Pre-Relocation Support: What Happens Before Day One
Pre-relocation support in Germany addresses the phase most companies overlook entirely. Between contract signing and the first day at work, international professionals from non-EU countries typically face three to six months of simultaneous tasks. All of these have to be managed from abroad, in a foreign language, within a bureaucratic system they’ve never encountered before.
This is the fourth article in our blog series on the international employee journey. Following the overview, Phase 1 on international attraction and Phase 2 on recruiting and the pre-check, we now reach the phase that has no equivalent in domestic hiring.
Why this phase has the highest dropout rate
For a German candidate, the time between signing a contract and starting work is relatively straightforward. Give notice, move if necessary, begin. For a skilled professional relocating from India, Nigeria, Vietnam, or Turkey, however, the same timeframe looks fundamentally different.
The visa application alone involves multiple steps before a single document reaches the embassy. Certificates need to be officially translated and apostilled, which can take weeks or months depending on the country. The embassy appointment then requires separate booking. At high-volume locations in countries like India or Turkey, waiting times of several months are not unusual. Once the application is submitted, processing typically takes up to four months, as the Make it in Germany portal confirms.
Employers who know about the accelerated skilled worker procedure under § 81a of the Residence Act can initiate part of this process from within Germany. Since this shortens overall timelines significantly, companies that use this option gain a meaningful advantage when competing for the same candidates.
What runs simultaneously
While the visa is being processed, every other question remains open. Where will the family live in the first weeks after arrival? Finding housing from abroad is challenging even for locals on the German rental market. For someone without a Schufa credit history or a German bank account, it’s a serious obstacle without active housing support.
Children need nursery places or school enrolments. Many of these have their own registration deadlines, so early planning matters. If a partner is accompanying the move and wants to work, their job search begins alongside everything else. The old rental contract abroad needs to be terminated. Furniture, household goods, pets — everything needs to be reorganised within a new logistical reality.
All of this happens in a language many are still learning. Although Germany has made real progress in simplifying immigration procedures, the bureaucratic system still takes most locals years to navigate with confidence.
What companies can do in this phase
Employers who are genuinely present during the pre-relocation phase build trust before the professional has even boarded a plane. That shapes the entire subsequent relationship, although many companies don’t realise this until it’s too late.
What makes the difference in practice: a named contact person who is reachable for documentation questions; active immigration and visa support with knowledge of specific embassy requirements; local housing assistance that can arrange and conduct viewings on the candidate’s behalf; and early coordination of schooling and childcare for families with children.
These are not large-scale programmes. They are specific, practical steps that together communicate something important: that the company means what it said during the recruiting process.
What this phase reveals about the process as a whole
The pre-relocation phase is a reliable indicator of how structured an organisation’s international hiring actually is. Because companies that improvise here tend to improvise at every subsequent stage too, the effects show up later in onboarding quality, retention rates, and time to productivity.
A structured process in this phase measurably reduces dropout rates. Professionals who feel well supported through the visa process arrive differently from those who navigated it alone. The difference shows up not just in satisfaction, but in how quickly they become productive and how long they stay.
HereLocation supports companies in building a complete relocation process from legal pre-check through to successful arrival. The next part of this series covers Phase 4: Arrival and Settling, the first weeks in Germany after the move.
Follow us on LinkedIn to catch the next instalment, or get in touch to discuss what a structured pre-relocation process could look like for your organisation.
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