Artists' Permit – after Graduating in Germany

Congratulations to passing your exam! We trust it was hard work. Use your 18 month "job seeking" period now after your graduation! Find contacts that will support you in your art business. Find first gigs, make first sales. You are allowed to work now.

Our Services

When you are an artist and want to live in Germany as a freelancer or self-employed, we will gladly serve you to successfully apply for your permit. Artists are preferentially treated in Germany! Why? Germany is interested in enhancing its culture with new impulses – foreign impulses. Honestly, every major city wants to boast with having an international art scene! Since you graduated in Germany, the authorities have to seek to grant you a permit. However, if you do not offer them “something”, you also will not get the permit. 😉

Step 1: Preparing the Application:

This step is the most crucial and here we both have to be correct at the most! We will support you with

1. supplying a checklist for any documents to be submitted,
2. instruction at which office they are to be submitted,
3. general instruction on the application proceedings (duration, fees, opening hours, etc.) in order for you to know what will happen when and why,
4. provide the mandatory application form (prefilled for your convenience), German authorities hate sloppiness and chances decline when the application form evidently misses important information,
5. issue a supplementary letter to introduce you and persuade the authorities to grant you the permit,
6. P&L forecast for the next three years. This forecast must show that you can live off of your work here in Germany.
7. providing you with a summary of your new legal status after receiving the entry visa,
8. chasing and arguing with the authorities.

Step 2: Registrations after Receiving your Artist Residence Permit

You have finally got your permit, and now we want to quickly set you up so that you are registered with the tax office and the artists' social security agency (aka Künstlersozialkasse) and can start earning money. We will prepare the registration forms for you so that you only need to sign them. We will further provide you with a nutshell on business taxes in Germany — the very first information you need daily to understand your tax situation and duties.

Step 2.1: Registering with the Tax Office

After receiving the residence permit, we will also register you for taxation. I will gladly assist with that as well. The setup fee includes registering you for taxation purposes with the tax office and discussing whether or not to bill with VAT. It also includes instructions on how taxation works in Germany in a nutshell and applying for VAT-ID. We also provide the most important hints for deductions in a nutshell, double-check the correctness of your first invoice and if it meets VAT regulations so you do not lose your face with your clients etc...

Step 2.2: Registering with Artists' Social Security

After you have received your residence permit, I will take care of your health insurance in Germany. I will introduce you to the statutory health and old-age insurance plan for artists in Germany and register you with them. Being insured by them is in your best interest. This approach will ensure that you enjoy the privileges of being an artist in Germany. Under certain conditions, artists' social security agency authority co-sponsors your health and retirement insurance premiums. They very carefully test that you are a fully-fledged artist. Our goal is to ensure that.

Our services will be:

1. providing a checklist of what you need to report to each office,
2. via a handout informing you on the benefits of being with artists' social security and your ongoing duties,
3. filling out the application form on your behalf to make sure the entries are correct; German authorities despise incorrectly filled forms and easily turn them down when not submitted timely and correctly,
4. formally submitting the permit on your behalf.
5. negotiating legal follow-up questions from the authorities to ensure that they only hear the relevant and correct information,

Are you 45 years or older?

If you are 45 years or older, you also have to receive a salary of at least € 4015 in western Germany resp. € 3905 for eastern Germany. If your salary will be lower than that threshold, you will have to show an adequate pension plan or other retirement provisions. This coverage can be either the state pension plan from home, private savings, or closing a German pension plan or a mixture of all. The government wants to make sure that you will not be dependent on welfare upon retiring.

N.B. This is only relevant for the very first permit!

Our Fees:

We intend to invoice you step by step. The first step will be for you and your better half and any minor children. All fees are ex VAT; 19% VAT will be added for step 2 because you will then be in Germany.

How to hire us

Please book an initial consultation to discuss your situation using the button below.

Book your initial consultation