognition in Germany.

The third is the 20 hour limit. It is an average rather than a weekly cap, and it holds even when the plant urgently needs more hours. Exceeding it is employment without the required authorisation and falls under the penalty provisions, which reach 500,000 euro for the employer.

For trades hiring the opportunity card stays a side route. The main route runs through the permit chain described in the German permit chain an employer owns, and for graduate profiles through the EU Blue Card and its 2026 salary thresholds. The card earns its place where a company wants to meet candidates inside Germany and try them on site before paying for a recognition file. Which documents should be settled before entry is set out on our employers page.