There is an exact sequence of steps that you need to take before you can do anything in Germany.
Depending on whether you're eligible for 90 days of Schengen Visa or not, you'll need to get a visa to enter Germany. Every country is different in this matter, so I'll not cover how you'd get a permit to enter Germany.
It's difficult to do anything nowadays without an internet connection on your phone. There are many smartphone network providers with different options. I have been always with same prepaid Vodafone since the beginning, and hadn't much complaint except you don't have few data per month. I can't give much recommendations but as far as I know there are big three providers
- Telekom
- O2
- Vodafone
and other small providers which uses these connections to provide their own services.
To be honest, I don't have much idea either on the coverage or the speed, because I hadn't used them at all, so if you want to consider your options, visit check24 or google for information about mobile network providers. But I think going to the offline shops to talk to somebody who can speak English is the easiest way to get your mobile network working (you'll be required to show your passport). There are prepaid sim cards that you can get from supermarkets (e.g. ALDI talk) but I heard sometimes these were not very easy to use because they needed some verification step which requires doing a call to register.
I've split this into another document as it's quite lengthy, you can read about this in Housing
Once you have a rental contract you now can finally register to a city. You can search for "Wohnungsanmeldung 'name of your city'" in google to find a website which you can learn about the whereabouts of the offices (Bürgeramt) and how you can get an appointment. In bigger cities, the appointment is almost always fully booked out for the upcoming weeks, so it's good to act faster and book an appointment much before you even move into your apartment. You usually need to register within (Citation needed) 2 weeks after you move into an apartment, and you can get fined otherwise.
Many of the workers in these offices usually don't speak English, so if you want to avoid the hassle, bring somebody who can help you out through the process.
Documents that you need bring is usually
- Copy of your rental contract
- Wohnraumbescheinigung
- Your Passport
The Wohnraumbescheinigung is a confirmation from the landlord saying that indeed you're the tenant of the written address. You can find the form usually by Googling "Wohnraumbescheinigung 'city name' formular". Upon registration in the office, you will be given the confirmation document "Anmeldungsbestätigung" of which you should always keep and maybe even want to store it in a digital form, as you will need this for VISA application and also for keeping the date of move in Germany. (Some VISA application form requires you to write the exact date you move in within Germany)
On your first registration, you will be given a tax number ( Steuernummer ) which you'll need when paying taxes.
For non-online banks, you are required to have an registered address and thus a "Meldungsbestätigung" to be able to create a bank account. For the two online banks it's not required to provide them, but they might not accept your passport depending on where you come from, or whether your passport is a bit old (e.g. when countries change their shape of the passport and thus have a new "shape").
The following two banks are well known online banks and fintech, I will not discuss the individual benefits of different banks as they're subject to change.
- N26
- Vivid
There are also many big non-online banks such as
- Commerzbank
- Deutschbank
- Postbank
- Sparkasse
- Volksbank
- ... and many other banks
I hear from many different people, but I feel people have their reasons for their dislike and like some banks, so I won't be recommending one and leave you decide for your own.
It is usually possible in a bigger branches of these banks to find a person who speaks English, so the language usually isn't a problem. The number of branches in your town might also help decide which bank you want to open an account for if you want to withdraw money regulalrly, as I think it has been a bit rarer nowadays, but even just a couple years ago, there were some restaurants and shops that wouldn't accept debit or credit cards so you were forced to use cash sometimes.
Although I feel the health system in Germany is a bit slow (i.e. difficult to get an appointment and even though you do, you need to wait a lot for treatment), the coverage is usually good. So I feel it's usually a better option to go for public health insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung) if you're working and not earning too much.
For students you can be ensured by some private health insurance which are really cheap, but they have less coverages and the process of getting your money back is sometimes a pain. I would suggest rather not get into cheap private health insurances if you can offord the public ones.
For the public health insurances, you pay proportional to your salary with a cap. Once you reach this cap you are elegible to switch to private insurances, and sometimes doctors have much shorter waiting times for people who have private insruaces and thus is the reason to leave the public one. I've never tried leaving the public health inusrance so I am not the best one to talk about this topic, so if you need to decided in between private or public I think you should be researching for yourself, but if you're just a regular software engineer don't think much about it and get a public one. I heard from many tech people choose TK, there are several options for public insurances (AOK, Bamer, TK, ...)
I hope seeing a doctor should not be essential upon your arrival, but being sick and not knowing what to do in a foreign country is a frustrating experience, so I'll cover here how you look for a doctor.
The first thing when you move to a new apartment is to find a house doctor (Hausarzt) which I think it corresponds to general practitioner in English. They may or may not accept new patients, so either you need to call but pick someone who's nearby, as the accessability is crucial for house doctors.
For people who haven't been in the system where you have General practitioner, the usual process of seeing a specialist (e.g. endocrinologist) is you tell your symptoms to a house doctor, and then they will write a doctor referral (Ärztliche Überweisung). This process is not always needed, but I do follow this unless its something urgent, as the house doctor will know specialists around you better than you.
Regarding language I've never seen a doctor in Germany who couldn't speak English, BUT the people in the reception in many case doesn't or wouldn't try to speak English, so usually it should be possible to describe your symptoms and instructions in English. But the biggest problem is that the other people in the practition (reception) might not or sometimes would not try to speak English, and thus can make a very stressful experience for you if you're trying to make an appointment with them over the phone. One way to avoid this stress is using doctolib - a platform where you can make a reservation for an appointment without having to talk to anyone. They have an app and website, so trying to look for doctors there might help. Also, you can try to read gogole maps review to see if there's any reviews in English, if there are, it might be an English speaker friendly place.
If you have an appointment, and visiting the practition, you first need to show them your public insurance card (Gesundheitskarte), say you are visiting here for an appointment (e.g. "Ich habe einen Termin um 15 Uhr"), and you wouldn't need to say much more. In your first visit in any practition, depending on where you visit, you'd be asked to fill in some questionnaire in terms of your medical state, and the medication you take regularly. Ask them if they have an English form, but I find most of the case this isn't the case. You might want to use google lenz for translation in that case.
Warning Book for an appointment to get a residence permit as soon you decided to enter Germany. In the biggest cities (Berlin, Munich), they are mostly overbooked and sometimes it's not possible to get an appointment for within 3-6 months, so it's important that whenever you know that you need to apply for a residence permit, you immediately book it much ahead of time. You can search for "City name + Ausländerbehörde + termin" to look for application sites for appointments. There has been a reform at 2023-06 which lowers the hurdle for immigrants. Read the German version for more info.
If you've done all the previous steps, you're finally reached the bare minimum for applying for a residence permit. There are many different type of permit, but I'm going to only list few that I think are relevant.
- Language Learning VISA
- Student VISA
- Job Seeking VISA
- Job seeking VISA for German University Graduates
- Employment VISA
- Blue Card
I've linked English sites to help understand the readers, but you SHOULD verify with the official German version for all in case anything has changed and thus might not be accurate. If you want to be a student you'll most likely follow the track of getting
- Language Learning -> Student -> Job Seeking for German Graduates -> Blue Card / Employment
If you already have a career, you'll most likely follow the track of
- Job Seeking -> Blue Card / Employment
if you're trying to look a job while being present in Germany.
Unlike the Blue Card being very specific about requirements and easy to get once you pass the requirements, to get a regular Employement VISA, (citation needed) your employer are obligated to provide reasons why you're hiring this person to the authorities. I think for tech job this is less difficult for compnaies because it's not a surprise that Germany is short of tech people, and I haven't heard from anyone (maybe selection bias) yet that they've got rejected due to any reason for Employment VISA.
Each of the link above has whole requirements listed to apply, and it should be pretty straightforward, but one thing to note between the difference of job seeking for German university graudates and non-graduates is that you can actually work with the Job seeking visa if you have graduated from Germany, and it can be extended upto 18 months.
And maybe also one more thing to note, Germany is short on skilled workers and thus has a low migration hurdle due to the presence of Blue Card. If you are qualified for Blue Card and a working contract, your company doesn't have to do anything to convince or justify the immigration office or the labor office that they need you.
One hurdle in the process of getting a Blue card that might get in the way (which is a bit uncommon but still happens sometimes) is, whether your graduated university is properly recognized by the German govermant or your subject of study aligns to what the immigrant office expects - if you studied a hybrid topic such as Bio Information theory, it might not be fully accepted by the offices so you need to fight for it and need to justify or maybe need a lawyer to get through the process.