Hi! Asking for a friend! He is an EU citizen living in Berlin since 10 years and works as a freelancer (pays taxes in his home country). Now he wants to study in Berlin but cannot afford to stop working. Ao can he combine both, even if he works more than 20hours? Specific question and I wasn’t sure where to get this information from. Thank you:)
Hello Ingar, thank you for your question.
In principle, If you came to Germany on a student visa, you can work 120 full (or 240 half-) days per year. If you exceed the 120-day limit, you must inform the immigration office. In other words, one can combine work with study. But there is a time limit to that. To make sure his student status is secure, your friend must not work more than 20 hours a week during the lecture period. If he does so, he is considered to be a regular worker, not a student having a side-job; and this affects both the type of health insurance that he has and his entitlement to BAföG (if he receives BAföG). The number of hours he can work during the semester breaks varies. For more information on this topic, you can check our article about it:
https://handbookgermany.de/en/student-jobs
If there is any part that is not clear to you, you can always reach ou to me from here.
All the best,
Su