The EU Blue Card – Major shortcut to EU Permanent Residence

for highly qualified non-EU professionals

I recently applied for my work visa to Germany and discovered that I am eligible for an EU Blue Card. With the EU Blue Card, I will be able to obtain permanent residence in Germany after working there for only 33 months, instead of average 8 years. In addition to the EU Blue Card, if I demonstrate an adequate level of German (B1 level), I will be able to obtain permanent residence after just 21 months. This is a strikingly interesting discovery to me, as I would be very interested in permanent residence in the EU. Therefore, I am writing this entry to share this information to those highly qualified non-EU professionals or ambitious young people who are interested in obtaining permanent residence in the EU.

Barcelona, Spain, September 2011

1. What is the EU Blue Card?

The EU Blue Card is a residence and work permit for highly qualified non-EU professionals to work in the EU. The EU Blue Card Scheme was established in December 2011 (after the adoption of the EU Blue Card Direction in May 2009 and the Single Permit Directive in December 2011). The scheme was designed to attract more highly educated and qualified professionals to Europe instead of other destinations such as the US, Canada and Australia.

Arcachon, France, September 2011

2. Which are the member countries of the Blue Card Scheme?

All EU member states, except the UK, Denmark and Ireland are participating in the EU Blue Card Scheme. Specifically those countries include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Monaco, September 2011

3. What makes the EU Blue Card attractive?

Below lists the distinctive benefits of an EU Blue Card holder, which makes the scheme an attractive magnet to non-EU highly qualified professionals:

• Working and salary conditions equal to nationals
• Free movement within the Schengen area
• Entitlement to a series of socio-economic rights
• Favorable conditions for family reunification
• Permanent residence perspective
• Freedom of association

In addition, there is no quota for the number of EU Blue Cards issued each year, as long as the candidates meet all requirements.

Nice, France, September 2011

4. Conditions to obtain the EU Blue Card:

In order to obtain the Blue Card, applicants must meet the following conditions:

• Be a non-EU national
• Possess a higher education qualification
• Have a valid work contract, or binding job offer, in the EU

Apart from that, candidates must have a minimum salary which meets the specific conditions of the country where their work will be based and the EU Blue Card will be issued. For instance, in the case of Germany, applicants with a university degree must have a minimum gross annual salary of 46.400 EUR to be considered for the EU Blue Card. However, highly qualified people in shortage occupations (such as engineers, academics as well as doctors) are required to have a lower gross annual salary of 36.192 EUR to be considered for the EU Blue Card.

St. Emilion, France, September 2011

5. Other benefits

Highly qualified people looking for employment or permanent residence in Europe can join the Blue Card Network to connect with potential employers. The network is a free site where candidates can post their profiles which will be viewed by employers. Follow this link and register yourself to be in touch with potential EU employers: http://www.apply.eu/Network/.

Bordeaux, France, September 2011

So don’t wait any longer if you are looking at relocating in Europe. The EU Blue Card Scheme is definitely your major shortcut to permanent residence in Europe. Good luck with landing your dream job in Europe! 😉

Bonus information: students completing their degree in Germany are allowed to stay in the country for 18 months in order to look for their permanent employment, in case you are considering Germany as your education destination.

Reference: http://www.apply.eu/BlueCard/

http://www.bluecard-eu.de/eu-blue-card-germany/claim.php

Landing your dream job in Europe, mission possible!

You’re not an EU citizen? You dream to work in Europe? You dream of an interesting job in Europe? European economies are in crisis so it’s impossible to get a job, let alone a good job. I’m telling you: mission possible! I myself did it.

Salzburg – April 2013

My story all started with an unconditional love for Europe and a burning desire to be there, long term, not just traveling. And I desired to have a good job in Europe, not just any job. Strong desire led to thinking and action, so I made a plan and made sacrifices to achieve my dream. I’m sharing my story and what I think was my 5 key success drivers, with the intention to inspire any of you who have a dream to land a great job in Europe. Pursue your dream! Don’t ever give up without even trying at all. Your chance of success is 50% if you try and increases each time you fail and try again (since you will learn valuable lessons for the next effort). However, if you never try, you already fail 100%. And needless to say, you only live once, so don’t live with regrets later that you didn’t fight for your dreams!

Dusseldorf – January 2013

Success driver 1: DESIRE

Knowing what I truly wanted and knowing it truly is my first success driver. I had a great international job with the biggest FMCG company in the world in the awesome city of Bangkok. However much I loved Bangkok for its friendly people, delicious food, efficient public transport system, high quality of life (for your money spent), I knew with certainty it’s not where I wanted to be long term. However I enjoyed the international working environment and the colleagues at my ex employer, I knew being in Europe mattered more to me.

Munich – April 2013

Success driver 2: PLAN

When my desire was close enough to my heart, I started planning for my dream. I knew a prestige MBA in Europe was a gateway to great employment opportunities there. I was definitely aware of the economic situation across European countries and the difficulties of landing a good job in Europe. But time is of the essence and there is no faster and better way to get there but an European MBA, I put in place a plan to get into one of the best programs in Europe: the ESADE MBA. I would not go into too much details about the planning process. What I would like to emphasis about the planning includes 3 things: 1) knowing myself and my capability; 2) setting the right achievable target and 3) focusing and being persistent in planning and execution.

Cologne – January 2013

Success driver 3: Be BOLD

Making trade-offs and bold decisions under great uncertainty was my 3^rd success driver. Giving up a great job to focus on the application with objective to get scholarships, I was rewarded with 2 significant scholarships from my school. Giving up stable financial status to pursue a costly education using big loans with unguaranteed post MBA employment success in Europe was a highly risky decision I made. For a self-funded MBA with only 3.5 years of working experience in third world countries, this was not an easy decision. In fact, it has been the boldest decision I have ever made in my entire life. There were moments that I almost had to give up my MBA due to my financial shortcomings. However, it was my strong desire, my boldness and the loved ones’ support that helped me overcome all these obstacles. Today I was rewarded with a full time offer for an international development program based in Berlin with rotations in a few other countries in Europe for the next 3 years by a big MNC firm, 7 months before finishing my study.

Cadaques – September 2012

Success driver 4: Be PROACTIVE and EARLY

Knowing my task was difficult, I started very early with both internship and full-time job application. I had started planning before I even started my MBA, and started applying before anyone else would. I grabbed every single opportunity to apply, try and learn. But I stayed focused on what I wanted and didn’t waste time on things I knew I wouldn’t want and made no comprise. As a result, I secured an internship 9 months before starting it, and my full time job 7 months before finishing school as mentioned above.

Girona – September 2012

Success driver 5: get HELP

I wouldn’t have gone so far today without help from family and friends, given my significant financial shortcomings. I was lucky to have the trust, love and support from my family and friends, both financially (loans) and mentally. Essentially they all come from the same low income society as me so each individual help was not financially significant comparing to my burden. But I was fortunate enough to have many people who cared for, loved, trusted and helped me and collectively their help was significant in making my education possible. I have always believed in the cause-effect rule and tried to be a good person who helped other people whenever I could. I guess that’s why I got so much help when I was in need. This experience only strengthened my belief in the power of having a good cause.

Copenhagen, August 2012

To conclude, I just want to emphasize that no dream is impossible. As long as you truly desire, plan well, be bold, be proactive and get help, you will likely achieve your dream. And landing a dream job in Europe is not a myth, it’s a possibility!

Travel to 45, not 25 countries with the Schengen visa! ;-)

As a Vietnamese, apart from traveling to 9 other countries in ASEAN without a visa, I need a visa almost everywhere else in the world. This is really frustrating for a travel addict like me, not just because it’s costly (visa application fee, travel insurance fee, sometimes transportation fee to the embassy as some embassy only has one visa location in a country), but also time-consuming and especially you can not guarantee you will get a visa with all these frustrations.

Hamburg, January 2013

Recently I’ve just done a research (with my friend) about all the countries where I can travel without a visa. As a student in Spain and working professional to be in Germany, I am holding a Schengen visa and a residence permit. Interestingly, apart from 25 Schengen states where I can travel visa-free, I can also enter 20 other countries with my Schengen visa or residence permit. So if you come from a country with restricted visa exemptions like me (I guess those includes communist countries like Vietnam, China, North Korea, Cuba, as well as Russia and India – which in total account for about 35% of the world population :D), I guess the following lists will be helpful for you. With a Schengen visa, you can travel to almost 25% of the world without a visa! 😉

Prague, December 2012

25 Schengen States:

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Czech Republic
4. Denmark
5. Estonia
6. Finland
7. France
8. Germany
9. Greece
10. Hungary
11. Iceland
12. Italy
13. Latvia
14. Lithuania
15. Luxembourg
16. Malta
17. Netherlands
18. Norway
19. Poland
20. Portugal
21. Slovakia
22. Slovenia
23. Spain
24. Sweden
25. Switzerland

Source: http://www.schengenvisa.cc/

Stockholm, September 2011

20 countries you can enter with Schengen visa:

1. Chile
2. Ecuador
3. Uruguay
4. Costa Rica
5. Mexico
6. Panama
7. Cuba
8. Madagascar
9. Seychelles
10. Albania
11. Andorra
12. Bulgaria
13. Croatia
14. Turkey
15. Romania
16. Cyprus
17. Monaco
18. Lichtenstein
19. Vatican
20. Haiti

Source: http://www.projectvisa.com/

Andorra, May 2013

Disclaimer: some of the countries above (eg: Monaco, Andorra, Vatican) are visa free to all nationalities, but they are inside or in between Schengen countries, therefore you need a Schengen visa. Some countries like Cuba are visa free to all nationalities, regardless whether you hold a Schengen visa or not.