German Artist Visa

Today I secured my first one year artist visa residence permit for Germany here in Berlin. And in true, open-source spirit, I thought I would document the process. In general, the process was much easier than I expected, however you’ll have to have a few things lined up before you start…

* Application Form: download from http://www.berlin.de/formularserver/formular.php?72301

* Passport: unless you’ve been living in another EU country with a valid permit there (as I had), your passport should show a stamp of your recent entry date into Germany. Oh, and it should have two free adjacent pages, and shouldn’t run out before one year unless you want to have to go back and pay another EUR 10 get a replacement visa (like I will next May).

* 50 Euro: in cash. Their machine doesn’t take EC cards.

* Rent Contract + Anmeldungbestaetigung (address registration): you will need the Anmeldungbestaetigung for many other things like getting a bank account or even a video rental card, see here. (Legally you need one of these within the first 7 days at any new address anyways.) The Auslanderamt will see if you are in their system or not depending on if you registered for this. And they will figure out your minimum monthly income over the coming year by comparing your income + rent to the amount of money that a German citizen on Hartz IV (unemployment benefits/welfare) would be entitled to (EUR 345 + rent, as of 2009).

* 2 Pass Fotos: actually they only took one of mine.

* Artist Materials (CV + documentation): the thing they looked at the most here was my CV, although I brought several German-language catalogs from different projects I’ve done here and in Austria, which they didn’t even touch. But bring them anyways just in case.

* Letters of Reference: my impression is that these are quite important, so get some VIPs to write that they’ve known you for a long time (since…), that they are familiar with your work (such as project X, Y, Z…), that you’ve worked together on such and such a thing, and that you plan to work together in the future on some other things. Phrases like “…will make a positive contribution to the Berlin cultural scene…” can’t hurt either. I brought 5 of these puppies…

* Statement on Berlin Plans: also apparently important, as my caseworker spent the most time with this, my CV, my letters of reference and my bank statements. Promise the moon here (vaguely of course), but especially try to tie in every single person who wrote you a letter of reference, even if they made no explicit promises in their letter. Don’t indicate that they promised you anything more than what they wrote on paper, of course, but anything short of that…

* Proof of Income: current balance plus previous month’s bank statement, hopefully showing that a reasonable amount of money is coming in (See Rent Contract, above…). Apparently they’d also like to see a couple grand in there to tide you over if you don’t get any work right away. Since you will be applying as a “free artist”, showing them an employment contract will get you reclassified to another kind of non-artist visa, which could be more difficult to obtain. However, any unpaid invoices or letters of invitation with fees mentioned can help give the impression of financial “stability”.

* Proof of Health Insurance: here is the Catch 22–to stay in Germany, you need health insurance. But to get German health insurance, you need permission to stay in the country. No, unlike in years past, travel health insurance from your home country doesn’t cut it. When they say “health insurance”, they mean private German health insurance. The cheapest monthly policies I could locate started at about EUR 150 a month and went up and up and up. But at that rate, you are still liable for the first EUR 1000 in damages you might get inflicted on yourself, and every trip to the doctor for whatever reason still costs cash money up front. And don’t ask what happens if you happen to smash all your teeth out riding home drunk one night on your bike…dental coverage for this kind of all too common accident is an extra premium. But here’s the good news: for some reason they trust that you will get the insurance after you get the visa. So go get a quote from some private insurance provider, any one will do, and bring it to your meeting. Then, once you get the visa, apply to the KSK for special “artists health insurance” at half the price.

See also this page, but keep in mind they’re talking about visas for the regular working stiffs, not weirdo art nomad folks like us. Also, take note that German law has recently changed and international travel insurance DOES NOT COUNT! No matter what the people from the insurance companies tell you, the Ausländeramt will insist that you are covered by the same kind of insurance that all other Germans are covered by.

Once you’ve got all this, call up the Ausländerbehörde (030) 90269 0 and explain that you want to apply for an Artist Visa. (EDIT: you can and should book you appointment online at their website now!) I do not recommend going without one, as the entryway of this place was a zoo when I went, and you could probably wait all day there…

Homepage of the Ausländerbehörde

Appointment booking in English, German, Turkish and Russian

If you’ve played your cards right, they will give you a shiny new one year Artist Visa and instructions to get a tax number (since you are a freelancer), health insurance and a certain amount of money each month (based on the rent you showed them). They will check all this again in one year if you want to renew, and may tell you (as they did a good friend of mine) to get married, become a student or get the hell out of Deutschland if you can’t sort all this stuff out by then. No, they don’t require you to take German lessons, at least not in the first year, although they might recommend it.

Of course, what this requires still is a reasonably professional-looking CV and some established contacts in the arts scene here already. And keep in mind that you will not be able to get normal employment with your first visa, you *must* be a self-employed artist. Normal working permission could, however, come with the second visa (as it did for me). In short, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to hobby painters or street buskers… Berlin has too many cross-walk jugglers as it is!

Acknowledgments: this cheatsheet and the visa which generated it would not have been possible without the generous assistance of Carsten Stabenow, Gesine Pagels, Carsten Seiffath, Jan Rolf, Stephen Kovats, Andreas Broeckman and Brandon LaBelle. Thanks y’all!

This page is one of the most visited pages on my website, however I have no idea who reads it and if it does them any good. If this information has helped you, or if you find out something different than what I have written, please leave a comment/reply!

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5 Responses to “German Artist Visa”

  1. Sassy Says:

    Thanks! Are you still in Germany? Can’t tell from your home page :-)

    If so, how’s it going? Have you been reapplying for the Artist visa?

    Curious about the long term process to citizenship.

    Thanks!

  2. yeah Says:

    Thanks for all this, the straight forwardness of it all is encouraging.
    I’ve set up everything on my side the same way now, out of STRONG curiosity, I know that its very recommendable to FIRST go just to get an appointment, since the chances of waiting for hours…..
    But I have no qualms about being the first person in line and waiting. My tourist visa is expiring 2 weeks!!! Aside from this being my problem, I want to take my chances! I NEED to! But is ¨getting an appointment¨really just a matter of going-there-first-to-JUST-get-a-list-of-things-they-require?
    If so, could I just show up 2 hours before opening and say I’ve everything and just need a number to see someone…?? I’m dealing with the Berlin office…
    EITHERWAY. Thanks so much for taking your time and sharing with us all out here ; )

  3. Saxton Says:

    This is awesome mate, thanks so much for your links and detail. I feel confident that if I head with all this I can get the VISA.
    Cheers
    S

  4. Scott Says:

    Thanks man, this definitely helped out a lot!

  5. Susanne Says:

    hey this and asking friends and some other blogs helped A LOT. somehow it was so so easy for me, but i tried to have as much in order as possible before i went. having a lot of money in your bank account and recommendation letters in GERMAN really really help. prebooking an appointment also totally worth it. i went with just an estimate for health insurance and it worked enough to get the visa. this visa is tricky you can only do “artistic” work … and you have to prove you’re making enough money to sustain yourself … but at least now i won’t get kicked out. thanks for writing this!