Free Opportunity Card tool
Opportunity Card evidence checklist and next actions
Most Opportunity Card checklists hand everybody the same list. Your application does not work like that: the skilled-worker route needs no language certificate at all, and on the points route every criterion you claim brings its own piece of paper with its own condition attached. This planner asks which route you are on and what you claim, then prints only the documents those answers actually require — with the condition each one has to meet and the next thing to do about it.
Turn your Opportunity Card claims into a document list
Say which route you are on and which criteria you claim points for. You get the document each claim needs, the condition it has to meet, and what to do about it, in the order the waiting times make sensible.
Your answers stay in this tab. They are not saved, submitted, put in the address bar, or included in analytics. That is also why this tool starts fresh rather than carrying a route across from the points calculator: carrying it would mean putting a fact about your qualification into a link or into browser storage.
This planner needs JavaScript. Every rule it uses is printed in full below: the documents each route needs, the document behind each scoring criterion, and what the card lets you do once it is issued.
Step 1 of 3
How the planner decides what to show you
Three answers, and everything below them is printed on this page so you can check the tool against the sources rather than trust it.
Your route
The Residence Act sets out two ways to qualify. If a German body has already recognised your qualification as equivalent, you are a skilled worker: there is no points table and no language condition. If it has not, you are on the points route, which adds a qualification condition, a language condition and a minimum of 6 points. Half the usual checklist applies to one route and not the other, which is why this is the first question.
The criteria you claim
Both federal pages say the same thing in different words: every detail you give has to be supported by evidence or certificates. A point you cannot document is not a point. So the planner asks what you would claim and returns the named document for each one. It adds nothing up — the points calculator on this site does the arithmetic against the same points table.
How you will prove the money
The three officially listed routes have very different waiting times. A blocked account is a bank transaction; a declaration of commitment needs somebody in Germany to attend an appointment at their own foreigners authority; a part-time contract depends on an employer. Knowing which one you are taking changes what you should be doing this week.
The result is ordered by waiting time rather than by importance, so the items that depend on another authority or another person sit at the top. That ordering is our judgment. No official source prescribes an order, and the page says so where it appears.
The planner also starts from scratch every time rather than carrying a route over from the calculator. The only ways to carry it would be a link parameter or browser storage, and both would mean writing a fact about your qualification somewhere it can be read later. One tap is cheaper than that.
The documents an application needs
The base list is the one on the federal questions and answers page. The German names beside them are the words the authorities use; each is explained in English.
On either route
- Your valid passportReisepass
- Condition. The German missions in India ask for a passport issued within the last ten years with at least two empty pages. That is mission practice, not a line in the Act, and your own mission states its own rule.
- Next action. Check the issue date and the empty pages today. A replacement passport takes weeks in most countries, and it sits in front of everything else.
- The qualification certificate itself
- Condition. The degree or vocational certificate you are relying on. Check whether your mission wants a German translation of it.
- Next action. Put the original and a scan together now, and ask your mission whether a translation is needed before you pay for one.
- Proof of health insurance
- Condition. Generally an incoming policy covering the period the visa covers, valid from the day you enter. Cover is part of the legal definition of a secure livelihood, so it is a condition rather than an extra.
- Next action. Buy it once your appointment date is settled, so the cover starts on the right day. Make it in Germany says proof is required at the latest when you collect the visa.
- The application formVidex
- Condition. Applying in the Consular Services Portal generates it for you. Where a mission still takes applications in person, you fill in the Videx form and bring it printed and signed.
- Next action. Leave this until the documents exist. The portal asks its questions first and then builds the form and your personalised document list from the answers.
Only on the skilled-worker route
- Proof that your qualification is recognised in GermanyGleichwertigkeitsbescheid
- Condition. For a German qualification, the German certificate. For a foreign degree, the anabin entry rating the degree entspricht or gleichwertig and the institution H+, or a ZAB Statement of Comparability. For a foreign vocational qualification, the full recognition notice from the German body responsible for that occupation.
- Next action. Check anabin for both your degree and your university before you pay the ZAB for anything. If your occupation is regulated, the recognition body named on the federal recognition portal is the one that issues the notice.
Only on the points route
- Proof that your qualification is state-recognised where you earned itZeugnisbewertung / Digitale Auskunft zur Berufsqualifikation
- Condition. For a degree: a positive anabin result for both the degree and the institution, or a ZAB Statement of Comparability. For a vocational qualification: the ZAB Statement on a Foreign Vocational Qualification, known as the DAB, which also certifies that the training lasted at least two years. For an AHK category-A certificate: confirmation from the chamber that issued it. The Residence Act requires you to have this confirmed by a competent body in Germany.
- Next action. Start this first. It is an application to another authority, it is paid for, and it is the only item on the list whose timing is not yours. An issued partial-recognition notice replaces it entirely.
- The language certificate that opens the points route
- Condition. German at A1 or English at B2, from an institution certified by the Association of Language Testers in Europe or otherwise recognised for examining. As a rule the exam date must be under a year old, and where you retook a module the date of the first module you passed is the one that counts. It opens the route; on its own it scores nothing.
- Next action. Read the exam date on your certificate and count forward to the appointment you expect. If it will be more than a year old by then, book the next sitting now rather than at the end.
The document behind each scoring criterion
The criteria and the point values are the ones in the points table of the Residence Act, read from the same data file the points calculator uses. The document and the condition beside each one come from the law itself, the federal questions and answers page and the German missions in India document page. Exclusive bands are marked in the condition: only the highest German band and one experience tier count.
| Criterion | Points | Document | Next action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partial recognition already issued | 4 | The issued partial-recognition or deficit noticeTeilanerkennungsbescheid / Defizitbescheid | If you hold it, upload it and drop the ZAB step. If you do not, the recognition procedure that produces it starts at the federal recognition portal, which names the body responsible for your occupation. |
| German at B2 or above | 3 | A German certificate at B2 or above | Check the exam date against the appointment you expect, and book the next sitting if it will be too old by then. |
| German at B1 | 2 | A German certificate at B1 | Check the exam date against the appointment you expect. If B2 is within reach before you apply, it is worth one more point than this. |
| German at A2 | 1 | A German certificate at A2 | Check the exam date. A2 to B1 is one more point and the level German employers actually interview in, so it is usually the cheapest point on the whole table to move. |
| English at C1 or above | 1 | An English certificate at C1 or above | Check your own mission's accepted list before you book and pay for a test. |
| At least five years of related experience in the last seven | 3 | Employment certificates, a detailed CV and reference lettersArbeitszeugnis | Write to your former employers now. A certificate that has to be drafted, signed and posted by somebody else is the item on this list most likely to arrive late. |
| At least two years of related experience in the last five | 2 | Employment certificates, a detailed CV and reference lettersArbeitszeugnis | Write to your former employers now, and check the dates: if you are close to the five-in-seven tier, the same paperwork is worth one more point. |
| My qualification is in a shortage occupational group | 1 | No separate document — it is read off your qualification | Find your own four-digit occupation title in the federal list of shortage occupations and note the group it sits under, so you can name it if you are asked. |
| I am not older than 35 when I apply | 2 | The passport you are already sending | Nothing extra to obtain. If your birthday is close, the date you submit is worth checking, because it is measured then and not when you started. |
| I am older than 35 and not older than 40 | 1 | The passport you are already sending | Nothing extra to obtain. If you are close to 41, the criteria you can still move are language and recognition. |
| At least six lawful months in Germany in the last five years | 1 | Old passports with the visas and entry stamps, residence permits, and the study, course or employment papers from that stay | Find the old passport before anything else on this row. If you surrendered it, ask the issuing authority for a copy, which takes time. |
| My spouse or registered partner also qualifies and applies with me | 1 | Your marriage or registered partnership certificate, and your partner's own applicationLebenspartnerschaft | Have your partner work through the conditions separately and file at the same mission, then name each other's application reference in both files. |
The full condition on each of these — the recency rule on language certificates, what an employment certificate has to describe, why a pending recognition application scores nothing — is what the planner prints beside the document when you claim it. The conditions in prose, with both routes side by side, are in the requirements and documents guide.
The three ways to prove the money
You have to show €1,091 net per month, the amount applicable in 2026, for the months you apply for. That is money you show, and in a blocked account it stays yours. Read the current figure on the Consular Services Portal or on your own mission's page before you move anything, because it is reviewed and republished. Where the figure comes from, and every fee, is in what the Opportunity Card costs.
- The blocked-account confirmationSperrkonto
- Condition. You choose the provider yourself and pay the bank's fees on top of the blocked sum. The account is normally opened for a year, and only a set amount can be released each month. The beneficiary named on it is your mission, and the foreigners authority after you arrive; neither can withdraw your money, and closing the account needs the beneficiary's agreement. The Federal Foreign Office recommends no provider and deleted its old provider list in 2022, so nobody is on an official list.
- Next action. Read the monthly amount published on the Consular Services Portal or on your own mission's page on the day, and transfer against that figure rather than against any guide, including this one.
- The declaration of commitmentVerpflichtungserklärung
- Condition. Someone living in Germany who can prove sufficient means takes on financial responsibility for you. They apply for it in person at their own foreigners authority, normally by appointment and with documents such as proof of income and a tenancy agreement.
- Next action. Ask them to book that appointment now. This is the one item on your list that happens in Germany, on somebody else's calendar, before your application is complete.
- A part-time employment contract or job offer
- Condition. Up to 20 hours a week, which is what the card allows. If the net salary reaches the published monthly figure it satisfies the condition on its own; if it falls short, a blocked account can cover the difference. A job of more than 20 hours needs a different residence title, not this one.
- Next action. Get it in writing with the weekly hours and the net monthly salary both stated, then compare that salary with the published figure to see whether you still need a blocked account for the gap.
What the card lets you do once it is issued
A document list gets you the card. This is what decides whether the year on it is any use, and it comes straight from the Residence Act and the federal Opportunity Card job-search page.
Start the search before you fly, not after you land
The card exists to let you look for qualified employment or for a measure that gets your qualification recognised, and Make it in Germany says you may look for employment or become self-employed. Nothing stops you applying for jobs from where you are now, and the federal job exchange and application guidance are open to you today. The card buys you presence for interviews, not a search that has to wait for it.
You may work an average of 20 hours a week, and no more
One or more part-time jobs together, averaging at most 20 hours a week. That is the ceiling for the whole card, not per employer. If a job you want is more than 20 hours, it is not a bigger part-time job: it is a different residence title, applied for at the foreigners authority.
Trial work is two weeks per employer, and it has to have a purpose
You may do trial employment of at most two weeks at a time. The Act adds a condition that generic advice usually leaves out: each trial has to be qualified work, or aimed at an Ausbildung, or fit inside a recognition measure the Residence Act provides for. A month of unpaid trial work at one company to prove yourself is not something this card allows.
The first card runs up to a year, and your funds can shorten it
It is issued as a search card for up to twelve months. If your money does not cover twelve months, the federal Q&A says the card can be issued for a shorter period and extended later in Germany, up to that same twelve-month maximum, if your situation improves. Proving six months instead of twelve halves what you have to show and halves the time you have to find work.
When you find the job, you change title rather than keep this one
With an offer in hand you apply at your local foreigners authority for the permit that matches it: an EU Blue Card, a work visa for qualified professionals, a visa for professionally experienced workers, a recognition partnership, a training permit, or self-employment. Only if the work is qualified employment and no other title fits is the card itself extended, for up to two years, and that needs the contract or a binding offer plus the Federal Employment Agency's agreement.
German is what the interview happens in
On the points route German above A1 is worth one, two or three points, and Make it in Germany recommends German on the skilled-worker route too, for the plain reason that you are going to Germany to be interviewed and hired. B1 is the level most employers and most later titles actually ask for.
You can start the search today, from where you are. The federal job listings, the guidance on where to look and on how a German application is put together are open to anyone. The 20-hour ceiling and the two-week trial rule apply once you are there; nothing stops you applying before.
What this tool will not tell you
It does not score you, does not say whether you qualify, and cannot tell you whether a document will be accepted. It turns claims into a list. The Consular Services Portal builds the personalised list that counts once you answer its questions, your own mission's website carries the complete one, and the German missions in India state plainly that submitting the listed documents does not guarantee a visa. Treat any site offering a guaranteed card or a "100% eligibility" verdict as telling you something it cannot know.
Where to go next
- Not sure which route applies? The requirements and documents guide sets both out side by side.
- Want the arithmetic? The points calculator scores your situation in your browser against the same points table.
- Ready to apply? How to apply online walks through the portal account, the uploads, the appointment and the deadlines that end an application early.
- German is the gap in your points? Which B1 exam to take and Goethe compared with telc are free here and written for people sitting the exam abroad.