Software developer CV for Germany, with or without a degree

Do this first: count your IT months

If you have no university degree, your route to a German work permit as a developer depends on one number: months of qualifying IT work inside the last seven years. Count them before you write a line of the CV, because your CV, your references and your contracts have to give the same dates.

1. List every job, freelance contract and employment since seven years before your planned application date, with start and end as month and year.
2. Next to each, write what you mainly did: wrote code, designed systems, ran databases or networks, managed an IT service, or supported users.
3. Mark the jobs whose main work matches the IT groups listed in the next section.
4. Add up the marked months. Section 18g(2) asks for at least three years, so 36 months.
5. Collect proof for each marked job: contract, employer reference, payslips or your social security record.

If you fall short, the Blue Card IT rule is not open to you yet; the Chancenkarte page covers the points route, which is another way in.

The Blue Card for IT professionals without a degree

Section 18g(2) of the Residence Act lets the authorities issue a Blue Card to someone who does not meet the degree requirement, if the job falls in ISCO-08 group 133 or 25. Three things must be true: a salary of at least 45.3 percent of the pension contribution ceiling, the Federal Employment Agency's consent, and skills that rest on at least three years of experience gained in the last seven years in those groups, at a level comparable to a degree, and needed for the job. The contract must cover at least six months.

The 2026 amount comes from the Interior Ministry's notice in the Bundesanzeiger of 18 December 2025, read on 12 October 2026. The BA's international service describes the rule the same way: a qualified academic-level IT position and at least three years of relevant experience at that level in the past seven years.

Which jobs count: ISCO-08 groups 25 and 133

Group 35, ICT technicians, is a separate ILO group and is not named in Section 18g(2). It includes 3512, ICT user support technicians. Years spent mainly on help-desk work therefore fit the rule's wording badly; if your role mixed support and development, describe the development part with its share of your time.

The BA check can raise the salary

Because the Federal Employment Agency must consent, it compares your pay, hours and leave with those of local staff in the same job. Its international service says this may mean a salary above the Blue Card minimum.

If you do have a degree

Then the ordinary Blue Card rules and the anabin check apply; the Blue Card page covers them, including how to write the degree line.

What a developer CV for a German employer contains

A grouped skills block

List skills in groups a reader can scan: languages, frameworks, data, cloud and infrastructure, practices. Give a level in words or years of use, not bars or stars, and use the spelling from the job ad. Put only what you could discuss in a technical interview; the project lines below each role are where the skills are proved.

GitHub and portfolio links

GitHub lets you pin up to six public repositories and gists to your profile, so choose the ones you want a reviewer to open. By default your contribution graph shows only public activity; you can choose to include private repositories, with the details anonymised. Link the profile once in the header, and add a repository link next to a project only when the code is yours and public.

English-speaking teams

Read the language of the ad and of the team description. When the ad is in English, an English CV in German structure is the natural reply; when it is in German, use German. The page on choosing the CV language for Germany covers the decision and how to state your German level.

The job title and licensing

A German compound such as Softwareingenieur contains the protected word Ingenieur; the engineer CV page explains the state rules. 'Softwareentwickler' or the English title from your contract avoids the issue. No licence is needed for the work itself: the ZAB lists computer scientist as an example of a non-regulated profession.

Sample skills block and two project lines

Written for a backend role at a German company. Every tool, number and employer below is a placeholder showing the form; write your own, and only figures you can back up.

Project line 1: payments service

Project line 2: internal data tool

Each after line names the stack, a measured result, the team size and your own part. For the Blue Card IT rule, that last item matters: it is how a reader sees work at a level comparable to a degree.

Proof: where each rule comes from

Read on 12 October 2026; links are under Sources.

Thresholds change every year and immigration rules change. Check the linked official pages before applying.

Who this does not fit

• Developers with fewer than 36 qualifying months in the last seven years.
• People whose IT work was mainly user support or hardware repair.
• Graduates: you go through the degree route and anabin instead.
• Students looking for part-time developer work: the Werkstudent page covers working-hour limits.

Next steps

1. Finish the month count and gather the proof for each job.
2. Write the skills block and rewrite your two strongest projects in the after form.
3. Choose the CV language from the job ad and put the CV into the German tabular structure.
4. Pin the repositories you want reviewed and check that their READMEs explain what they do.

CitedCV can turn the jobs, dates and project facts you give it into an English or German CV with German conventions. Each line is tied to a fact you entered, which helps when an authority checks your dates against your references.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. Section 18g AufenthG, Blaue Karte EU (gesetze-im-internet.de)www.gesetze-im-internet.de/aufenthg_2004/__18g.html
2. Bundesministerium des Innern, Mindestgehälter Blaue Karte EU 2026, BAnz AT 18.12.2025 B3www.bundesanzeiger.de/pub/publication/REViP4bN6jVdpGxPaiQ/content/REViP4bN6jVdpGxPaiQ/BAnz%20AT%2018.12.2025%20B3.pdf
3. Bundesagentur für Arbeit, ZAV International Services, EU Blue Card (issue 03/2026)www.arbeitsagentur.de/vor-ort/zav/working-and-living-in-germany/iss-en/issue-03-2026/blue-card
4. International Labour Organization, ISCO-08isco.ilo.org/en/isco-08/
5. GitHub Docs, Pinning items to your profiledocs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/how-tos/profile-customization/pinning-items-to-your-profile
6. GitHub Docs, Contributions on your profiledocs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/concepts/contributions-on-your-profile
7. ZAB, Regulated and non-regulated professionszab.kmk.org/en/regulated-professions