Hi there, this could potentially be considered a breach of the principal of equal treatment (Gleichbehandlungsgrundsatz) because you indirectly base your rejection on someone’s ethnic origin/nationality. You may, however, base your screening process on objective and non-discriminatory reasons, like legal employment restrictions, work permits, etc. But tbh this also seems like a grey-zone and you’d have to be careful what info you use to base your rejection. Instead of outright rejecting all applicants living abroad, you could set transparent criteria based on legal, organizational, or economic factors, like "We can only consider candidates who already have a valid work permit for Germany.”


Hope that helps!

​@Nadine_Hu thank you for this very considered answer. This is a very complicated topic and nuanced contributions like yours are exactly the sort of insight this community thrives on!