18-month job-seeking permit, EU Blue Card and settlement

Bangladeshi applicants are not required to obtain an APS certificate — that requirement applies specifically to applicants from India, China and Vietnam. The Dhaka embassy instead verifies your academic and financial documents directly and may interview you on them.

1. 1

   140 full days or 280 half days a year

   Students on §16b may work up to 140 full days or 280 half days per year in any job — this limit was raised under the 2024 Skilled Immigration Act. Working beyond it without permission risks your residence status.

2. 2

   Unlimited hours as a Werkstudent/HiWi

   Work as a registered student assistant (HiWi) or Werkstudent tied to your field of study does not count against the day limit in the same restrictive way and is the single most valuable thing you can do for your later Blue Card application — it builds the exact professional network and reference an employer later sponsors.

3. 3

   Blocked account funding must be verifiable

   Financial proof is normally a blocked account (Sperrkonto) via Expatrio, Fintiba, Coracle or Deutsche Bank. From 1 September 2025 the required amount is €11,904/year (€992/month released monthly, ≈৳16.9 lakh/year) — this figure is revised roughly annually, so verify the current amount on the Federal Foreign Office/DAAD site before transferring, and make sure the funding source is traceable to documented family income.

This 18 months is a hard deadline. Use it deliberately: prioritise converting an existing Werkstudent relationship into a full-time offer, since an employer who already knows your work is far more likely to sponsor you than a cold application. If your German is still below B1, this window is also your last realistic chance to close that gap before it starts limiting which roles you can credibly interview for outside pure software and research positions.

For most Bangladeshi graduates in engineering, IT, natural sciences or medicine, the shortage-occupation Blue Card threshold (≈€43,760, verify current figure) is the realistic target — many entry-level engineering and IT graduate salaries in Germany already clear it. Always confirm your occupation's current shortage-list status and the exact indexed threshold with the Bundesagentur für Arbeit before assuming eligibility.

1. 1

   21 months on the Blue Card with B1 German

   Blue Card holders who can demonstrate B1 German and 21 months of qualifying employment and pension contributions can apply for the settlement permit.

2. 2

   27 months on the Blue Card with only A1 German

   Without B1, the same settlement permit is still reachable, just after a longer 27-month wait — still notably faster than the general skilled-worker route.

3. 3

   The Chancenkarte as an alternative entry route

   The Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card), a points-based residence permit introduced in June 2024, lets qualified people come to Germany to job-search without a prior offer — a real alternative worth knowing about even if most students reading this will arrive via the student route instead.

As of the current law, applicants with especially strong integration (German at C1, strong employment history, community involvement) may qualify for naturalisation after 3 years instead of 5 — but this 3-year fast track has faced repeal proposals, so do not build a plan around it without checking its current legal status. Germany also generally now permits dual citizenship as part of the same 2024 reform, which is a meaningful change from the older rule that typically required renouncing Bangladeshi citizenship — verify Bangladesh's own rules on retaining citizenship in parallel.