Werkstudent jobs in Germany for international students: the 140-day rule, the 20-hour rule and the 18-month job search permit

Germany lets international students work while they study, and a Werkstudent job, a part-time role with a real team while you are enrolled, can be a route into a graduate job there. The rules that govern it are specific, and they come from two different parts of German law. This post sets out what the law and the official sources say as of September 2026. It is not legal advice: your Ausländerbehörde, the local foreigners' authority, decides your case, and your university's International Office is the first place to ask.

Two sets of rules, not one

• Residence law, the Aufenthaltsgesetz or Residence Act, decides how much a student from outside the EU may work at all.
• Social insurance rules decide whether a job counts as a Werkstudent job, which changes which contributions are due. These apply to German and international students alike.

Students from the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are in a different position. The DAAD says they have unrestricted access to the German labour market and practically the same rights as German students, though the same insurance rule applies to them above 20 hours a week.

The 140 working day account

Section 16b of the Residence Act covers residence for study. Its third paragraph says the residence permit entitles the holder only to employment that does not exceed 140 working days a year in total, which the law calls the Arbeitstagekonto, the working day account. Student part-time jobs, studentische Nebentätigkeiten, are not counted.

Part-time work is counted in whichever way is more favourable to the student, decided separately for each calendar week:

• By the day: a day on which you work up to four hours counts as half a working day, and a longer day counts as a full one.
• By the week: a calendar week counts as two and a half working days, during the lecture period if you work up to 20 hours in that week, and outside the lecture period regardless of how the hours are spread.

The DAAD, Germany's academic exchange service, summarises the result as 140 full days or 280 half days a year. It adds three points worth knowing:

• Self-employed work or freelancing is only possible if the Ausländerbehörde permits it.
• Students who want to work more than the limit need permission from the Agentur für Arbeit and the Ausländerbehörde, and the DAAD says this is granted only in cases of special financial need.
• There is no limit on the days academic assistants may work, but they still have to inform the foreigners' office.

The same section also says the purpose of study includes completing a mandatory internship, a Pflichtpraktikum. If your programme requires one, ask your International Office how it is treated before you sign.

The Werkstudent 20-hour rule

The second 20-hour rule has nothing to do with immigration. It decides whether a job qualifies as a Werkstudent job for social insurance. The Bundesagentur für Arbeit, on its meinBERUF guidance for students, sets out the basics as of 2026:

• A Werkstudent job must not negatively affect your studies.
• During the semester you may generally work at most 20 hours a week, otherwise your Werkstudent status can lapse.
• In the lecture-free period you may work significantly more than 20 hours a week without losing the status.
• Contributions to health, long-term care and unemployment insurance generally do not apply to students, as long as certain conditions are met.

The DAAD puts the consequence plainly: work more than 20 hours a week and you will have to pay health, unemployment and nursing care insurance contributions, and your studies will suffer.

Where the two rules meet, the arithmetic is simple. A Werkstudent job of up to 20 hours a week in the lecture period keeps the insurance status under the Bundesagentur's rule, and under the Residence Act's weekly method each such week counts as two and a half days on the working day account. Keep a record of your weekly hours and payslips either way.

Minijobs and short-term jobs

Not every student job is a Werkstudent job. The Bundesagentur's guidance lists the other common types, with figures as of 2026:

• Minijob: you may not exceed average earnings of 603 euros a month, or 7,236 euros across the year.
• Short-term employment: at most three months in a row or 70 working days in a calendar year, without a weekly hour limit.
• Income tax: none is due if you stay under the basic tax-free allowance of 12,348 euros a year as a single person, whatever the job type.
• Working time law applies to every job: from age 18, eight hours on a working day, or up to ten if the average of eight is restored within six months.

The DAAD states that Germany's statutory minimum wage has stood at 13.90 euros an hour since January 2026. For a student from outside the EU, all of these jobs still sit inside the 140 working day account unless they are student part-time jobs that the law excludes.

Finding a Werkstudent role outside engineering

Nothing in these rules is specific to engineering: they apply in the same way to a Werkstudent role in marketing, operations, finance, HR or data. The DAAD suggests the regional offices of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, university student services and university job boards as places to look, and recommends a job connected to your degree where possible.

• Read the posting's language. Whether it is written in German, and whether it asks for German, tells you more about the day-to-day than the title does.
• Check the weekly hours offered against both 20-hour rules before you apply, not after the offer.
• Browse roles open in Germany and filter by function: marketing, data, operations, finance, product.

A note on Heilbronn

Heilbronn is home to TUM Campus Heilbronn, part of the Technical University of Munich. Its study programme page lists a Bachelor in Management and Data Science taught 100% in English, a Bachelor in Information Engineering taught in English with some German electives, and three master's programmes taught 100% in English: Management, Management and Digital Technology, and Information Engineering. The work rules in this post are federal law and apply in Heilbronn exactly as they do in Berlin or Munich.

After graduation: the 18-month job search permit

Section 20 of the Residence Act covers looking for work after a stay in Germany. Its first paragraph says a residence permit to look for employment is granted to a foreign national who has successfully completed studies in Germany during a residence under section 16b or 16c, provided the work sought is work that foreigners may take up under the provisions the paragraph lists.

• Duration: the permit is issued for up to 18 months.
• Condition: it requires that your livelihood is secured, which the law calls Lebensunterhaltssicherung.
• Limit: extension beyond that period is excluded.

What you may do while searching is written on the permit itself. Section 4a of the Residence Act requires every residence title to show whether employment is permitted and whether it is restricted. Read yours, and ask the Ausländerbehörde about anything it does not make clear, including when to apply before your student permit ends.

A short checklist

• Know which job type you hold: Werkstudent, minijob, short-term, or a university job.
• Track your working days or weeks against the 140 day account, and keep payslips.
• Keep lecture-period weeks at or under 20 hours unless you have checked the consequences under both rules.
• Do not freelance without the Ausländerbehörde's permission.
• Plan the switch to the 18-month search permit early, and confirm the steps with your Ausländerbehörde.

A Werkstudent job is the closest thing Germany has to a long interview. When the graduate role opens, the student who can show what they did, and a verified skill behind it, is the one the team already trusts.