Because many of these posts are a work in progress, I’ve created a German Freelance Visa Facebook group to help answer any individual questions as they arise. Please feel free to ask your questions there or in the comments below, and if you’ve successfully received your visa, please pass your knowledge along by helping to answer questions as well. Thanks and please join here!
Before worrying about all the things you need to do, research, etc. let’s start with the most important: booking an appointment. I’m really not kidding when I say this: go book your appointment right now. Don’t even finish reading this whole series.
When I first booked my appointment at the end of February, there was nothing available until the end of June. That’s four months out. Writing this at the end of May, there isn’t anything until the beginning of September… It won’t take you four months to get everything together so before proceeding any further, get your appointment on the books. You don’t even need to be in Germany yet to schedule it. If you do find yourself with an appointment too far out, book what you can and set a daily reminder to check for cancellations. I did this and ended up getting an appointment at the beginning of May, just days before my tourist visa ran out.
Appointment Booking
Luckily, Germany has provided the booking website in English, so this just got a bit less painful! The top of the page is very detailed and maybe a bit overwhelming, but it just outlines the requirements for the visa. All the way at the bottom of the page, you’ll find “Make an Appointment”
From there, you’ll be taken to the German version of the next page. Don’t fret, just click the British Flag/”English” at the top to switch back to English. Assuming this is your initial appointment, you’ll want to choose the first, “Book an Appointment” button. We’ll talk about updating your appointment or checking for earlier availability later (TODO: anchor link).
On the next page, you’ll be asked to input a few details, qualifying you for the visa, namely your citizenship and if you have any family connections that might qualify you for different visa types. As you select these values, new questions will pop up based on your answers. The next question to appear will be “Request,” meaning which visa are you applying for. Assuming you don’t have family connections in the EU (because if you do, it’s probably a whole lot easier than the Freelancer Visa anyway…), you’ll be presented with a very long list of options. You’ll want to pick “Residence for freelancers and self-employed persons – initial issuance (section 21)” (if you already have the visa and you’re going for an extension, pick “Residence for freelancers and self-employed persons – extension (section 21)”). The last option that pops up will be “Department”, which at the time of writing this there’s only one option anyway, so just pick that. And at the bottom of the page, make sure you click the acknowledgment checkbox before hitting next.
The next screen will be personal information (name, birthday, etc.), which I think you guys got!
Now for the fun part: picking a date! The next screen will be a calendar view of the current month. Go ahead and click “next month” until you find one with dates available. These will be highlighted in blue with a clickable date. Now be prepared, this will most likely be a few months out. It’s currently the end of May and the first available date I found was the beginning of September. Just pick the earliest date that works for you and we’ll talk about updating the appointment soon. When you click on one of the available dates, checkboxes for available times will appear at the bottom of the page. Pick one that works and click next.
The last page will essentially be a confirmation of your inputs/selections, so just double check that everything looks good and click “Book Appointment”! From there, you’ll get a confirmation email with your appointment details and a “waiting”/case number. This number will be displayed on the screen at your appointment with a room assignment and should also be used to update or cancel your appointment if you need to change it. Speaking of which…
Looking for a Closer Appointment
Assuming you got an appointment date you’re not thrilled with, you do have the opportunity to change it. My recommendation if you need/want an earlier appointment is to set a daily reminder, preferably in the morning, to check for availability. Cancellations will happen, so hopefully, you can snag one of them.
To change your appointment, we’re going to start all the way back at the beginning. Navigate to the appointment website and proceed as before, however this time you’re going to select “Change an Appointment.”
On the first page, you’re going to input your personal information and the case number you received in the confirmation email.
From there, you’ll be taken to the same date selection page as before. Browse through the months to see if you can find an earlier date. Be prepared though, more often than not, you won’t find anything better, but you only need it to happen once. If you do find a better option, go ahead and click on it to pick your time and confirm. You’ll receive another confirmation email with the updated information. Your case number may stay the same but just make sure you know what this number is the day of your appointment since you’ll need it to figure out what room your appointment will be in.
How far out is your appointment?
Did you get something two day or two years from now? Comment below or join our Facebook Group so we can help those stressing out over this moving forward!
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