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!
One of the tricky parts of the Freelance Visa application isn’t even mentioned in the required documents list: 2-3 letters of intent to hire. Not interested in all the backstory? Jump to the letter itself.
Why Letters of Intent to Hire?
Despite their absence from the requirements list, these are one of the most critical pieces of your application. These are quick letters from companies/clients stating that they are interested in hiring you in the future. They are used in the application process to prove you have an “economic interest” in Germany, mainly that:
You will be able to earn money (pay taxes) in Germany
Germany wants to know that you will be able to earn an income beyond your current cash stash. Just like most countries, they’re less interested in giving visas to those that will need to rely on the country’s extensive social support system, or at least this particular visa. Beyond this though, what they really want is to add productive members to the community, meaning those that will pay (German) taxes.
Now I haven’t figured out taxes yet, but it’s fair to say that the basic idea is: you live here and make money? You pay German taxes. The impression I got from my interview though was that to guarantee you will pay German taxes rather than (in my case) American taxes, the letters should be from German companies (more on this point later).
There is a demand for your services (and therefore you) in the country
The second big reason for these letters is basically to show that you have a reason to be in Germany. In my case, I moved to Germany because my boyfriend was relocated for work (to be clear: I was totally onboard), however, that’s not a compelling reason for the German government. Similar to the first point, they want to make sure freelancers coming in will have actual work (and $$) and especially not detract from German citizens looking for the same.
This means high demand industries are looked upon more favorably. In my case, my engineering degrees came in handy here. In fact, they meet two of the “sought after occupations” listed: “innovative engineers” and “experts in technology, IT, and science”. However, if you’re not on that list, don’t freak out. As long as you can make your case with these letters, you’ll be just fine.
Letters vs Contracts vs References
Why an intent to hire rather than just a few contracts? The main reason for an “intent to hire” is because you are not allowed to work (for German companies) until you actually have the freelancer visa. Because there is a strong possibility you’ll need more than one appointment, you can’t rely on your appointment date to also be the day you can start contracts, and most clients want someone that can work now, not just some ambiguous time in the future. The intent to hire letter gets around this problem by simply stating that X company is interested in working with you, once they can.
The other advantage of this letter is the fact that it isn’t a contract, meaning a legal, binding document that obligates all parties involved. Assuming you’ll be finding very new clients, they might not be in a position to commit to hiring you before your visa appointment. However, if they are interested enough to at least continue the conversation, that’s all they really need to write in the letter (more on that later) and you can assure them that if you don’t work together in the end, there are no ramifications of doing so. However, please don’t take this to mean that you can just find people with no interest in hiring you, but are willing to write the letter. Definitely not ideal, a little sketchy, and won’t exactly be setting you up for success moving forward.
However, sometimes contracts do make the most sense. Maybe if the project is far enough in the future, it won’t be a problem. Or the project is flexible enough that they’re willing to put some kind of a TBD start date. If a prospect is more interested in a contract than writing this letter for you, there are still ways to make it work. Just be very clear/cautious of the fact that you can’t actually work until the visa is complete.
Another good option to have (generally in addition to rather than replacing letters) is reference letters from past projects. While these aren’t an indicator of future income, they may help the interviewer understand that there is a demand for your services and can’t really hurt.
Finding Projects
Obviously, the most important part to all of this is actually finding the projects themselves. This is the part where I have the least experience, so if I get anything wrong/you have something to add, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update accordingly. The reason for this is all of my letters came from a pre-existing network, both here and abroad (more on that later).
Regardless of the extent of your German network, this is the best place to start. Don’t be afraid to ask friends from back home to connect you to their German friends. Meetups and coworking spaces are also great ways to go. There are tons of WeWorks and other spaces popping up (I’ve heard a lot about Betahaus in Berlin), but I would encourage you to find the more social versions for now, even if that’s not your style in the long run. I’ve been spending some time at a WeWork in Berlin and because everyone has their own office, you don’t naturally talk to new people very often.
The short version is if you’re providing a valuable service, you should be able to find some prospects and therefore letters of intent. This will probably be the hardest part though, so start sooner than later!
German vs Non-German Companies
This is the most contentious part of this topic. I read a bunch online before my appointment and found:
- You absolutely need letters from German companies
- Letters from anywhere should be fine
- Maybe you’ll need German companies, maybe not.
I’m going to fall on the last option. I think a lot of this depends on your individual interviewer, so there’s no real way to predict what is going to happen. So play it safe: get at least one of your letters from a German company.
How will they tell it’s a German company? In my case, no joke, the address on the letter.
The Actual Letter
Ok, finally the meat of this thing! What is supposed to be in these damn letters? I searched everywhere before getting mine done and really the best “example” I found was “if you’re working with a German company, they write them all the time so they should know”. The important pieces of information to be included:
- The company name and address (letterhead is even better)
- What they’re hiring you to do (including your very specific title*)
- Why they’re hiring you to do it
- Approximately how much you’ll be paid
This is one of my actual letters (names and numbers removed). As you can see, it’s pretty simple. I included a more detailed scope just to be thorough but I can tell you the actual scope for this project has already changed (and it’s no big deal because the letter is not a contract!!). However, you may notice something glaring… it’s in English.
Translation
Even if you get lucky with an English speaking interviewer, they are still going to want the important documents in German. This includes the intent to hire letters (my interviewer didn’t even look at the English versions). If you’re working with a German company, just go ahead and ask them to write it in German to begin with. If your audience is non-German, get the letters done and signed in whatever language, and just get them translated. You don’t need to use any kind of official service, I used this translator on Fiverr (my referral code if you want to be nice 🙂 ) and got the letters and my CV turned around in a day. Some things are not easily translated (for example, my “title” of Tech & Operations Consultant) and usually those bits are fine to stay in English.
Need more? Check out the letter of intent translation PDF here.
My Experience
So here’s what actually happened to me (probably in too much detail, sorry).
I went in with two intent to hire letters (US companies) and one reference (UK company), all translated into German. My interviewer (who was fluent in English, but I got very lucky on this) was not interested in looking at the English copies of my letters, despite the lack of signature on the translated copies. She quickly noticed the addresses on my letters and pointed out none of them were German. I tried to explain that with the nature of what I do (solving “dire” internal efficiency/operations problems, my words were chosen purposefully here…), companies aren’t interested in me if they can’t hire me right away, and therefore I don’t have any German letters. She pressed on “we need evidence you will work here“, so I tried to explain further and in the conversation expressed that I was talking to some German companies, but the process was very early. She seized on this and asked if they could quickly write an email saying we were talking and they might want to work with me in the future. Shocked by the informality, I said sure, I can try to email them now and get a quick answer…
From there, she sent me out of the room to try to get one of these emails while she processed my paperwork and did whatever computer entry magic they do. 15-20 minutes of frantic emailing/texting later, my number is called again to go back into the room. At this point, I don’t have an actual email but I have someone giving me enough hope as I walk back in. My interviewer asks me if I’ve made progress and I say yes, I might get it any minute, but the person I’m talking to is in a meeting so it’s slow going. The interviewer’s response: here is your visa, just forward the email to me in the next week or so and make sure you have some/evidence of German jobs/paying taxes when you come back to renew the visa… in TWO years.
Short version: I got very lucky. Do not expect this to happen to you. Go in prepared with at least one letter from a German company and save yourself the stress. I will also say that the interviewer commented that between my background (three engineering degrees) and bank statements (~30K EUR, really whatever that is in USD), she wasn’t worried about me being a financial burden to Germany, so I expect these factors made her a bit more lenient with me.
Oh yeah, and that email? I got it forwarded before the end of the day (text: We are interested in working with <name> in the coming months as an operations consultant to improve the efficiency of our internal processes. Please let me know if you need additional information. Thank you.) and never heard back about it. My guess is it was read and discarded pretty quickly.
Conclusion
This is by far, the most intimidating part of the visa documentation. I am being pessimistic and scary and worst case scenario here so you are prepared, not defeated, so please don’t take it that way. Go in prepared, and you will be totally fine. Go in overly prepared, and you can even be a little confident. That’s the goal. I hope I covered this topic as thoroughly as possible without drowning you in irrelevant details, but let me know in the comments if there’s anything I should add/exclude/explain. And don’t forget to join the Facebook Group! Good luck!
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Notes:
*Will be in a future post but for now: consistency in your title is key, you don’t want to confuse the interviewer as to what it is you do. This title will be included on your visa and you cannot work on anything outside of that. If you’re a freelance copywriter, you can only do copywriting. Make it very clear what you’re applying for and keep that title absolutely consistent everywhere: CV, letters, application, etc. Mine was “Tech & Operations Consultant” (sorry) and was even written in English on the visa itself, probably because it’s so weird. If you don’t have to have a weird title (what I do falls in the middle of anything with a clear-cut title), don’t have a weird title.
