Large German companies have immigration specialists. The firms with the worst shortages — machine shops with forty staff, care homes with sixty, bakeries, haulage firms, SHK businesses — have an owner, a bookkeeper and no capacity to learn residence law. Here is the Mittelstand version, with nothing that does not apply to a small employer.
What You Actually Have To Do
Four things. Everything else can be delegated.
1. Decide the role and the pay grade. What the person will do, at what wage, under which collective agreement if any binds you. 2. Sign a contract and the employer declaration. The standard "Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis" form, which the visa section checks against the contract. 3. Interview the shortlist. Thirty minutes by video per candidate, after you have seen their trade-test results. 4. Arrange accommodation for the first months. Not legally mandatory; practically decisive.
That is the employer's genuine workload. The documents, translations, authority filings and travel are agency work.
The One Decision That Matters Most
Whether your pay clears the floor. If a collective agreement binds you, its grid governs. If not, the experience-based route needs roughly €43,000 gross per year. For a small firm in a lower-wage region this is the question to settle first, because everything else is wasted effort if the answer is no. We check it before anything else — see Tarifvertrag and pay.
Is It Worth It for One or Two People?
Often yes, and the arithmetic is simple. A single skilled vacancy left open for a year costs a small firm far more in lost capacity than the €3,000–5,000 one-time recruitment investment. Compare it against what you currently spend on agency labour at 1.8–2.5× the hourly rate — the Zeitarbeit comparison runs those numbers.
The §81a accelerated procedure costs €411 per case regardless of company size, so a small employer gets the same speed advantage as a large one.
What Small Firms Get Right That Large Ones Do Not
- Integration. A worker in a forty-person firm is known by name in a week. In a thousand-person plant they are a badge number. Retention in small firms is consistently better.
- Flexibility. An owner can decide on housing, a language course or a pay step in an afternoon rather than a quarter.
- Progression. Small firms can promise a route to a specific role and keep the promise.
What Small Firms Get Wrong
- Hiring one person alone into a town with no community. Two or three together works far better than one.
- Underestimating housing. In a rural area, housing may be easy to find and impossible to reach without a car. Plan transport.
- Skipping the language course because the job does not require German. It is the strongest retention lever available and it is cheap.
- Informal promises. Anything agreed at interview must be in the contract or it will become a dispute.
A Realistic Sequence
Month 0: scope the role and confirm the wage. Months 1–2: selection, trade test, interviews, documents. Months 2–3: pre-approval and §81a. Months 3–5: visa, travel, arrival. For a care role needing B1 German, add six to eight months at the front.
See the full cost picture in cost of hiring from India, or scope a requirement on the Germany hiring page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a company with 20 employees hire from India?
Yes. There is no minimum company size for the FEG routes or the §81a accelerated procedure. The requirements are a genuine role, compliant pay and a complete file — not a large HR department.
How much work is it for the employer?
In practice: define the role and pay, sign the contract and employer declaration, interview the shortlist by video, and arrange initial accommodation. Documentation, filings and travel are handled by the licensed agency.
