Job search, in the open. Nikita Shevelev

A reply takes one to three weeks, so a zero on a new source is a lag, not a verdict.

This is the question that usually surfaces after a first call and quietly ends things. Here it is up front, with the legal references, so nobody has to research it.

• EU Blue Card under § 18g Abs. 1 AufenthG. My university is listed in anabin with status H+.
• Above the 2026 threshold of €50,700 gross per year the Blue Card is issued without Federal Employment Agency approval - no labour market test, no agency step.
• Germany has no sponsor licence and no employer registration. There is nothing for you to apply for or be accredited under.
• If you want it faster: the accelerated procedure under § 81a AufenthG is one agreement with the immigration office at your own site plus a €411 fee - formally payable by the employer as the initiating party, and I am happy to reimburse it. If you would rather do nothing extra, I file the visa myself and you provide the contract.
• Realistically four to six months end to end. Official guidance starts at around four months; the Leipzig immigration office publishes five to six. The three-week figure that circulates covers only the consulate appointment after pre-approval.

Sources: Bundesagentur für Arbeit (ZAV 03/2026) · Make it in Germany / BMWE · § 18g, § 81a AufenthG · § 31a, § 47 AufenthV. checked against primary sources on 1 September 2026.

• A script builds these numbers from a private plain-text file. I never edit them by hand.
• Day-by-day logging started 24 August 2026. Before that only totals exist, and between 5 June and 24 August I logged nothing: I kept searching and stopped recording.
• The rejection count is a minimum. I stopped logging rejections on the Russian job board after 5 June.
• A percentage appears only when the denominator is at least 10. Everything else is a count.
• Not here: names of people I talk to, company names, salaries, and the numbers two people shared with me privately. Those wait for their consent.