After graduation: what changes about your right to work

What you need to do

On the day your studies end, so does the ground on which you are in the country. A student permit rests on your being a student; a diploma does not extend that condition, it removes it.

What follows is a different regime. In most countries of the union a separate job-search permit exists for graduates: it is issued for a fixed term, usually once only, and without extension. This is not one document automatically turning into another — it is a new application, with its own papers and its own window.

The main consequence: you prepare for it before graduating, not after. The filing window is short, and you cannot gather documents once the previous permit has expired — by then you no longer have the right to be in the country.

What changes in the numbers

Three things at once:

1. The limit on working time. A student has one almost everywhere. A graduate on a job-search permit either loses it or sees it widen noticeably — and the rules differ between countries.
2. The length of stay. A graduate's permit is shorter than a student's and does not run indefinitely: it is time to search, not a new status.
3. The ground. Once work is found, the search permit turns into a work permit — and that is a third application, not a second.

Exact terms and limits by country are collected below, each with a link to its primary source and a verification date.

What goes wrong

People think the diploma extends the visa. It extends nothing. A permit's term is set by the permit, not by the fact of finishing.

The window is missed. A graduate's permit is applied for while the previous one is still valid. Someone who is late leaves and applies from home — losing both time and the contacts they had made.

People plan to apply twice. In several countries the job-search permit is granted once only: used is used, even if the first search failed.

Searching is confused with working. A search permit does not always carry a full right to work. Working on it as if it were a work permit breaches the condition it was granted under.

Where this is stated officially

• BAMF — the German federal office for migration: the section on university graduates and their right of residence.
• IGI — Romania's general inspectorate for immigration: types of residence permit and the grounds for issuing them.
• Your Europe — the pan-European guide to rights while residing in the union.

How to check the requirement is still current

Check on the migration authority's site for the country where you study, not on a general portal: general rules set the frame, while the term, the once-only rule and the conditions are set by national law.

And establish two dates in advance: when your current permit ends and when the window for the next one opens. There should be a margin between them, not zero.