Hiring a Japanese Chef in Berlin: LEA, BIS and the Fast Track

Berlin has a smaller Japanese community than Düsseldorf or Munich, and that shapes how a Japanese restaurant there should recruit. What sets the city apart is its administration: Berlin's immigration office runs a dedicated service for employers, and all applications for work residence titles now go online. This guide covers those Berlin specifics. The German legal routes themselves, including the specialty cook rule, are explained in our Germany guide.

1. Berlin in numbers

• 4,165 Japanese nationals lived in Berlin on 1 October 2025, according to Japan's foreign ministry, up 0.4% on the year. Berlin ranks 41st among the world's cities in the ministry's list.
• Two German cities have larger communities: Düsseldorf (7,010) and Munich (5,039).
• Germany as a whole had 44,648 Japanese nationals, and Japan's agriculture ministry found the number of Japanese restaurants in Germany rose by about 290 between 2023 and 2025.

For a Berlin kitchen, this means the local pool of Japanese speaking cooks is thinner than in the west or south of the country. Expect to look further afield, either to cooks already elsewhere in Germany or the EU, or to Japan itself.

2. Berlin's immigration office and the Business Immigration Service

In Berlin, the foreigners' authority is the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA). Two things about it matter to employers.

Online applications only

The LEA asks that applications for residence titles for employment be made only through its online forms. The employer fills in the form "Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis" (declaration on the employment relationship, with a job description), and the application needs a firm job offer or, better, an employment contract. The LEA then consults the Federal Employment Agency (BA) internally where BA approval is required. There is no separate work permit document: permission to work is written into the residence title.

The Business Immigration Service (BIS)

The LEA runs a Business Immigration Service together with the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK Berlin) and Berlin Partner. It is aimed at companies that employ foreign staff living in Berlin. According to the LEA, it offers:

• initial advice on residence and work permit questions;
• issuing and extending residence titles for employment, including the EU Blue Card, and titles for family members;
• the accelerated skilled worker procedure, for employers with a business site in Berlin.

Companies, or service providers and lawyers acting for them, must register with the BIS before it will process an application. Registration is free. For a restaurant group planning more than one hire, registering early is worth the small effort.

3. The accelerated skilled worker procedure in Berlin

The accelerated procedure (beschleunigtes Fachkräfteverfahren, §81a of the Residence Act) is started by the employer on behalf of a skilled worker abroad who already has a contract. Berlin's LEA sets out the timeline:

Recognition authorities charge their own fees on top, which are not included in the procedure.

How useful is this for a Japanese cook? Less than for most nationalities. Under §41 of the Residence Ordinance, Japanese nationals can enter Germany without a visa even for a long stay and obtain the residence title in Germany, applying within 90 days of entry. The visa steps, which the accelerated procedure mainly speeds up, can therefore be skipped. The procedure is most relevant when you want the qualification recognition and BA approval settled before the cook travels, for example for the §18a skilled worker route, which requires recognition.

4. Which route for a Japanese cook

The legal options are the same in Berlin as anywhere in Germany. In brief:

• Specialty cook (§11(2) BeschV). Full-time work in a specialty restaurant, with a first approval of up to one year and up to four years in total. The BA allows a maximum of two specialty cooks per site. The cook needs a two-year culinary school training plus two years' work.
• Any employment for Japanese nationals (§26(1) BeschV). Japan is one of a small number of countries whose nationals the BA can approve for any job, with a priority check.
• Skilled worker routes (§18a AufenthG, §6 BeschV). §18a is for cooks whose training is recognised as equivalent to German vocational training. §6 is for people with a state-recognised qualification of at least two years plus two years' experience in the last five, subject to a salary threshold unless the employer pays under a collective agreement.

Conditions, documents and the BA's criteria are in the Germany guide. For a Berlin restaurant, the practical question is which of these the LEA and BA will accept for your candidate, and the BIS is the place to ask.

5. Pay floor

Germany's statutory minimum wage is €13.90 an hour from 1 January 2026, rising to €14.60 on 1 January 2027. For any sponsored route, though, the BA compares your offer with what comparable local workers earn, so the legal minimum is not the benchmark. Check the hospitality collective agreement that applies in Berlin and pay at or above the relevant grade.

6. A Berlin hiring plan

1. Search locally and across Germany first, including Japanese language channels. Berlin's own pool is limited, so widen the net.
2. Register your company with the LEA's Business Immigration Service if you expect to sponsor.
3. Choose the legal basis with your adviser: §11, §26, §18a or §6.
4. Prepare the employer declaration and a contract with gross pay in line with local rates.
5. Either use the accelerated procedure before travel, or have the cook enter visa free and apply online to the LEA within 90 days.
6. After arrival, register the cook's address and complete onboarding. See onboarding a chef from Japan.

To reach Japanese cooks already in Germany and the EU, you can post a job on WashokuJob.

General information gathered from official sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Procedures at the LEA change; confirm with the LEA, the BA or a qualified adviser before acting.