I'm a migrant to Germany as a software engineer and I can tell you its probably going to be really hard if you don't at least study in Germany or are a student

I'm a migrant to Germany as a software engineer and I can tell you its probably going to be really hard if you don't at least study in Germany or are a student in your home country (I was a student when I came). You don't necessarily need to stay and get the degree but its much easier for companies to give you an internship and then hire you if you go this route. Otherwise, its a total pain in the anus for the company to hire you over a EU citizen. I've experienced both ends of this now and its basically just not worth it from a company's perspective to hire someone outside the EU unless they are a super talent and/or the company has the resources/hr to deal with all the paperwork crap. So to answer, "In other words, can I get a work visa anywhere in Europe without having an offer in hand?" Theoretically yes, practically - highly unlikely. Maybe its better in other EU countries but I wouldn't know. To #2: just flying in and hoping you'll land something even with a very solid portfolio is a bad idea, since its highly unlikely any company is going to go through the hoops so you can work for them and time will be against you since the process takes a while. I'd say if you can suck it up you should go the student route since its the path of least resistance and all you need is to be enrolled, you don't have to finish. Then get an internship since thats easy enough and make a good impression, then that company will want to do the legwork to hire you. This whole process might take about 2 years but at the end of the day you'll be set.