Ausbildung in GermanyHonest, sourced information for students in Nepal

The visa, the waiting list, and the thing only your employer can do

There is a faster procedure. You cannot start it — your future employer has to, and most small German companies have never heard of it.

A German official form with fields for surname, date of birth and nationality, a pen resting on it.
The §81a procedure is paperwork your employer files, not paperwork you file. Photo: Pixabay

The residence permit for vocational training is § 16a of the Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz). To apply you need a signed training contract with a German company, registered with the responsible chamber, and normally proof of German at B1, certified and not older than six months — from one of three accepted providers: Goethe-Zentrum Kathmandu, VHS (Bhaktapur or Pokhara), or telc. You may sit different parts of the exam with different providers, and the certificate must be submitted with the application, not later. This matters more than it sounds.

Some vocational schools ask for B2 rather than B1 — worth checking with your employer which school you will attend.

Why it takes so long from Kathmandu

Since 1 December 2025 the German embassy in Kathmandu no longer lets you book a visa appointment directly. You enter your name on a waiting list, and the embassy issues appointments in the order people joined, according to the capacity it has.

For Au-Pair and FSJ visas the embassy publishes an approximate wait of 8 to 12 months. We asked whether Ausbildung applicants are treated differently. The embassy's answer, in August 2026:

Die Wartelisten treffen alle gleich. Jedoch geht es bei Auszubildenden meist etwas schneller als z.B. bei Au-Pairs.

So: the same waiting list applies to you, though trainees usually move through it somewhat faster than Au-Pairs. The embassy did not give a figure.

Once you do have your appointment, the embassy states that an Ausbildung visa takes at least 4 to 6 weeks to process, because the application has to be sent to authorities in Germany.

Why this matters more than it sounds. Berufsschule starts once a year. A visa that arrives in October does not cost you a few weeks — it can cost you the entire training year, even though you already have the contract.

The accelerated procedure — § 81a

There is a faster route, the beschleunigtes Fachkräfteverfahren, and it does apply to vocational training: § 81a covers §§ 16a, 16d, 18a, 18b, 18c(3) and 18g.

Here is the part that matters to you: you cannot start it. It is begun by your future employer, in Germany, at their own local immigration office (Ausländerbehörde).

How it works, according to the official federal description:

The employer can also authorise a third party to run the procedure for them, so a company that finds the paperwork daunting does not have to do it alone.

Confirmed: Kathmandu honours the three weeks

This is the most important thing on this site, so here it is in the embassy's own words. We asked the German Embassy in Kathmandu directly whether the three-week rule is honoured given the current waiting list. Their reply, August 2026:

Wenn Sie eine Vorabzustimmung erhalten haben, senden Sie uns diese per E-Mail. Wir vergeben dann innerhalb der 3-Wochen-Frist einen Termin.

"If you have received a Vorabzustimmung, send it to us by email. We will then allocate an appointment within the three-week deadline."

Two things follow, and neither is published anywhere else we can find.

The route is real. An open-ended waiting list becomes a three-week appointment. That is the difference between arriving for the training year and missing it.

You send it to the embassy by email. Not a form, not a booking system — you email the Vorabzustimmung to the embassy once your employer has obtained it. The federal description only says to state that you hold one when booking. Kathmandu tells you to send it in.

So the single most useful thing you can do is get your employer to start §81a. They pay €411 at their own Ausländerbehörde. You cannot do it, and they have probably never heard of it. Send them this page.

Protecting yourself if the visa is slow

Two things are standard practice in Germany, and worth raising with your employer before you sign:

Ask for the contract to take effect when the visa is issued. German chambers advise employers to write the training contract so that it only becomes effective once the visa has been granted. Then a delay postpones your start instead of destroying the agreement.

A start date can be moved. Before training begins, employer and trainee can sign an amendment (Änderungsvereinbarung) setting a new start date; the end date shifts too. Training can begin at other points in the year — chambers hold two examination sittings annually. Backdating a contract is not permitted, but postponing one is ordinary.

German chambers advise employers to allow 4 to 6 months between signing the contract and entry, and to recruit 6 to 8 months before the intended start. If your employer is working to a shorter timetable, they may not know how long this takes from Nepal.

Where this comes from