Is this role a shortage occupation in Germany?

A shortage occupation is one the Bundesagentur für Arbeit has identified as having too few qualified workers. It publishes the list once a year in its Fachkräfteengpassanalyse, scoring every occupation against six labour-market indicators. The 2025 list covers occupations across nursing and medicine, construction and skilled trades, IT and engineering, transport, catering, and childcare.

Less than many expect. Skilled workers under §18a and §18b AufenthG are approved without a priority check (§39(2) AufenthG), so shortage status is not what the approval turns on. The reduced EU Blue Card threshold and the Chancenkarte point for an occupation in demand follow a separate list of ISCO groups in §18g(1) AufenthG, not the Bundesagentur für Arbeit's shortage analysis (§20b(1) No. 8 AufenthG). Shortage status does not determine which visa a candidate gets, what salary is required, or whether an application succeeds — the qualification, its recognition in Germany, and the salary matter more.

Not automatically, and the two are governed separately. The EU Blue Card's reduced threshold of €45,934.20 for 2026 (against €50,700 standard) is set by §18g AufenthG for occupations in ISCO groups 132–134, 21, 221, 222, 225, 226, 23 and 25, for graduates whose degree is no more than three years old, and for IT specialists without a degree who have three years of relevant experience in the last seven. It needs the Federal Employment Agency's approval. Whether it applies in a given case is assessed by the authorities, not read off the shortage list.

In principle yes — the EU Blue Card is not restricted to a fixed list of occupations. What it requires is a university degree that is recognised in Germany or comparable to a German degree (or, for IT specialists, at least three years of relevant professional experience within the last seven years instead), a job appropriate to the qualification, and a salary meeting the applicable threshold. If one of these is missing, the Blue Card is not the route, but a skilled worker permit under §18a or §18b AufenthG may still be. Those have no general salary floor, although pay must match comparable employees, and for a first permit at 45 or older §18(2) No. 5 AufenthG requires €55,770 (2026) or adequate pension provision.

No. The EU Blue Card is one route among several, not the whole system. Skilled worker permits under §18a (vocational qualification) and §18b (academic qualification) have no general salary floor (for a first permit at 45 or older, §18(2) No. 5 AufenthG requires €55,770 (2026) or adequate pension provision), and other routes exist including the Chancenkarte and the Recognition Partnership under §16d. relokate assesses which route fits a given hire and files it.

Not by itself. A foreign degree has to be recognised in Germany or comparable to a German degree, which usually means the anabin database shows the degree as comparable or a ZAB statement of comparability; a vocational qualification needs an equivalence decision, and regulated professions need a formal recognition process before the person may work in the role at all. relokate coordinates recognition with the responsible authority in all 16 federal states alongside the visa application.

A non-match is common and rarely the end of the hire, because job titles vary between employers and the official list uses generic occupational descriptions. What counts is the work actually described in the employment contract, not the internal title. The Agentur für Arbeit publishes the list; in an actual application, the authorities assess the role itself, for example whether it falls into an ISCO group that gets the reduced Blue Card threshold, in which case the Agentur für Arbeit must approve the employment. No tool can make that determination in advance, so this page reproduces the published list for planning. relokate reviews the role, identifies which permit routes are open for that hire, and prepares and files the application.

relokate is a full-service visa and relocation provider for employers in Germany and takes over every step of hiring from abroad, whether or not the role is on the shortage list. Its immigration specialists work out the route for each hire (EU Blue Card, §18a/§18b skilled-worker permit, §19c(2) experience route, §16d Recognition Partnership or a switch from the Chancenkarte), coordinate recognition, prepare the documents, use the fast-track procedure (§81a AufenthG) where it helps and file with the responsible immigration office, any of the more than 500 in Germany. They follow up with the authorities and then handle family reunification, Anmeldung, health insurance, bank account, long-term housing through local consultants, job search coaching for the partner, pets and compliance tracking, while HR follows each case in the dashboard. Pricing: cases from €950 plus an annual software & compliance subscription.