Jericho Cruz: nine months from a Doha long shift to a Hamburg legal contract

Jericho was working as a marine logistics coordinator at the Port of Doha when he bought our book. He had come across it on a Facebook group for Filipino maritime workers in the Gulf and had bought it mostly because the chapter titles mentioned Hamburg. He read it over three nights of a quiet rotation — the Doha container terminal is a very long walk from the office — and finished with a notebook of annotations and a list of eleven German port-logistics companies ranked by whether their job pages mentioned "Visa-Sponsoring" in English.

The chapter on the Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz had done its work. Jericho understood that his Philippine BSMT (Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation) was recognised in Germany if accompanied by at least two years of post-graduation professional experience, which he had five of. He also understood that for his specific profession the recognition process could be run in parallel with the visa application, saving several months. He drafted a cover letter — adapting a template from Chapter 7 — and sent his first five applications on a Monday morning before his shift started.

The third reply, from a mid-sized Hamburg-based intermodal operator, became the offer. The HR director scheduled a video interview for the following week, extended an offer three days later, and triggered the Fachkräfte support letter the day after Jericho signed. The German embassy in Manila processed the visa in seven weeks. Jericho flew to Hamburg via Dubai on the first Saturday he could buy a ticket.

He landed in Hamburg in the first week of September. His employer had organised a temporary flat in Wilhelmsburg and a meeting with the local Finanzamt on his second morning for the tax ID. His residence permit was issued six weeks after arrival. He is now in his second year, has moved to a long-term flat in Barmbek, and is finalising the paperwork to bring his younger brother — also BSMT, also in the Gulf — under the same route.

Jericho sends us an email every January with his annual pay slip. The number has gone up each year. The chapter he still rereads is Chapter 7, which he says taught him how to write a cover letter that does not sound like it was translated by Google. That is the chapter we are proudest of.