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- w3 application procedures take ages. one reason is that you are competing with other full profs. say a uni liked you and put you on list number 3. number 1 is not really willing to go- great news! but this is not the us junior market, with exploding offers of a week or two. number 1 will use the offer to negotiate with his uni and will take several months to decline. then the same game starts with number 2, until finally, if all goes well, you get the offer. even if you're lucky enough to be on number 1, the usual bureaucracy still means that the list will need to be approved by several uni authorities (who aren't working during the semester holidays, because no rush, right?) and by the ministry. 1 year is quite normal, 2 years is not crazy, 3 is not unheard of. so if you want to get an offer by the end of your six year contract, you better have a good package by the end of your 5th or better yet 4th year.
here is actually a commendably transparent (and imho quite fast) german uni that illustrates this point:
https://www.uni-hohenheim.de/aktuelle-berufungen
application deadline in late may
flyouts in late july/early august
senate vote in mid-november
THEN the rector needs to approve
THEN the ministry needs to approve
THEN the ruf goes out to number 1 and the negotiations can start
if you're number 1 and accept the offer, you can probably start in april next year, a bit less than a year after the deadline. if you're number 2 and number 1 refuses, you probably won't start until october.