Germany to investigate visa processing delays for Uzbek applicants

The meeting brought together key German institutional stakeholders, executives from WISAG – one of Germany’s largest facility and industrial service conglomerates – alongside Gulnora Salimova, an honorary representative of the Migration Agency of Uzbekistan in Germany, and Vice-Consul Bekzod Abdullayev.

Discussions focused on alignment strategies to train workforce candidates within Uzbekistan to meet the exact requirements of the German labor market, focusing specifically on vocational skills and intensive German-language instruction. Nebojša Biskup, a representative of WISAG, praised the high professional qualifications and workplace discipline demonstrated by Uzbek employees already integrated into German enterprises, expressing the corporation's strong interest in expanding its recruitment initiatives in Uzbekistan.

However, participants highlighted that the prolonged timeframes required to issue entry visas for qualified specialists are acting as a significant bottleneck, negatively impacting operational timelines and recruitment schedules for German employers. To maintain the momentum of bilateral labor agreements, the Uzbek delegation proposed immediate measures to streamline these bureaucratic procedures.

The session concluded with a preliminary agreement under which Uzbek authorities will provide German corporate partners with comprehensive data profiles on skilled local specialists who have already achieved proficiency in the German language. In return, the German delegation committed to launching an internal review into the systemic administrative issues causing visa delays for Uzbek applicants and vowed to evaluate practical solutions to accelerate the issuance process.