BERLIN – The German government has made a major change to speed up the visa processing for skilled workers from India as the country faces labor shortage.
The wait for long-term visas has been cut from nine months to just two weeks as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed the update while noting that the government aims to improve the waiting time for around 400,000 people affected by long delays for national visas.
Baerbock mentioned that Germany’s Federal Agency for Foreign Affairs is already the largest national visa office in the world, emphasizing the urgent need for skilled workers to help support this system.
In Delhi, the wait time for national visas has been reduced to two weeks from nine months, Schengen Visa News reported.
German businesses need quick visa processing to address labor shortages, especially for training and conferences. Indian companies investing in Germany also rely on fast visa processing to send their experts to the EU without delays.
As far as the labor crisis is concerned, Germany is easing visa restrictions for foreign workers as the crisis in one of Europe’s strongest economies has worsened; the country needs at least 4 hundred thousand immigrants each year to keep its firms running and maintain exports.
The shortage of skilled individuals has risen to unprecedented levels as statistics reveal and companies have admitted that they are facing the heat of labor shortage which is also affecting their efficiency.
The government of Germany has recently introduced the opportunity card or Chancenkarte which allows foreign workers to arrive in Germany even without a job offer and search for employment.
