Mobile ICT card
(Intra-Corporate-Transfer)
The Mobile ICT Card (Intra-Corporate Transfer)
The "Mobile ICT Card" is a residence title for ensuring the so-called long-term mobility of employees transferred within a company who are already entitled to reside or work in another EU country on the basis of an "ICT Card". This article explains how to apply for a Mobile ICT Card in Germany and what requirements must be met.
Advantages of the Mobile ICT Card
The Mobile ICT Card allows employees who work and live in one EU country on the basis of an ICT Card to work for the same company in another EU country for more than 90 days. This allows employees who have a Mobile ICT card and wish to transfer within the company to another country to extend the limits of their mobility within the European Union. For example, a citizen of the United Kingdom who has an ICT card for France can live and work in Germany for more than 90 days on the basis of a Mobile ICT Card.
The requirements for obtaining an ICT card
The employee's stay in the additional EU country based on the Mobile ICT Card may not be longer than the stay in the EU country for which the ICT Card was originally issued. In relation to the previous example, this means that the Briton described may not stay longer in Germany with his Mobile ICT Card than with his ICT Card in France.
For the Mobile ICT Card, the branch or subsidiary in Germany must inform the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees in advance about the employee with the Mobile ICT Card. For stays in EU countries lasting less than 90 days within a period of 180 days, on the other hand, no Mobile ICT Card is required.
This process usually takes several weeks and is often fraught with difficulties: Long procedures, unclear responsibilities and unclear regulations.
Short-term mobility in the EU (less than 90 days)
For work-related stays of less than 90 days in Germany, no German residence title is required. Holders of an ICT card from another EU member state are permitted to live and work in Germany for 90 days - within a total period of 180 days. The prerequisite: it must be a German branch of the same company or part of the same group of companies. And the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees must be informed. Ideally, the German authorities are informed at the time of the ICT card application in the first EU member state, or at the latest when the German company learns of the intended stay in Germany. If the German authorities are informed at the time of application for the ICT card in the first Member State, a 20-day period applies within which the short-term mobility can be rejected for certain reasons. If, on the other hand, the German authorities are informed after the ICT card has been issued from the first EU member state, there is no longer a right of refusal. However, the foreign employees can be expelled from Germany in accordance with the general rules on the right of residence, should these be relevant.
