The Blue Card was supposed to work like a U.S. Green Card, but unlike Green Cards, which anyone can apply for, the EU wanted to limit its Blue Cards to a select pool of highly educated, highly trained workers from around the globe who would fill the jobs left open due to Europe's declining birth rates.


Germany's minimum 2016 Blue Card job salary is 49,600 euros ($53,800), Plate said, compared to 48,400 euros ($52,500) in 2015. For in-demand jobs, the average salary for 2016 is 38,688 euros ($42,000), compared with 37,752 euros ($41,000) this year.

Downward Trend

Germany issued 12,108 Blue Cards in 2014 and has some of the lowest minimum salary thresholds of the 25 participating EU member states.

By comparison, France—which issues the second-highest number of Blue Cards after Germany (597 visas in 2014 or 4 percent of the total)—has a minimum 2015 salary of 53,331 euros ($57,800) with no exceptions.

Experts told Bloomberg BNA that Germany's high number of Blue Cards is due to a policy decision to keep salary thresholds low and to issue Blue Cards to international students immediately after they graduate from German universities.