The Small Print in Germany's Updated 190 Country Visa List

What the Federal Foreign Office list spells out

Germany's Federal Foreign Office maintains the official "Overview of visa requirements/exemptions for entry into the Federal Republic of Germany," covering 190 countries and territories and refreshed in early June. Each entry is marked "yes" or "no" for short-stay visa requirements, with footnotes covering biometric passport rules, SAR passport conditions and in-country residence permit options.

Visa-free travelers get the standard Schengen allowance: 90 days in any 180-day period, with no right to take up gainful employment. Anything longer or anything involving work, study or family reunification, still needs a national type D visa or a residence title from the local Ausländerbehörde.

Who reads the list differently

EU, EEA and Swiss nationals sit outside the framework entirely thanks to freedom of movement. For everyone else, the passport color matters.

• Visa-free for short stays: U.S., Canadian, U.K., Australian, New Zealand, Japanese, South Korean and Israeli passport holders, among others. Several of these nationalities can enter without a visa and then apply for a residence permit inside Germany.
• Visa-free with biometric passport only: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Ukraine.
• Visa required: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and most of Africa, even for short tourist trips.

Taiwanese passports qualify only if they include an ID card number. Hong Kong and Macao SAR passport holders get the 90-day allowance but can't work.

What remote workers and long-stay applicants should do

Check the country entry on the Federal Foreign Office site before booking, then read the footnotes. They carry the conditions that decide whether a passport actually clears the border.

Remote workers banking on visa-free entry should remember the 90/180 rule applies across the whole Schengen Area, so days spent in France, Spain or Italy count against the German allowance. The visa-free stay also bars gainful employment, which can cover remote work tied to German clients or a German employer.

Anyone planning to stay beyond 90 days needs a national visa lodged at a German mission abroad, unless their nationality permits in-country application for a residence title. More visa updates are tracked as the list shifts.

Read our full Germany guide for the complete picture.