Discrimination based on nationality: Visa chances in Germany depend on the country.

From a legal perspective, Germany's skilled worker immigration policy appears more modern and flexible than ever before. The legal framework allows for considerable flexibility, the political goals are ambitious, and the Skilled Immigration Act has become clearer and more practical in many respects. However, anyone who examines the actual procedures quickly realizes that there is no genuine opening up to global recruitment of skilled workers . Immigration is reliably successful only for applicants from economically strong, Western countries such as the USA , Great Britain , or Australia . For everyone else, access to the German labor market remains not only difficult, but often virtually impossible.

Time as an “invisible wall” of visa applications

A recent study by the Migration Policy Centre highlights what we experience daily in our advisory work: waiting times for a visa appointment are heavily dependent on the wealth of the country of origin . The poorer a country, the longer its citizens have to wait – often for months, frequently without any chance of getting an appointment at all. In some countries of the Global South, waiting times of over three months are the norm, and almost half of all inquiries simply end without a result. In our legal practice, we even receive inquiries from people who have been waiting for an appointment for several years . Meanwhile, appointments in Western industrialized nations are available within a few days. This is not a coincidence, but a global pattern that has long since had a structural impact on immigration practices.

Waiting times as a migration policy control instrument

Germany regularly emphasizes its urgent need for skilled workers and its need to hold its own in the global competition for talent. However, in reality, the system primarily utilizes existing resources where the administrative burden aligns with political objectives . Those coming from the USA or Australia have a far greater chance of completing a visa application within a realistic timeframe.

In legal practice, we see this particularly clearly in tech, IT, and academic professions: Companies predominantly recruit in countries whose citizens can enter without significant difficulty (so-called " best-friend" countries ) or where appointments are practically immediately available. The actual target regions from which Germany needs skilled workers in light of demographic change—Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and parts of Latin America—are systematically ignored.

A structural problem that goes unnamed.

Lawmakers talk a lot about digitalization, acceleration, and modernization – but hardly about the unequal starting conditions in the appointment system . For applicants from countries with long waiting times, this means stagnation: employment contracts expire, university semesters pass, and life plans fall apart. But employers, too , are increasingly facing a frustrating problem: the legally provided options are of little help when precisely those target groups from which they want to recruit can't get an appointment for months. So while politicians talk about attracting talent from all over the world, practice paints a different picture: Germany primarily attracts those who already enjoy privileged mobility.

Conclusion: Skilled worker immigration remains a privilege

The study clearly shows that Germany lags behind in international comparison. While countries like the USA transparently publish the length of appointments and procedures at each individual location, the German system remains largely opaque. From a legal perspective, it is clear: Skilled immigration in Germany is not an open door, but a selective filter. It works well for applicants from wealthy countries – and poorly for precisely those regions from which Germany, given its labor shortage, should actually be recruiting. Anyone who wants to attract genuine global talent must dismantle the structural inequalities at the border – and begin to make immigration possible not only legally, but also practically.