No dedicated nomad visa. The figures below describe what the row records; there may be nothing to apply for right now. Always check the official page before acting.
The requirements
- Programme status
- No dedicated nomad visa
- Minimum monthly income
- No fixed amount
- Required savings
- $5,000
- Annual total
- $5,000
- Initial duration
- 1–3 years at discretion, renewable
- Family allowed
- Yes
- Apply online
- No, in person or by post
No statutory minimum: "secure livelihood" (AufenthG s.5(1)); practice ~€1,500–2,500/month.
How this figure is set: The law asks for "sufficient means" and sets no figure. Formula: 'Lebensunterhalt gesichert' (secure livelihood) - s.5(1) no.1 AufenthG; no statutory figure. Secondary practice range 1,000-2,500 EUR/month net.
Income confidence: medium · checked 2026-09-07
Legal basis: AufenthG s.21(5) (freelance), s.5(1) (livelihood).
Does this lead to permanent residence?
Direct pathway. Settlement permit after 5 yrs (s.9 AufenthG); s.21(5) shuts freelancers out of the 3-year s.21(4) route.
AufenthG s. 9(2) no. 1 (gesetze-im-internet.de, the official text): settlement permit after five years' holding of a temporary residence permit. The shorter three-year route in s. 21(4) is closed to freelancers by the last sentence of s. 21(5), which states flatly 'Absatz 4 ist nicht anzuwenden'; it is therefore available only on the s. 21(1) self-employed/business ground, not on the s. 21(5) freiberufliche Tatigkeit ground most remote workers use.
Pathway confidence: high · checked 2026-09-07
Setting up a business instead
2 routes in that ask you to start something here rather than prove an income from somewhere else.
Freelance Residence Permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis zur Ausübung einer freiberuflichen Tätigkeit)
Working for yourself, registered here · decided by the Ausländerbehörde where you will live
- What you must show
- No fixed amount
- How long
- Up to 3 years at the authority's discretion, renewable
- Leads to permanent residence
- Yes
Where to start
- VIDEX, the national visa form ↗Fill the national (D) visa form and take it to the German mission where you live. The exception is worth checking first: under art. 41(1) AufenthV, nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States may enter without a visa and apply for the permit inside Germany, within 90 days of arriving. Everybody else needs the visa before travelling.
- ELSTER, the tax administration's portal ↗The Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung, which registers you with the Finanzamt and has had to be filed electronically since 2021. This is also where it is settled whether you are freiberuflich or running a Gewerbe - the Finanzamt rules on it, from your profession, and you do not get to pick.
- Existenzgründerportal, the federal economics ministry ↗The government's own founding guide, including which activities count as a freier Beruf and what a Gewerbeanmeldung involves.
What you register
Liberal professional (Freiberufler)
Not a company and not a trade. You practise in your own name under a status the tax code defines rather than one you register into. No capital, and no company to put it in. No Gewerbeanmeldung, no trade tax and no entry in the commercial register - which is why this is the cheapest shape in Germany to hold. Section 18(1) EStG names the professions: scientific, artistic, writing, teaching and educational work, and then doctors, dentists, vets, lawyers, notaries, patent attorneys, surveying engineers, engineers, architects, commercial chemists, auditors, tax advisers, consulting economists, sworn accountants, tax agents, alternative practitioners, physiotherapists, journalists, photojournalists, interpreters, translators, pilots 'and similar professions'. That last phrase is where software work is argued, case by case, and the Finanzamt decides it.
What to bring: Checked and there is no national list to publish. The permit is granted by the Ausländerbehörde of the place you will live, section 21 sets requirements rather than paperwork, and each authority publishes its own document list - so a single checklist here would be one city's, presented as the country's. The federal portal that might carry a general one, make-it-in-germany.com, is behind a bot wall and answered a security challenge rather than a page on 21 September 2026. · checked 2026-09-21
What you register: Nothing at a trade office. A freier Beruf under section 18(1) EStG is practised without a Gewerbeanmeldung, so the only registration is with the tax office - and whether your work is one is ruled on by the Finanzamt rather than chosen by you.
Who decides: The Ausländerbehörde where you will live. Section 21(5) applies section 21(1) sentence 3, so the chambers and the bodies that license the profession are consulted; from abroad a German mission issues the national visa first.
No figure anywhere in the instrument. Section 5(1) no. 1 AufenthG requires the Lebensunterhalt to be secured and names no amount, and section 21(5) adds none. The monthly ranges that circulate are practice at individual authorities, not law, which is why this row carries no number.
Where to start: Aufenthaltsverordnung art. 41(1) and (3) for who may skip the visa and the 90 days they have to file inside Germany, and Aufenthaltsgesetz section 21(5) for the permit itself, both read at gesetze-im-internet.de on 21 September 2026. Two steps deliberately have no link: registering your address at the Bürgeramt and filing at the Ausländerbehörde are municipal, and there is no national address for either - a link to one city's would be wrong everywhere else. · checked 2026-09-21
Company types: Einkommensteuergesetz section 18(1), the liberal professions catalogue, read in the Bundesjustizministerium's consolidated text at gesetze-im-internet.de on 21 September 2026 and listed here in the statute's own order. Which side of that line a profession falls on is decided by the Finanzamt on the Fragebogen, not chosen by the applicant. · checked 2026-09-21
Business route confidence: high · checked 2026-09-21
Legal basis: Aufenthaltsgesetz section 21(5): a residence permit for a freiberufliche Tätigkeit may be granted 'abweichend von Absatz 1', so the economic-interest test in section 21(1) does not apply to it - this route is the easier of the two to be granted. Any licence the profession requires must already be granted or promised. The sting is in the last sentence: 'Absatz 4 ist nicht anzuwenden', which shuts freelancers out of the three-year settlement permit that section 21(4) gives the other route. They fall back to the ordinary section 9(2) Niederlassungserlaubnis at five years, which also wants 60 months of pension contributions. Read at gesetze-im-internet.de on 21 September 2026.
AufenthG section 21, consolidated text ↗
Self-employment Residence Permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis zur Ausübung einer selbständigen Tätigkeit)
A business the state has to accept as innovative · decided by the Ausländerbehörde where you will live
- What you must show
- No fixed amount
- How long
- Up to 3 years, renewable, with a settlement permit available at 3 years under section 21(4)
- Leads to permanent residence
- Yes
Where to start
- VIDEX, the national visa form ↗Fill the national (D) visa form and take it to the German mission where you live. The exception is worth checking first: under art. 41(1) AufenthV, nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States may enter without a visa and apply for the permit inside Germany, within 90 days of arriving. Everybody else needs the visa before travelling.
- ELSTER, the tax administration's portal ↗The Fragebogen zur steuerlichen Erfassung, which registers you with the Finanzamt and has had to be filed electronically since 2021. This is also where it is settled whether you are freiberuflich or running a Gewerbe - the Finanzamt rules on it, from your profession, and you do not get to pick.
- Existenzgründerportal, the federal economics ministry ↗The government's own founding guide, including which activities count as a freier Beruf and what a Gewerbeanmeldung involves.
What you register
Registered trade (Gewerbe, as Einzelunternehmen)
You trade as yourself, but in an activity the law treats as a trade rather than a liberal profession. No minimum capital. Costs what the Freiberufler does not: a Gewerbeanmeldung at the local trade office, trade tax above the allowance, and compulsory chamber of commerce membership.
Entrepreneurial company (Unternehmergesellschaft, UG (haftungsbeschränkt))
A GmbH started below the GmbH's own minimum capital, carrying the words 'haftungsbeschränkt' in its name so anybody dealing with it can see that. From one euro. Section 5a GmbHG lets a company be formed under the 25,000 minimum on two conditions: paragraph 2 says it cannot be registered until the capital is paid in full, with none of the GmbH's half-now concession, and paragraph 3 locks a quarter of each year's profit into a reserve until it reaches 25,000. The usual way in for somebody who wants limited liability without 25,000 sitting idle.
Limited company (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH)
The standard German limited company. EUR 25,000 of share capital under section 5(1) GmbHG, of which half must be paid in before registration. Notarised formation and a commercial register entry, so it costs more to start than the UG and reads as more solid to banks and clients.
What to bring: Checked and there is no national list to publish. The permit is granted by the Ausländerbehörde of the place you will live, section 21 sets requirements rather than paperwork, and each authority publishes its own document list - so a single checklist here would be one city's, presented as the country's. The federal portal that might carry a general one, make-it-in-germany.com, is behind a bot wall and answered a security challenge rather than a page on 21 September 2026. · checked 2026-09-21
What you register: A trade or a company, and a business the state has agreed is worth having. Section 21(1) is not a formality: the authority weighs the idea itself, and consults the chambers of commerce and the trade and licensing bodies before answering.
Who decides: The Ausländerbehörde where you will live, after consulting the competent chambers, the trade authorities and the professional licensing bodies under section 21(1) sentence 3.
No threshold. The old requirement of EUR 250,000 and five jobs was removed in 2012 and nothing replaced it with a number: section 21(1) no. 3 asks only that the financing be secured by your own capital or a loan commitment, and sentence 2 weighs the idea's viability, your business experience, how much capital you are putting in, the effect on jobs and training, and the contribution to innovation and research.
Where to start: Aufenthaltsverordnung art. 41(1) and (3) for the eight nationalities that may file inside Germany within 90 days of a visa-free entry, and Aufenthaltsgesetz section 21(1) for the permit, both read at gesetze-im-internet.de on 21 September 2026. The Gewerbeanmeldung, the address registration and the Ausländerbehörde appointment are all municipal and have no national address, so they are described rather than linked. · checked 2026-09-21
Company types: GmbH-Gesetz sections 5 and 5a for the two company minimums and the UG's payment and reserve conditions, and Einkommensteuergesetz section 18(1) for the line between a trade and a liberal profession, all read at gesetze-im-internet.de on 21 September 2026. · checked 2026-09-21
Business route confidence: high · checked 2026-09-21
Legal basis: Aufenthaltsgesetz section 21(1): the permit may be granted where there is an economic interest or a regional need, the activity is expected to have positive effects on the economy, and its financing is secured by equity or a loan commitment; sentence 2 lists what that judgement rests on and sentence 3 requires the chambers and licensing bodies to be involved. Section 21(3) adds a condition guides routinely miss - an applicant over 45 should only be granted the permit with adequate pension provision. Section 21(4) caps the permit at three years and then allows a Niederlassungserlaubnis after three years of self-employment where the business has done well enough to expect it to continue and the livelihood of the holder and dependants is secure. Read at gesetze-im-internet.de on 21 September 2026.
AufenthG section 21, consolidated text ↗
Where it is
Berlin sits at 52.52° N, 13.40° E.
Open in Google Maps ↗A map of Berlin. This is the only link here that leaves the site.
Your position is worked out on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Time zone
- UTC+2 Berlin (Europe/Berlin)
The country
- Region
- Europe · Central Europe
- Capital
- Berlin
- Currency
- EUR
- Schengen area
- Yes
Next door
3 of the 9 countries Germany shares a land border with are covered here.
- Czech RepublicOpen$3,500 / mo
- AustriaNo visa—
- PolandNo visa—
All of them are in the Schengen area, as Germany is. For a visitor that is one clock, not several: the 90 days in any 180 are spent across all of it.
What it costs to live there
$2,682 per person, per month. That is what one resident of Germany spends in an average month with housing included — not what a newcomer renting at market rates will spend, which is higher, and furthest above it in the cheapest countries.
- Berlin
- $2,078 / month incl. rent
of which rent $1,136 - Munich
- $2,448 / month incl. rent
of which rent $1,458
City figures are crowdsourced from livingcost.net, not official: one person's monthly spending plus the rent of a one-bedroom flat outside the centre. They are here because a national average cannot show the spread between a capital and the places people actually move to. Checked 2026-09-20.
Cost of living confidence: high · checked 2026-09-20World Bank national accounts, reference year 2025: households and NPISHs final consumption expenditure (NE.CON.PRVT.CD, current US$) divided by population (SP.POP.TOTL) and by twelve. This is what one resident spends in an average month with housing included, since national accounts count the imputed rent of owner-occupiers. It is an average over the whole population, not a visitor's budget, so a newly arrived remote worker renting at market rates will spend more - see the city figures for what that looks like.
Languages
- German official
- English widely spoken
- French common in cities
- Bavarian common in cities
- Low German common in cities
Shares of the population from Unicode CLDR: official, then anything spoken by a quarter of the country, an eighth, or a fiftieth. It answers "will I be understood", not "how good is their English".
How to apply
There is no live application for Germany in this dataset. What the row records about residence: Settlement permit after 5 yrs (s.9 AufenthG); s.21(5) shuts freelancers out of the 3-year s.21(4) route.
Freelancer visa not DNV; needs German clients; savings figure estimated.
A starting point, not advice. Figures are converted to US dollars at open-market rates; official thresholds are set in local currency. Sources: official source ↗. Data checked . Compiled by Junaid Qadir.