[deniedeee]

I have 17 years of experience in my area (DevOps) and was recently denied a work visa by Germany. Reason: no degree. I had an already signed contract with a major company to earn 58k EUR/year.

The company appealed to the ZAV multiple times and got rejected.

And software developer is in the shortage list. I don't advise trying it without a degree even though I got assurances from every recruiter I talked to that a degree was absolutely not necessary. I should have trusted my gut.

EDIT: I showed the embassy formal proof of my work experience, countless IT courses, many certifications (LPI, Kubernetes, Oracle, etc), participation in open source projects. They shrugged it all off and said "no degree, only ZAV can approve you". ZAV wasn't happy about it either. So I'm not how serious these countries are when they talk about a shortage of skilled workers. It seems they can't help themselves with the bureaucracy.

[jashmatthews]

Was that for a BlueCard? I know a ton of people working here under the BlueCard scheme but I don't personally know anyone who's been approved without a university degree.

I'd never bothered to officially graduate, but I did it before immigrating here in case I have to move to a BlueCard post Brexit.

[deniedeee]

No, it was for a regular work visa. The person handling my case explicitly asked if I was applying for a BlueCard and I said no (because it does require a degree).

At this point I'm blaming it on the situation being too different from what the immigration workers are used to, but it gave me a lot of headaches (and wasted time/money for me and the company).

[jashmatthews]

AFAIK, the BlueCard theoretically allows you to substitute 5 years work experience for the degree requirement according to the EU level stuff but Germany still hasn't passed the legislation to explicitly allow it.

It's still odd they denied your work visa, though. I had a friend who got a work visa for a management position at a coworking space.

[Mandatum]

Have been approved for a BlueCard (but ultimately didn't take it) without a degree. Quite a few hoops, but it's possible.

[deniedeee]

I'm from Argentina. Are you a non-EU citizen? Some country with better relationships?

[Mandatum]

New Zealand which has a pretty good relationship with most of the EU since we're part of the Commonwealth. We're synonymous with Australians who seem to be everywhere in the EU, and English is our primary (and often only) language usually.

[brailsafe]

Thanks for the contrary input. Always valuable to know what can go wrong and where cost can be sunk. What is your country of origin?

[deniedeee]

Argentina