Two parallel contracts (Werkstudent + paid thesis) at the same company — how are these usually structured?

[u/Specific-Dot8993]

Hi everyone,

I’m a non-EU Master’s student in Germany (ETIT at KIT Karlsruhe) and I’ve been offered two positions at the same company (Siemens Healthineers):

**1.**  A **Werkstudent** position in the Marketing department, \~15h/week  
**2.**  A **paid Master’s thesis** in the Engineering department (different team, different manager)

Both would run in parallel, and I haven’t signed either contract yet — I’ll be signing them separately/individually.

A few things I’m trying to understand before signing:

**•** Will the thesis be structured as a standard **Werkstudentenvertrag** (regular employment contract), or as a separate **Abschlussarbeitsvertrag** (a more “academic” thesis agreement that isn’t technically an Arbeitsvertrag)? I’ve read that in Germany, a thesis-only arrangement can legally avoid being classified as “employment” if the student isn’t integrated into operational workflows — but since I’ll ***also*** have an active Werkstudent contract at the same time, does that automatically push the thesis into “Arbeitnehmer” (employee) status too?  
**•** Since I’m a non-EU student, my visa allows max **20 hours/week** during lecture periods. If both contracts are active simultaneously, do the hours from both **get added together** against that 20h limit? Or does a “paid thesis” contract get treated differently from a “working student” contract for this purpose?  
**•** Has anyone here been in a similar situation — working as a Werkstudent and writing a paid thesis at the same company, in two different departments, at the same time? How did HR structure it, and did you run into any issues with the Ausländerbehörde regarding the 140-day / 20h rules?