Moving to Germany

Some things I’ve learned switching countries

I moved from the USA to Berlin, Germany in April 2014. Here are some things I ended up needing, learning, etc.:

• Have a good accountant who understands international tax law. Taxation could be a little tricky depending on who’s signing your paychecks (e.g. a US-based firm or not)
• Expect a lot of official appointments/matters to be conducted only in German; lease signing, registration, visa matters, etc.
• Open a German bank account: bank transfers (Überweisungen) seem to be the norm here for rent, utilities, even buying stuff online from German merchants (typically called Vorkasse)
• SCHUFA, which is Germany’s equivalent credit rating system, is typically checked/required for opening accounts or renting a flat, but it seems that having solid income & liquid assets helps circumvent that
• Get a German mobile phone number. A lot of agencies/services/sites expect it. You can get a 15€ plastic phone and cheap prepaid SIM card at places like Saturn or Media Markt.
• Expect to go to a lot of appointments at various government agencies: Bürgeramt (BüA) to register your home address and get your Meldebestätigung, which you’ll need to open accounts and such. Finanzamt for tax matters, Ausländerbehörde for visa-related things
• Opening a bank account was more involved than I expected; it’s also very paperwork-heavy and seemed to have much more specificity around the types of accounts I could open
• Register your dog and pay the tax (Hundesteuer) at the Finanzamt
• There’s a proper process for everything; expect to do a bunch of paperwork, and possibly even get totally confused with what thing you need to do before doing another thing.
• Did I mention paperwork? Expect to do a lot of paperwork.
• Appointments are your friend. Banks require one to open an account, the BüA suggests one for registration (but don’t be surprised if it’s a number of weeks in the future)
• A lot of online merchants only accept Vorkasse (mentioned above), or EC-/German-based credit cards
• Ikea only accepts cash (Bar) or EC-cards
• Delivery services (UPS, Hermes, DHL, etc.) are pretty cool about leaving your package with a neighbor and seem to do it by default