It is said that 400,000 people would have to come to Germany every year to keep the number of employed people constant. The procedures have so far been a hindrance. The Greens want to simplify things further.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock draws a positive interim conclusion from the action plan for faster visa procedures for foreign skilled workers. At the German embassy in New Delhi, India, the waiting time for a national visa has now been reduced to two weeks.
“It used to be nine months,” said the Green politician at a labor and skilled workers’ congress of the Green parliamentary group in Berlin. The progress was achieved because the procedures were digitized and centralized. The goal is to implement the digitization of the entire visa process by the end of the legislative period next year.
The Federal Office for Foreign Affairs (BfAA) in the city of Brandenburg, which supports foreign missions in processing applications, is “already the largest visa office for national visas in the world,” said Baerbock. Given that 400,000 people would have to come to Germany each year to keep the number of employed people in Germany constant, forecasts assume that the number of national visas would have to increase by around 63 percent.
Baerbock: Investments important for business location
Against the backdrop of the difficult negotiations for the 2025 budget with high savings demands from Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) on her department, Baerbock said that visa processing must be able to continue. That is why investments and IT and personnel resources are such an important task not only for the Foreign Office, but also for Germany as a business location.
“Pact for a welcoming culture”
Green Party parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge proposes a “social pact for a welcoming culture”. “Companies, employees and politicians should conclude this pact together and promote it,” she told the German Press Agency on the sidelines of the conference.
“To achieve this, we want to further simplify the hurdles and access to the German labor market. And we are promoting a political debate that avoids stirring up prejudices,” she added. We must work together to ensure that foreign workers feel comfortable and safe in Germany.
Source: Stern
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