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I was offered a job in Germany starting in January 1st, 2020 stated in my hosting agreement. After arrival I was asked to obtain a residence permit otherwise I cannot sign a contract. I mentioned to my employer that my (research) visa is also a (temporary) residence permit. They did not believe me, after a few weeks and communication with citizen office, I was informed that my employer should allow me to sign a contract since I have a residence permit in form of a visa. I forwarded the message to my employer and now they are preparing a contract. I am wondering if there is a way that I can claim compensation for the days I was here and not get paid?

Update: I received my contract just now. It starts on February 15th, 2020. I explained again my case to the person who prepared the contract.

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  • Salary is likely paid at the end of the month. Wait and see if you get salary for a full month.
    – Bernhard Döbler
    Jan 27 '20 at 10:19
  • @BernhardDöbler If the contract is signed with a start date later than the arrival that is likely for when the payment will be. OP could ask to have the contract be backdated or include a compensation package or whether the company is willing to otherwise compensate her, but I'm unsure if backdating is legally possible and obviously the company would need to be willing to count her absence as time worked or OP would need to be willing to do the hours etc. And for any legal way, there might be time limits. Imho the contract that they should send now would be the crucial thing to look at.
    – Frank Hopkins
    Jan 27 '20 at 10:24
  • The company could offer a sign on bonus (that could or could not be the amount of missed pay for this month). OP should then just be careful with taxes, so make sure if the company pays taxes on this bonus or they have to do that themselves. If the company is willing to do that is a different question of course, but legally it would be possible.
    – Dirk
    Jan 27 '20 at 10:55
  • Are you already working? If you have already started giving you a contract starting in 2 weeks seems strange and illegal. If you only start doing work after the date specified in the contract, it will be hard to claim any money before because you didn't really do any work for them.
    – quarague
    Jan 27 '20 at 15:59
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I am wondering if there is a way that I can claim compensation for the days I was here and not get paid?

You can by asking. It really doesn't have to be harder than explaining that you are glad that this whole meshuggah around documents is now over, and you would greatly appreciate it if they can backdate the contract start date to the 1st of January as expected. I can't imagine that they would refuse, given that they were in the wrong, they clearly want you as an employee, and this would otherwise be a fast track to needing to start recruitment again. Conscious or not, refusing to fix an honest mistake a company you've made, that caused another person hardship, is a sure way to destroy morale.

You may even find out when you will et the contract that it's already dated for 1st of Jan as expected, as it's just so obvious to do it this way.

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