Germany makes it easy for software professionals

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MAY 12. The changes made in the minimum eligibility requirement for the German green card are expected to attract Indian software professionals, said analysts. Indian computer software professionals had earlier spurned the invitation by Germany as they found the terms and conditions for getting the green card a little too tough and humiliating.

The green card initiative was announced late this winter and although the Federal Labour Agency received 100 inquiries every day, the German computer industry felt the rules were too stringent to attract too many professionals in the present milieu where top software professionals were being courted by top computer companies.

With the time for application and issuing reduced to six weeks and removal of the minimum eligibility criteria of a degree in computers scrapped, it is hoped that skilled computer and information technology specialists from outside the European Union will help fill some German IT industry's 75,000 vacancies.

The German Government announced a ``flexible and practical'' compromise in issuing green cards after interacting with the local computer industry whose representatives said the present terms and conditions to get the green card were too tough to attract software professionals from low income countries, primarily India. The government agreed to issue permits as quickly as possible and with minimum of redtape. To assure that companies would be getting top talent, the Government had stipulated a university degree in a computer-related discipline. At the industry's request,it was agreed that proof of an annual salary of at least $50,000 could be offered as evidence of necessary level of professional expertise.

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Section  : National
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