Work visa: Do salary limits also apply to employees covered by collective bargaining agreements?

Germany is rapidly modernizing its immigration laws to remain an attractive business location for international talent. The German labor market offers excellent prospects for highly qualified academics, expats, and young professionals from countries like the USA , Great Britain , and Canada. However, those who take the plunge, or whose HR departments recruit international specialists , quickly encounter a complex web of minimum salary limits and bureaucratic requirements.

Since the far-reaching reforms, things have become particularly interesting when a company is bound by a collective bargaining agreement. The fundamental question arises: Does the collective agreement override the strict salary limits under immigration law? We examine the legal practice and show what employers and foreign skilled workers urgently need to pay attention to now.

When does labor migration law give preferential treatment to collective bargaining agreements?

Since the legal amendments, employers bound by collective bargaining agreements are privileged in three key areas of German labor migration law. The legislator's aim is to protect employees from unfair working conditions while simultaneously creating incentives to increase the number of companies bound by collective bargaining agreements.

Firstly, this concerns the employment of skilled workers with extensive practical experience . According to Section 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Number 2 of the Employment Ordinance (BeschV), a strict minimum wage actually applies here (currently €3,802.50 gross per month). However, if the employer is bound by a collective agreement and pays according to that agreement, the collective agreement allows for wages below the minimum wage under labor migration law .

Secondly, short-term, quota-based employment pursuant to Section 15d of the Employment Ordinance (BeschV) is a relevant area. Here, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) may only approve employment if the employer is bound by a collective bargaining agreement and pays according to that agreement – the lack of such an agreement thus acts as an absolute exclusion criterion.

Thirdly, the preferential treatment under the recognition partnership pursuant to Section 16d Paragraph 3 of the Residence Act applies . Here, the accompanying employment in a regulated profession does not need to be qualified employment within the meaning of Section 2 Paragraph 12b of the Residence Act, provided the employer is bound by a collective bargaining agreement and pays the collectively agreed wage. The statutory obligation to adhere to a collective bargaining agreement significantly reduces the requirements regarding the type of employment in this case.

How does the Federal Employment Agency react in practice to deviations from collective bargaining agreements?

Although the legal regulations are clear, our experience shows that their implementation by the authorities often presents a hurdle. When an employer bound by a collective bargaining agreement hires a foreign skilled worker and the agreed salary falls below the otherwise applicable minimum salary thresholds under immigration law, this regularly causes confusion among the case workers at the Federal Employment Agency.

In practice, despite clear legal privileges in the official review process, delays, inquiries, or even incorrect decisions increasingly occur because government employees are rigidly fixated on fixed salary limits. They often overlook the fact that the collective bargaining agreement is legally permitted to fall below the immigration law limit. As a specialized law firm, we experience this daily: However, such misunderstandings can be quickly and legally resolved through sound legal counsel and a thorough review of the case with the immigration authorities .

Why do translations of job titles lead to salary risks?

Particularly with immigration from the USA , Canada, or Great Britain , we encounter a specific, very insidious problem in HR practice. Western professionals are often accustomed to high, above-scale salaries, which is why minimum salary thresholds are rarely undercut at first glance. However, the devil is in the details of the job classification.

In practice, it frequently occurs that inaccurate translations of English job titles in employment contracts or job descriptions lead to authorities setting significantly higher salary limits. A classic source of error is the authorities confusing or incorrectly equating "junior" and "senior" positions when classifying them according to the collective bargaining agreement or when comparing them to regional rent and wage levels. If the salary structure then does not precisely match the authorities' interpretation of the job description, a visa refusal is likely . Employers should therefore have the wording of employment contracts thoroughly reviewed by a lawyer before submitting them.

What options remain if there is no collective bargaining agreement?

The reality of the German labor market reveals a significant discrepancy with the legislator's intentions: According to the BMAS (Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs) collective bargaining register , less than 50 percent of companies in Germany are bound by collective agreements – placing Germany at the bottom of the rankings in Western Europe. So what happens when a company wants to hire international talent based on professional experience or a recognition partnership, but no collective agreement exists? In these cases, the aforementioned privileges do not apply, and the rigid salary limits must be strictly adhered to. If a company is not bound by a collective agreement and the salary limits cannot be met, alternative immigration pathways must be strategically chosen from the outset. Fortunately, German immigration law offers a variety of options, such as the traditional route via the EU Blue Card (provided the applicant holds a recognized university degree) or specific qualifications for skilled workers with vocational training. In such cases, we analyze the applicant's qualification matrix in advance to identify the safest and fastest visa route outside of the collective bargaining privileges.

Conclusion

The preferential treatment for employers bound by collective bargaining agreements under labor migration law, introduced in March 2024 (as in Sections 6 and 15d of the Employment Ordinance and Section 16d of the Residence Act), is legally very interesting, but often leads to misunderstandings in administrative practice. While collective bargaining agreements allow for salary reductions, applications without precise preparation often fail due to rigid bureaucratic scrutiny or translation errors in job titles. Companies not bound by collective bargaining agreements must also consider alternative visa options early on. Strategic support effectively protects against lengthy delays in this process.