Two years ago, I started a 2-year Master’s program from a German university, initially remotely from Singapore. I moved to Germany at the start of the second semester and then on to Slovakia for exchange, all while working as a work student, before securing and starting a full-time permanent position at the start of my fourth semester.
In the summer of 2020, I found out via my girlfriend’s research that university education in Germany is essentially free (barring a semester fee of, in our case, €165 per semester). We opted to apply for the Master’s in European Studies at the University of Regensburg, mainly due to the mandatory exchange program, which meant living in yet another country. Another reason was that we were both eligible and qualified for this program, despite our different undergrad degrees.
We both got in, but as Germany went into lockdowns in the winter of 2020, we chose to start the first semester remotely from Singapore, with lectures and seminars mainly in the evenings. This meant I could continue working in the daytime and continue to save up more for the eventual move to Germany.
As the first semester drew to a close, the Covid situation still looked pretty bleak in Germany. Despite that, we decided to move for the second semester in April 2021. We applied for our student visa (Studium Visum, § 16b AufenthG) in December 2020, with the German Embassy in Singapore surprisingly quick with our application.
Working as a student
I resigned from my job in the new year and, as a German student permit allows you to work 120 full-days (or 240 half-days) a year, I decided to start looking for working student opportunities in Germany, from Singapore, lining up a few interviews in the weeks leading up to my departure.
On the same day I landed in Munich, I was offered a remote working student position at a tech startup. I took it up and this meant there would be no gaps in my resume.
One thing to note is that a student visa is only meant to act as an entry visa and is only valid for 3 months (or in my case, 6 months — presumably due to the pandemic). We then needed to apply for a residence permit for the purpose of full-time study at our local Foreigners’ Office (Ausländerbehörde) in Regensburg, which cost €110 each.
We also needed this residence permit to go on the mandatory exchange program in another EU country during our third semester. As we were non-EU nationals, we could only avoid applying for the visa of our host country due to the EU Directive 2016/801, which allows third-country nationals holding a residence permit of one EU country to temporarily move and live in another EU country for study purposes, such as an exchange semester.
Unfortunately, the processing of our residence permit for study took months and was longer than expected (presumably due to the backlogs of Covid), and we only received the actual physical residence permit card one day before our scheduled move to Bratislava, Slovakia.
I was happy to have the chance to live in a second country in Europe, even despite the pandemic. For the first half of the semester, we had a few classes in-person at Comenius University, which allowed us to have a glimpse of normal university life in Eastern (or Central) Europe.
There, I managed to continue my working student position. However, with the new year upon me, I knew I had to start looking for full-time permanent positions, ahead of my course’s scheduled end date of September 2022.
In the winter of 2021 in Bratislava, I started applying for jobs based in Germany. I looked at companies of all sizes and in a wide range of industries. While I received several rejections, I secured some interviews, most notably going through several rounds with a hotel tech startup, a multinational hotel service portal, and a software testing platform.
Securing a job and applying for a work permit
A few more rejections later, I received an offer at the end of 2021 for a start in March 2022, which I duly accepted. I managed to secure a job before graduation. As I was only returning to Germany in February 2022, I prepared my application for the residence permit for employment purposes (§ 18b AufenthG) by getting the required forms filled by my prospective employer.
When we returned to Germany in February, I immediately submitted my application to the Foreigners’ Office in Regensburg. I was very fortunate that my case worker in Regensburg was very efficient and quick, managing to seek and secure approval for my prospective employment from the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) within a couple of weeks. With the BA’s approval, I could start working full-time at my new company, and a week later, was mailed the temporary residence permit (Fiktionsbescheinigung) for employment purposes, valid for a few months as I waited for the actual card.
I also received the appointment date from the Regensburg Foreigners’ Office that would be for 1.5 months later in mid-April, where I submitted my fingerprints and paid the fee of €110 for the production of the new residence permit card. Just another 2 months later, I received the letter notifying that the card was ready for collection. A week later, I waited in line at the Regensburg Foreigners’ Office for almost two hours before I could collect the card, and found out that my permit is specifically § 18b Abs 1 AufenthG (something about my formal education enabling me to work in my occupation).
By this time, I had been working at my new company for a few months, while also thinking about and developing my thesis in the evenings and on the weekends. As Germany allows students to take up to two additional semesters to complete their thesis, I chose to extend by one more semester. This meant I have more evenings and weekends to work on my thesis, even while I’m working full-time during the week.
And this is how I moved to two countries (amid the pandemic) in pursuit of a postgraduate degree, without disrupting my career. Instead, two years on from the summer of 2020, I’ve built on my previous experience and I’m now furthering my career in Germany, even while I seek to complete the final part of the Master’s program on the side.