Germany Freelance Permit: No Published Minimum Income

There is no official income number to aim for

If you are looking for Germany’s “digital nomad visa,” the answer is blunt: Germany has no dedicated digital-nomad visa. The closest route for remote freelancers in liberal professions is the freelance residence permit under §21 (5) AufenthG (the Aufenthaltserlaubnis zur Ausübung einer freiberuflichen Tätigkeit).

The practical catch is that this permit does not come with a target income figure. There is no minimum monthly income published in euros or in any other currency, and no published proof-of-funds amount, even though proof of funds is required. No statutory minimum income, proof-of-funds sum, or insurance minimum is published centrally.

Instead, the figure is set by the body handling your case: it is assessed case-by-case by the competent mission or local Ausländerbehörde, and no fixed family surcharge is published either. So you cannot copy a number from a table; the bar is whether you can show you are self-supporting to the satisfaction of the office reviewing your file, and that can differ between offices. We rate this medium-confidence, partly because that core figure simply does not exist as a single published value.

The six-month line that turns you into a German taxpayer

The tax treatment is standard resident, with no special nomad regime. Tax residency is generally triggered at 183 days, and the reason matters: unlimited tax liability arises from having a residence (§8 AO) or a habitual abode (§9 AO), and an unbroken stay of over six months is generally treated as a habitual abode.

For the permit, that timing is hard to avoid. It is issued initially for up to 36 months, and renewal depends on staying self-supporting. A multi-year permit, used as intended, means living in Germany well past the six-month mark, which generally puts your worldwide income into Germany’s standard progressive tax rates. There is no exempt category or flat regime here, so plan on being taxed as an ordinary German resident rather than as a visiting remote worker.

Insurance is required, but the amount is open too

Health insurance is explicitly required for the permit, for the full visa period. As with income, no minimum coverage sum is published centrally. Accepted cover is statutory (GKV) or private (PKV) after entry, and German-issued expat products are the likeliest fit because they can produce the visa-compliance documents German authorities ask for. International plans may not be accepted, since their acceptance against the GKV/PKV system is not confirmed.

One published number does exist: the application fee is EUR 100. Beyond that, the path is longer-term by design, with a settlement permit generally possible after five years and routes to both permanent residence and citizenship available.

So treat this less as a fixed-threshold visa and more as a case-by-case assessment: gather strong evidence that you can support yourself and your work, and confirm exact figures with the specific German mission or Ausländerbehörde handling your application. These details were last verified on 2026-06-15.