Germany Digital Nomad Visa

No fixed income threshold is set; the applicant shows sufficient funds to cover living costs, and those over 45 must have an adequate pension provision.

The law requires no capital. Section 21(5) of the Residence Act lets freelancers be granted a permit in derogation from subsection (1), so none of the three conditions of subsection (1) applies, including the condition of personal capital or a loan undertaking to realise the business idea.

The only money condition tied to age is in subsection (3): as a general rule, a foreigner older than 45 is granted the permit only with adequate provision for old age. The law puts no figure on what adequate means.

The only published figure comes from Berlin: since 1 July 2025 the Berlin government service portal requires the applicant to show that, on reaching 67, they will have either a monthly pension of EUR 1,612.53 for at least 12 years or assets of EUR 232,204. The figure applies in Berlin only; Berlin waives pension proof for nationals of five countries, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines and Sri Lanka, and Vietnam is not among them.

The residence permit for a freelance activity is granted under section 21(5) of the Residence Act, and granted by derogation from subsection (1) — that is, without having to pass the economic-interest test that subsection (1) imposes on self-employed persons generally.

But the decisive sentence is the last one in subsection (5), and in the original it runs to just four words: subsection (4) does not apply. Subsection (4) contains two things, and both fall away together — this is the easiest point in the section to read past.

The first is the three-year ceiling on the permit: a freelancer is not subject to it. The second is the three-year shortcut to a settlement permit reserved for the self-employed: a freelancer does not have that route either.

One is a loosening and the other a tightening, and reading either half without the other yields two conclusions that are both wrong.

Their path to settlement is the general one in section 9(2), which is considerably longer: five years holding a residence permit, secured subsistence, and at least sixty months of compulsory or voluntary contributions to the statutory pension scheme, or proof of expenditure on an entitlement to comparable benefits from an insurance or pension institution; career breaks for childcare or home care of a relative are credited accordingly.

A third door is rarely mentioned, in subsection (6): a person already granted a residence permit for another purpose may be permitted to carry on a self-employed activity while keeping that original purpose of stay, provided the permits required by other rules have been granted or promised.

No official text publishes a fixed processing time for this route. The Federal Foreign Office's general visa page says only that applicants for a national visa should, depending on the purpose of stay, expect a processing time of several months.

That length follows from the structure of the procedure. Under section 6(3) of the Residence Act a long stay requires a national visa issued before entry, so a holder of a Vietnamese passport must apply at a German mission before travelling.

The Foreign Office Visa Handbook states that the competent foreigners authority in Germany must be involved whatever the intended length of stay; and because section 21(5) applies subsection 1 sentence 3, the file must also pass through the expert bodies and the professional licensing authorities for the intended place of work

Section 21(5) sets no minimum number of days to be spent in Germany. The real constraints are two absence rules in the Residence Act.

First, under section 51(1) no. 7, the residence permit lapses where the foreigner has left and has not re-entered within six months, or within a longer period set by the foreigners authority.

Second, under section 9(4) no. 2, each stay outside Germany that did not cause the permit to lapse counts for at most six months towards the five years required for settlement.

Beyond time and pension contributions, section 9(2) sets three integration conditions for a settlement permit: sufficient knowledge of German; basic knowledge of the legal and social order and of living conditions in Germany; and sufficient living space for the holder and the family members living with them in the same household.

The first two are treated as proven where an integration course has been successfully completed.

The law also provides exemptions: those two conditions are waived where the foreigner cannot meet them on account of a physical, mental or psychological illness or disability, and may be waived to avoid hardship.

For spouses living in marital union, the pension contribution condition and the two conditions on work authorisations need be met by only one of them

The spouse of a holder of a section 21 permit is entitled to a residence permit under section 30(1), where both spouses are 18 or over, the principal holds a residence permit of one of the listed kinds, including a permit under section 21, the marriage already existed when that permit was granted, and the stay is expected to exceed one year.

Two conditions are waived for the family of a section 21 holder. The requirement that the spouse can communicate in German at a basic level is disregarded where the principal holds a section 21 permit, under section 30(1) sentence 3. The requirement of sufficient living space for the spouse and minor unmarried children is also waived under section 29(5), but that subsection expires on 31 December 2028.

A minor unmarried child is granted a residence permit where both parents, or the parent holding sole custody, hold one of the listed permits, among them a residence permit under section 21.

A separate hurdle applies to a child who has already turned 16 and does not move their centre of life to Germany together with their parents: the child must have a command of German, or it must appear assured that, on the basis of their education and previous circumstances, they will be able to integrate into living conditions in Germany.

That hurdle does not apply where the parent, or the spouse living with them as a family, holds a permit under section 21. Where custody is joint, the permit should also be granted for reunification with only one custodial parent where the other has declared their consent or a corresponding binding decision of a competent body exists

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Germany passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Germany passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Germany passport reaches 203 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

Section 21 of the Residence Act does not mention tax, yet this category is defined by a provision of the Tax Code, and that is what settles every tax consequence.

The Foreign Office Visa Handbook states that the class of freelancers is determined by the catalogue of professions in section 18(1)(1) sentence 2 of the Income Tax Act.

That catalogue covers independently exercised scientific, artistic, literary, teaching or educational activity.

It also covers the professions of doctor, dentist, veterinary surgeon, lawyer, notary, patent attorney, surveyor, engineer, architect, commercial chemist, auditor and tax adviser.

The list continues with economic and business consultant, sworn accountant, tax agent, alternative practitioner, dental technician, physiotherapist, journalist, photojournalist, interpreter, translator, pilot and similar professions.

Three consequences flow from that classification, and they are the real tax content of this record.

First, income under section 18 is income from self-employed work and not from a trade or business, because section 15(2) sentence 1 of the Income Tax Act expressly provides that an activity is a trade or business only where it is neither agriculture and forestry, nor the exercise of a liberal profession, nor other self-employed work.

Second, and this is the monetary consequence: section 2(1) of the Trade Tax Act charges trade tax on every permanent trade or business.

So a member of a liberal profession is not within the scope of trade tax, and accordingly never uses the EUR 24,500 allowance in section 11(1)(1) of that Act or the credit of four times the trade tax base amount in section 35(1) of the Income Tax Act.

Third, on procedure: section 138(1) sentence 3 of the Fiscal Code provides that whoever takes up a freelance activity must notify the tax office competent under section 19, a direct notification to the tax office rather than through the municipality.

Subsection 1b requires further information on the legal and factual circumstances material to taxation, transmitted in the official data set and interface.

Section 6(1) of the Trade Regulation Act likewise excludes professions such as lawyers, notaries, auditors, tax advisers and tax agents from the scope of trade law, so they register no trade.

On the permit itself: section 21(5) sentence 1 allows a residence permit for the exercise of a freelance activity by derogation from subsection 1, so no economic interest or regional need need be shown.

Sentence 2 requires that any professional licence the occupation demands has been granted or promised; and sentence 4 provides that subsection 4 does not apply, meaning the route to a settlement permit after three years under subsection 4 is not open to this category.

The Foreign Office adds that applicants over 45 must show adequate provision for old age.

On the tax-residence threshold: section 1(1) sentence 1 of the Income Tax Act imposes unlimited liability on individuals with a domicile or habitual abode in Germany.

Section 9 sentence 2 of the Fiscal Code provides that a continuous stay of more than six months is always treated as a habitual abode from the outset, short interruptions disregarded.

Sentence 3 makes an exception for stays of up to a year for visiting, recreation or medical treatment, and freelance activity falls outside that exception.

On VAT, section 19(1) sentence 1 of the VAT Act exempts turnover where total turnover did not exceed EUR 25,000 in the preceding year and does not exceed EUR 100,000 in the current one.

Read this cell within its scope: the tax sources explain how a freelancer income is classified and which tax it therefore escapes; they grant this category no concession, relief or special rate by reason of the residence permit.

Every consequence flows from the classification of the profession, not from the permit; and the immigration materials say nothing about tax at all

The condition specific to the freelance route sits in the second sentence of section 21(5): the authorisation required to practise that free profession must already have been granted, or its grant must have been promised. The rule applies only to professions that require a licence, and a promise of that licence is enough; the licence need not have been issued before the residence permit is considered.

The third sentence of subsection 5 applies section 21(1) sentence 3 accordingly, so the file must still pass through the expert corporations, the trade authorities, the public-law professional representations and the professional licensing authorities competent for the intended place of work