A person who finds themselves in an unusual situation, or who receives some completely unexpected news, often ends up feeling disoriented, and needs a more or less lengthy period of time (depending on how serious the matter is) to come up with a new plan of action. Some people, however, manage to act quickly and decisively even under stress, almost regardless of the circumstances. This is not just a matter of being able to control one's emotions, which can often play a nasty trick on us at the worst possible moment, but also a matter of knowing how to apply one's experience and knowledge to a specific situation at the right time — in other words, resourcefulness. Resourcefulness plays a particularly important role in legal practice, since a lawyer, upon encountering new facts or circumstances working against the client, generally has to work out the further course of action in the shortest possible time.
Vsevolod (name changed), the director of the German branch of one of the largest industrial enterprises in the Russian Federation, became a client of our law firm. As a qualified specialist, Vsevolod had obtained a temporary residence permit in Germany with the right to work under the so-called "Blue Card."
Conditions for Obtaining a Settlement Permit
To obtain a permanent settlement permit (Niederlassungserlaubnis) in Germany, applicants generally need at least 5 years of lawful residence, knowledge of German, and a stable income (§ 9 AufenthG).
Under § 19a of Germany's Act on the Residence, Economic Activity and Integration of Foreigners in the Federal Republic of Germany (Aufenthaltsgesetz), a foreign national is entitled to obtain an EU Blue Card if they hold a German university degree, or a foreign university degree recognized in Germany, or a foreign university degree with a German equivalent.
Constantly working in a German-speaking environment, our client decided to learn the language of the country where he was living at the time. After a year and a half in Germany, having successfully passed one language exam after another and obtained the desired Start Deutsch B2 certificate, Vsevolod felt much more comfortable and began to consider obtaining a permanent settlement permit in Germany (Niederlassungserlaubnis). To find out how and when this procedure could be initiated, Vsevolod decided to turn to our law firm.
Our lawyer explained that, under the general requirements of German law, a Blue Card holder is entitled to obtain a permanent settlement permit in Germany after 33 months of employment as a highly qualified specialist while paying the corresponding pension contributions. However, § 19a(6) of the Aufenthaltsgesetz also provides that this period can be shortened to 21 months if the foreign national has an adequate command of German.
Since our client had already obtained the relevant language certificate confirming an adequate command of German by the time he approached our law firm, the lawyer suggested that Vsevolod initiate the procedure for obtaining a permanent settlement permit in Germany right away. Our client was puzzled by the fact that, at the time he approached the lawyer, he had only been working in Germany for 19 months. However, drawing on extensive practical experience in this field, the lawyer explained that those two remaining months would be needed anyway to gather the required set of documents, fill out the relevant forms, and secure an appointment at the immigration authority, so there was no point in putting it off any further.
Vsevolod happily set about gathering the required documents, but immediately ran into a problem. Under the statutory requirements, our client needed to provide, among other things, proof of pension contributions paid over a total of 21 months. However, Vsevolod's employer processed pension transfers for all of the company's employees at the same time, according to a schedule agreed with the company's financial advisor, so our client would only be able to obtain the corresponding proof of his own pension contributions roughly six months later.
To save precious time, our lawyer suggested that Vsevolod submit, together with the other required documents, a certificate issued by his employer confirming that the company had transferred all the necessary pension contributions on our client's behalf. Our lawyer drafted the legally sound wording of that certificate himself, so Vsevolod had no trouble with it.
While the documents were being gathered, our lawyer also worked on arranging a possible appointment date with the immigration authority. The main difficulty was, first, that appointment slots had become sharply limited due to the high volume of people registering for asylum status, and second, that Vsevolod, holding a senior position at his company, had practically no free time either. A compromise was nonetheless found, and by the time of the meeting with the competent authority's staff, the required set of documents was ready.
Vsevolod and our lawyer arrived at the immigration authority at the scheduled time, but an unpleasant surprise awaited them. It turned out that the flow of asylum seekers was so large that the authority's staff had received instructions to process cases in that category first, postponing all other matters indefinitely. Our client was annoyed and upset that he had not been informed of such changes in advance, and was in a hurry to get back to work. Our lawyer, however, decided that in this situation he needed to stand up for his client's interests, and immediately went directly to the department handling applications for a permanent residence permit. The lawyer told the responsible official that he understood the enormous workload the authority was currently facing, but asked that the interests of other categories of foreign nationals seeking services from that authority also be taken into account. As an alternative solution, the lawyer proposed submitting Vsevolod's documents for review so that, by the time of the next appointment, the authority's staff would already have had the chance to examine the case file and reach the necessary decision at that meeting. The competent official agreed to accept the documents for review, so the lawyer filled out the necessary forms, and a relieved Vsevolod, glad a way forward had been found, signed them and decided to patiently wait for the next appointment.
Fortunately, the next meeting with the immigration authority's staff went very smoothly — our client's documents had already been reviewed, no additional evidence was requested by the authority's staff, and Vsevolod became the happy holder of a permanent residence permit in Germany.
This example vividly illustrates just how important the knowledge, experience, and professional resourcefulness of a qualified lawyer are — someone who will always know how to properly set a legal process in motion, find the best path toward the goal, and come up with every possible alternative solution should you run into difficulties of one kind or another.
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