New Flophouse Address:

You will find all the posts, comments, and reading lists (old and some new ones I just published) here:
https://francoamericanflophouse.wordpress.com/

Thursday, June 9, 2011

European Blue Card - Update June 2011

The Blue Card, an EU-wide work permit, was voted back in 2009 with implementation planned for Summer 2011 in all member states except the UK, Ireland and Denmark.

The new status would cover "any third country national applying to be admitted in an EU Member State to fill a job requiring high professional qualifications (engineers, IT professionals, medical professionals, etc.), including university students having completed their undergraduate studies." You can read more about the original proposal in the European Commission's Citizen's Summary here or Eur-Lex here.

Last time we talked about this it appeared that implementation was stalled in the participating members states' Parliaments and at that time there was no visibility on when or how their governments would start accepting applications.

Look like things are finally moving. Apparently Bulgaria is the first EU state to implement, Slovakia is right behind and the others are supposed to be ready by July 1, 2011. We'll see - the EU member-states are masters at the art of procrastination when it comes to implementing EU directives.

According to this website, Bulgaria started accepting applications on June 1, 2011. I was able to confirm on the Republic of Bulgaria National Assembly website that it was indeed adopted but I have been unable to find out how one goes about applying. A search of the official Bulgarian government website did not reveal more information. If anyone has a link, please pass it along. Another option would be to go through some of the private immigration services websites like this one. Please note that there may be some restrictions in the way Bulgaria is applying the directive. The Sofia Echo says, "The Bulgarian version of the law says that holders of Blue Cards issued by the country would be allowed to work only in Bulgaria for the first two years and only for the employer specified in the application for the card. After that, with Employment Agency permission, a card holder may change employers."

I also checked to see how far along France is in implementing. This site says there is progress but no definitive news yet.

That's it for now. If anyone has news from other member states, please post the information in the comments section. I'll be following this closely and will share what I find out.

16 comments:

arvind said...

Good information , I am also following it but it seems it is bit slow in terms of implementation. 19 June 2011 is the EU target to implement Blue Card. Some Eu country are in Austria , Bulgaria, Czech etc.
It would be good if leading economy should open up first. Germany , France, Netherland etc. Very few Consultants are aware of this implementation. Keep posting your updates.

Cheers
Arvind

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Thank you, arvind, for stopping by. Good to hear that this information is useful. I agree 100% that it would be nice to have the larger countries move more quickly on this. All the best.

Allumette said...

I've been looking forward to June 19 for a long time now. My problem is finding how/where to apply. That little bit of important information is lacking on many sites. I'll check back here for more info. Merci!

Anonymous said...

Netherlands has started I guess

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Hi and thanks for the comment about The Netherlands. I checked and couldn't find more information on the Net so if you have a link, it would be great if you could post it. Many thanks,

Victoria

Zubair said...

Hi i found this link on the web for blue card in netherlands.
http://www.iamexpat.nl/read-and-discuss/expat-page/news/press-release-european-blue-card-ind-june-2011

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Thanks for the link, Zubair. I followed it through to the official government website and I was quite surprised by the conditions: diploma assessment and a salary floor of 60,000 Euros. It seems that the conditions for the Blue card as implemented in The Netherlands are tougher than their own Highly Skilled Migrant Program?I'm trying to determine what is the logic behind that. Would they prefer people to apply for the country program as opposed to the EU one? Not sure. Anyone have any ideas?

arvind said...

As per my info ..Netherland have things in place. There official site would be www.ind.nl . This is the official site. More information you can get here. Other major Germany, france etc are in process of transposition of law in there own country. At present it is very difficult to get Work permit in Germany. Due to some internal changes in departments.
Cheers
Arvind

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Thank you so much, arvind, for the link. I checked out the site and it's very well-organized and has some great info. I have some news about France too and I'll post it today.

Again, thank so much and all the best,

Victoria

Rock said...

Any update on the sweden blue card ?

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Hi Rock,

Thanks for stopping by. I hadn't looked at Sweden yet but I'll check it out and if I find anything I will include it in my next update. In the meantime, if anyone else has any information, please post it in the comments section.

All the best,

Victoria

arvind said...

Here is the latest update on Eu blue card.- http://www.staffingindustry.com/Research-Publications/Publications/CWS-30/August-3-2011-Vol.-3.18/Europe-s-Blue-Card

Above is just article but need verify once again.

Cheers
Arvind

Victoria FERAUGE said...

That is a great site, arvind. Thank you for the link.

I must confess that this is all a bit frustrating - there does not seem to be any central agency where one can go for information and updates about the implementation. So getting info is really a country by country search and sometimes you have to dig really deeply into their websites to find anything useful. I'll keep watching the sites I've already posted and we'll see what happens. The minute I find something interesting, I'll put it right up. Thanks again to you, arvind, and to others who have posted links to useful articles and websites. Feel free to add more. :-)

arvind said...

Hello,

Here is another link of a consultant-http://www.immigrationlaw.com/newsletters/2011global0706.html . Blue Card is moving but bit slow. We may see son some update on Germany and France transposition.

Victoria FERAUGE said...

Thanks for the link, arvind. I haven't seen anything for France yet but that's understandable given that the entire country is on vacation until September :-)

I'd be very interested in getting more information about Blue Card implementation in Germany. If anyone has a link, please post it or send me an email and I'll add it to the next update.

Victoria FERAUGE said...

I forgot to mention that I have created a section on the blog regrouping all of the posts and links concerning the Blue Card. Just go to the sidebar on the right, scroll down past "Flophouse Favorites" and you'll see a section called "European Blue Card'. Hope this makes things easier for everyone to find information.

All the best,

Victoria