The salary floor of Germany's esports visa rule for foreign players

Germany writes esports into its employment rules for foreign nationals by name. A German club that wants to sign a player from abroad can have the player's residence title issued without the approval of the Federal Employment Agency, provided three conditions set in a federal ordinance are met: the player's age, the player's salary and a confirmation from the national esports federation.

The salary condition is the one that decides most cases, because it is a fixed number that changes every year. It is tied to a figure of the German pension system, and in 2026 it stands at €50,700 a year.

This guide explains where the rule sits in German law, what each of the three conditions requires, how the salary floor is calculated and how it has moved, which competitions the federation recognizes, how the short-stay rule for tournaments differs, and what the rule leaves to the authorities in each case.

Section 22 of the Employment Ordinance; German Pension Insurance figures for 2026, also given by Make it in Germany; E-Sport-Bund Deutschland list as of January 31, 2026.

Where the rule sits in German law

The rule is part of the Beschäftigungsverordnung, the Employment Ordinance, the federal text that says when a foreign national may be employed in Germany and when the Federal Employment Agency must approve it.

Section 22 of the ordinance opens with one clause that governs everything below it: no approval is required for granting a residence title to the people it then lists. In other words, for these groups the authorities can issue the residence title without the Federal Employment Agency's approval.

Nine groups follow. Several cover short engagements by people who keep their usual residence abroad: lectures and performances of particular scientific or artistic value, or of a sporting character, for up to 90 days in twelve months; people at festivals, guest performances and foreign film and television productions for the same period; day performances for up to 15 days a year; tour guides accompanying foreign groups and interpreters working for foreign companies, again for up to 90 days in twelve months. Others cover models, and domestic workers who accompany their employer to Germany. Number 4 covers professional athletes and coaches. Number 5 covers esports.

The E-Sport-Bund Deutschland, the national esports federation known as the ESBD, says on its visa page that the long-term rule came out of legal changes linked to the federal government's migration package of 2019. The same page describes a short-term route as well, covered later in this guide.

Who number 5 covers

Number 5 is written for people who practice esports professionally in the form of a competition between persons. The wording matters in two ways.

First, it is about competition. The ordinance does not cover every job in gaming: it covers players who compete. Creators, casters, analysts and other staff are not named in number 5.

Second, it is about professional practice for a German employer. The player is to work for a German club or a comparable esports organization that takes part in competitions. The ESBD describes the route as the long-term visa that lets professional players from outside the European Union join a German team under an employment contract, for tournaments, league play and training, and says it applies to stays of more than 90 days.

Make it in Germany, the information portal on working in Germany, adds a line on what professional means here: a player counts as an esports professional when the activity pays more than an expense allowance.

For each such player, number 5 sets three conditions. All three must be met for the residence title to be issued without the agency's approval.

Condition one: the age of 16

The ordinance requires that the player has completed the sixteenth year of life, which means the player has turned 16. The ESBD's page restates it plainly: professional esports players must have reached the age of 16.

The threshold is the same as for professional athletes and coaches under number 4. It is a condition of this route only: section 22 says nothing else about the player's age.

Condition two: the salary floor

The heart of the rule is a pay condition. The club or organization must pay the player a gross salary of at least 50 percent of the contribution ceiling of the statutory pension insurance.

Gross salary is the pay before income tax and social security contributions are deducted. The ESBD's page puts the condition in contract terms: the salary agreed in the contract must reach at least 50 percent of the ceiling.

The contribution ceiling, the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze, is a figure of the German social security system, given in euros per month and per year. Its values are fixed in an ordinance on the social security calculation values for each year, so the esports salary floor follows a new figure each year. The pension insurance noted in September 2025 that the ordinance for 2026 had first to be adopted by the federal government and then needed the consent of the Bundesrat, the chamber of the states.

For 2026, the German Pension Insurance gives the ceiling of the general pension insurance as €8,450 a month, or €101,400 a year, as it announced in September 2025 with the other social security figures for 2026. Half of it is the floor for an esports player in 2026: €4,225 a month, or €50,700 a year. Make it in Germany gives the same annual figure for esports players: a gross salary of at least €50,700 a year, as of 2026.

The figure that counts is the ceiling of the general pension insurance. The pension insurance publishes a second, higher ceiling for the miners' pension scheme, €10,400 a month or €124,800 a year in 2026, which is not the one the esports floor is calculated from: number 5 refers to the ceiling of the statutory pension insurance, and the pension insurance gives the general figure for it.

How the floor has moved

Because the floor follows the ceiling, it rises with it. The ESBD's visa page still prints the figures of 2021, when the rule had two values: €3,550 a month, or €42,600 a year, in western Germany, and €3,350 a month, or €40,200 a year, in eastern Germany. The pension insurance's figures for 2026 carry no such split: each is a single value.

The 2026 floor of €50,700 is €8,100 above the western figure of 2021.

A worked example shows why the year matters. Take a contract, with illustrative figures, that pays €3,800 gross a month, or €45,600 over a year. Measured against the western floor of 2021, €42,600, it cleared the condition by €3,000. Measured against the floor of 2026, €50,700, the same contract falls €5,100 short, and no longer meets number 5 on its own terms.

The floor is a minimum for this route, not a salary scale. It says nothing about what clubs pay their players in general, and the ordinance sets no maximum. A contract below the floor does not meet number 5; whether another route under German immigration law is open to the player is a separate question, decided on the case.

Condition three: the federation's confirmation

The third condition is a confirmation from the German umbrella federation responsible for esports. Number 5 asks it to confirm two things: that the player practices esports professionally, and that the form of esports in question is of considerable national or international importance.

The ESBD is the body that gives this confirmation. Its page says the ESBD must have confirmed that the activity is carried out professionally, and that it confirms both the professional practice and the national or international significance.

The confirmation does not have to be requested player by player. Under the system the ESBD describes, it is deemed given when the player takes part in a qualified competition and the organizer confirms that participation. The federation keeps a list of these competitions, under criteria it drew up with game esports, the esports branch of the German games industry association. For a league or tournament that is not on the list, the ESBD checks the same criteria itself and can issue an individual confirmation.

How a competition gets on the list

The ESBD sets four criteria for a league or a tournament series to count as a qualified competition of national or international importance.

It must hold one or more events in Germany each year. Its game must carry an age rating from the USK, Germany's body for the age classification of games, or, for events played only online, a rating under the international IARC system. It must rank among the three most-watched formats of its game nationally, or among the ten most-watched internationally, measured by peak viewers, average minute audience or hours watched, and it must hold a license from the game's publisher. And its organizer must have measures against cheating, doping, match-fixing and illegal betting by participants on their own matches.

Organizers apply to the ESBD with a form and supporting evidence. After examining the documents, the federation informs them of its decision in writing. The ESBD says the official list is also published by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

The application form shows what the federation looks at. It is filled in by the organizer of the league or tournament, under its full name as entered in the commercial register. The organizer names the competition, its platform (PC, PlayStation, Xbox, mobile or another) and its games, and states whether it is a member of the ESBD and of game, the German games industry association.

The rest of the form follows the criteria. The organizer gives the dates of the competition and says whether the series has been held regularly, for example every year, or is planned to recur. It gives the certified age rating of the games, USK or IARC. For relevance, it supplies viewership statistics from Esports Charts, a data company that measures audiences; the form compares each game's competitions by audience and names peak concurrent viewers, average minute audience and broadcast hours as examples of the measures used. It provides proof of its measures against fraud, and confirms that its conditions of participation take German law into account, with an explanation if they do not. A last box confirms that the data is truthful and may be used for visa applications.

The form gives no fee, no deadline and no period of validity for a listing.

The list as of January 31, 2026

The ESBD's list, dated January 31, 2026, holds nine competitions. The document states that each one is a qualified gaming operation in esports under number 5 of section 22, and that athletes who qualify to take part in them are confirmed in principle as practicing esports professionally.

The list covers six games. League of Legends has three entries, from the national Prime League to the LEC, the top league of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Counter-Strike 2 has two, one of them a single event, the IEM Cologne Major of 2026. One entry, the Brawl Stars competition, is played on mobile, and the Virtual Bundesliga of the German football league is played on PlayStation. The document gives no validity period for its entries.

Seven of the nine entries are played on PC. The list is narrower than the range of games the federation is ready to examine: its application form offers a checklist of 16 titles, among them Dota 2, which has no entry on the January 2026 list, and leaves room for others. A game that is not on the list is not excluded from the rule. Its players need an individual confirmation from the ESBD, or a competition organizer who applies and is listed.

Athletes and coaches under number 4

Number 5 sits next to the rule for traditional sport, and the two are close.

Number 4 covers professional athletes and coaches who are to work for German sports clubs or comparable institutions taking part in competitive sport. It sets the same age of 16 and the same salary condition: a gross salary of at least 50 percent of the pension insurance contribution ceiling. The difference is in the confirmation. For athletes and coaches, the German umbrella federation responsible for the sport confirms the sporting qualification of the athlete or the professional aptitude of the coach, in agreement with the German Olympic Sports Confederation.

Esports has no such link to the Olympic confederation in the ordinance. Its confirmation comes from the esports federation alone, and it covers players only: number 5 has no provision for esports coaches.

Short stays for tournaments

A team that comes to Germany only to play an event does not need the long-term route. The ESBD says the short-term visa for esports falls under number 1 of section 22 and applies to stays of up to 90 days. In the ordinance, number 1 is the provision for lectures and performances, among them performances of a sporting character, by people who keep their usual residence abroad.

Number 1 sets the period at no more than 90 days within twelve months. Within that limit, the residence title is again issued without the Federal Employment Agency's approval. A player who joins a German club for a season, by contrast, stays longer than 90 days and falls under number 5, with its age, salary and confirmation conditions.

Applying, and what the rule leaves open

The application goes to the German embassy or consulate in the player's home country, the ESBD says, and some embassies accept it online. The length of a long-term stay depends on the term of the employment contract.

The ordinance removes one step, the Federal Employment Agency's approval. It does not remove the rest of the immigration procedure, and the ESBD's page is explicit that the decision on the visa belongs to the German authorities. A player who meets the three conditions of number 5 has met the conditions of this route; the residence title itself is a separate decision, taken case by case.

Several points are not settled by the ordinance at all. It does not define what makes an organization comparable to a club, and it does not address coaches or staff of esports teams. The ESBD offers individual support to players, free for its members, and says on its page that this support does not replace legal advice.

What the rule fixes, every year, is the number. In 2026 a German club that brings in a foreign player through this route pays at least €50,700 gross over the year, to a player aged 16 or more, for play the federation recognizes as professional.

The .esports registry publishes Esports Observer, so the whole scene can read its news for free.