Federal Employment Agency approval in Germany: the priority check and the employer's answers

The Federal Employment Agency approves a residence title for employment under section 39 of the Residence Act when the working conditions are no less favourable than those of comparable domestic employees. A priority check applies only where the Employment Regulation orders one. The employer does not file the application; the employer supplies the facts.

Who obtains the approval, and who does not apply for it

The most common mistake in a German hiring file concerns who does what. The approval of the Federal Employment Agency is not an application an employer submits. It is obtained before entry, in an internal electronic procedure between the German mission abroad or the local immigration office and the agency, as the Make it in Germany portal describes it in 2026. In that procedure the employer appears as the source of information, not as the applicant.

In practice the worker applies at the German mission abroad for the employment visa, the mission passes the file on, the immigration office involves the Federal Employment Agency, and the agency examines it. Only then is the visa issued. An employer waiting for its own acknowledgement letter from the agency is waiting for a document that normally does not arrive.

The examination itself has two parts under section 39 paragraph 2 of the Residence Act. The first is the comparison of working conditions. Approval may be granted only if the foreign worker is not employed on less favourable terms than comparable domestic employees. Pay, working time, leave and the remaining terms of that specific contract are compared, not an abstract industry average. The second part is the priority check, and it bites less often than most HR departments assume.

When the priority check actually happens

Section 39 paragraph 3 of the Residence Act makes the priority check conditional: it takes place only where the Employment Regulation orders it for that category of employment. For skilled workers with recognised vocational training under section 18a, and for skilled workers with an academic qualification under section 18b, it is regularly waived. For the Western Balkans Regulation it is suspended, according to the Make it in Germany portal in 2026.

Where it does apply, the agency examines whether priority workers are available for that specific post, meaning German nationals, EU citizens and persons treated as equivalent. That examination needs time and a reported vacancy, so the question of whether it applies at all shapes the hiring timeline more than anything else in the file.

The routes that avoid the check are set out in more detail in the Western Balkans Regulation, and for graduate roles the EU Blue Card and its salary thresholds is the route with the fewest labour market steps in between.

The duty to answer: one month, and what is asked

Section 39 paragraph 4 of the Residence Act obliges the employer to give the Federal Employment Agency information within one month of being asked. The questions cover pay, working time, social insurance and the other working conditions. That deadline is the only hard date the employer controls in the approval procedure. Letting it lapse delays the file and leaves the agency without evidence for the comparison under paragraph 2.

The answers should therefore exist before the visa application and should match the contract: gross pay and how it is paid, weekly working time, leave days, social insurance details, allowances, and the applicable collective agreement where the company is bound by one. Divergence between the job description, the contract and the answer is the most frequent cause of follow up questions.

The agency charges nothing for the approval itself. The costs sit elsewhere: the national employment visa costs 75 euros under the Federal Foreign Office fee schedule, and the fast track skilled worker procedure under section 81a of the Residence Act costs a further 411 euros. How that procedure shortens the agency's involvement is covered in the fast track skilled worker procedure.

Since 1 January 2026 a further duty applies. Under the Skilled Immigration Act, employers must inform international skilled workers in text form on their first working day about advisory services on labour and social rights. Text form means email or paper, evidenced, not a remark during the induction meeting.

The approval is therefore less a hurdle than a question of proof. The agency asks whether the post is the same post for a foreign worker as it is for a domestic one. An employer whose contract, job description and section 39 paragraph 4 answer say the same thing settles that question in one pass. Employer duties in the other corridors are collected on the employers page.