What are the ICT visa requirements?

ICT stands for Intra-Company-Transfer and describes a visa and work Permit for employees, who are supposed to be posted within an international company group.

The ICT visa requirements are defined in § 19 b AufenthG.  An ICT visa application requires the approval by the German labour authorities.

To qualify for an ICT permit, the following requirements need to be fulfilled:

From a general or company perspective:

• Existence of a company group containing of both, a foreign and a Germany company entity
• Documents showing that the foreign company (employer in home country) and the German company are belonging to the same company group (min. 50 % shareholdership in one hand);
• The foreign company entity to be and to remain the employer of the assignee
• the employee to be posted by the foreign company entity to the German company entity (and not to a third party or customer)

Form a personal / individual perspective, the employee must

• be foreseen to be posted to Germany by the foreign company group entity to Germany (instead of receiving an employment contract with the German company entity)
• have been pre-employed with the foreign company for a minimum period of at least 6 months,
• be forseen to work
• in a leading position,
• as a company specialist or

• as a trainee;

• be offered the same working conditions as equivalent employees who are directly employed with the German company entity,

• be obliged to return to his work place in his home country after the German project has been completed and
• must not be intending to stay in Germany for more than