Bettina Offer

Offer & Mastmann Rechtsanwälte PartG

Frankfurt www.germany-immigration.com

offer@offermastmann.com Tel: +49 69 9515313 0

Biography

Bettina is the founding partner of Offer & Mastmann, the German boutique firm for corporate immigration with more than 21 years of experience in servicing corporate clients of all industries. Her firm successfully handles largevolume employee migration schemes as well as the occasional immigration application of small and mid-size enterprises. Bettina is an active lecturer and author and appeared as expert on the parliament hearing on Germany’s skilled immigration law.

What motivated you to pursue a career in law?

Even as a youngster, I wanted to change things for the better by playing by the rules. And I always did and still do love discussions and debate. My father is an engineer and on my mother’s side are judges, notaries and lawyers working at the EU commission. So law with its combination of logical thought put into words was an obvious choice when I went to university. I was extremely lucky to get an international outlook through scholarships to the UK and USA and participation in the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition.

What did you find most challenging about entering immigration law?

17 years ago – that corporate immigration law was basically non-existent and immigration law in Germany in public opinion as well as within the legal world concentrated solely on refugees and asylum. Nowadays we struggle with the federal administrative system that lacks a centralised approach for immigration on one hand and clients with highly functional global mobility departments that expect immediate returns and find the occasional dysfunctionality of the German administration difficult to grasp.

How has the market changed since you first started practising?

Initially our services were aimed mainly at management positions. Nowadays, all levels of employment are filled with employees from abroad. While top-notch legal advice is still part and parcel of our work, quality management and technology are becoming increasingly important. Clients expect immediate responses but less individual service to relocating employees (except for VIP cases) as well as transparency by real-time reportings and a standard process that HR can explain to the business and rely upon. HR departments look for the best immigration strategy and service while their procurement departments often aim for the most efficient costs. All in all – global mobility in Germany has left the start-up phase and is now an established part of corporate HR. At the same time, dealings with authorities have become more difficult and time consuming with growing numbers of applications clogging the system and making case-handlers unavailable for discussions. And the many legal changes of the past decade tend to overwhelm new case-handlers or those only occasionally handling immigration applications.

Currently we see a considerable increase in client demand while many providers as well as the authorities have reduced capacities due to the past “covid-19 dip” in corporate immigration.

How do you establish a detailed understanding of a client’s business to advise them effectively?

You have to find out the client’s demand. Are they looking for an assignment from an affiliate abroad or rather for local employment of a non-EU national who is intended to remain in Germany. In order to really understand what is beneficial for the client, you need to know what they are working on and how the applicant from abroad shall become part of their German employment population. Company cultures are different if you compare large to small companies, financial institutions to automotive, traditional German corporations to start-ups or tech companies. I believe it is important to adapt to the client’s internal HR culture. Some are hierarchically organised and will implement a standard process whenever you ask for an additional document, others have a different internal structure and need a number of telcos and communication that loops in several departments before they are able to deliver. Many have extensive global mobility departments to work with, whereas for others it is only one HR employee in Germany with the main global mobility department at HQ abroad. We always need to take into account the pace and pain points of the individual client. It is my role as a lawyer and service vendor to be supportive, goal oriented and accessible while providing confidence throughout the whole process and ensuring compliance.

What challenges do you think an increasingly remote workforce will pose to clients when it comes to immigration issues? What challenges and opportunities have you noticed?

Law is in essence very territorial as each nation state can only regulate situations and people in their own territory. We have the basic notion of immigration law that a non-EU national requires a permit when on German territory. If the individual intends to work the permit needs to allow employment – notwithstanding the question where in the world the employer is located or the gainful effect of the work materialises. This entails a whole bunch of other legal questions: taxability (individual as well as corporate tax), where will social security be paid but also questions regarding work safety, compulsory employment laws or collective bargaining. With technology allowing remote work while presumably on holiday, the concept becomes difficult to control. Thus it is more of a compliance issue than an immigration law matter – as the immigration laws are clear cut. Clients need to establish for themselves if they want to drive without a safety belt in the hope of avoiding an accident only because there is no one regularly checking their buckle-up policy.

How do you see your practice developing over the next couple of years?

It is mostly about technology! We had our database built in 2015 as a substitution for crashing Excel sheets at a time when the software available on the market was suitable for the US immigration system only. Nowadays, our database is the most important tool at our office allocating work between different departments, assisting in document production, reporting and billing and we have a number of extra features in the planning stage. Although we do have this strong tool supporting our work, we opted against a client log-in as most of our clients ask us to use the download function of their HR system, which usually has no features for immigration. Interface standards and data security will be the developments of the years to come. I guess we will see the development of a small number of competing IT systems covering global mobility in the future as the investment costs for a truly global HR/ mobility software are substantial.

What makes Offer & Mastmann stand out from its competitors in the market?

With our long-time experience in the market, we have occupied quite a niche: our legal expertise in immigration law is among the best in Germany, distinguishing us from relocation providers or tech companies offering immigration. We are more agile and flexible than a global law or accounting firm and we are more professional and focussed on corporate immigration than any of the smaller German immigration law firms or large firms with employment departments. We have developed a lean immigration concept that cuts out all unnecessary inert parts of a normal immigration process and focus on obtaining the permits as efficiently and fast as possible. As a result, we believe that we can provide the best return for money when it comes to corporate immigration in Germany.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own firm?

Never compromise on the quality of legal advice. Learn from your clients as much as possible. Tend to your employees as they are your best assets. Never lose your creativity even if you seem to be swamped with work. Be confident that there is always a client to ask for your service if you provide good service. Be honest and true to your word. Have fun!

WWL says: Bettina Offer stands out as “one of the best immigration lawyers in the German market”.

Over the past 25 years, WWL has built a reputation as one of the most trusted resources for in-house counsel, government, agency and other legal practitioners seeking to fi nd a high-quality lawyer in a particular practice area or jurisdiction. We now cover 35 practice areas globally and list practitioners in more than 160 countries. In addition to lawyers, we also list the foremost expert witnesses, forensic accountants, economists and other non-lawyer experts across a variety of fi elds.