New members of the Germany forum, introduce yourselves here - 2018

Beppi: Thanks ! That sounds encouraging. I will get myself in an intensive German course before I apply for the job seeker visa.

HI. I am from Mumbai and plan to travel to Berlin as part of my relocation. Would love to connect with people who can give me some insights about Berlin and around. Not sure which are the right forums to get started.

I would love to connect with remote/virtual expats who are working remotely (online) from Germany. Germany is my next desired destination, preferably Munich

What is a "remote/virtual expat"???
remote = out of the way, distant
virtual = artificially simulated, not really existing
expat = someone living outside his/her homeland
So is it a "secluded, imagined foreigner"?

While it may be possible to earn your living entirely online, this is not legally possible anywhere without being properly registered in the same way as a local employee or self-employed.
Most self-styled "digital nomads" I know do not do that and thus try to take advantage of their host countries while avoiding to contribute (tax, health system, social security, etc.). This is of course illegal and, in my opinion, also morally inacceptable!

  Life's too short to be so serious. I wish you well in your endeavors. take care.

Anyone from Stuttgart wanting to make new friends because i am finding it hard to.. Would appreciate any response (prefarabily from ladies :-)  ) Thanks

Hi everyone~ I am Kitty from Hong Kong. I have moved here to Germany because of my husband. i moved over early July and a little more than a month now. I live near Stuttgart and is finding it very hard to know new friends especially when i don't yet have a job or school. Nevertheless, I am enjoying life here but not the heat so much tho! I miss having my air-conditioned room back home! 

Hallo!

I'm Christine and I just arrived in Munich with my wonderful corgi, Sherlock, thanks to my work. We'll be here for maybe 2 years and we want to experience all the joys that the EU has to offer, especially the awesome people!

I would love to find a community of fellow pet lovers and Harry Potter/Game of Thrones/Doctor Who/etc. fans, along with a friendly face that would help me make Munich my new home.

Viele Gruße

Hi there~ I don’t live in Stuttgart but I’m surely a Harry Potter fan! Nice meeting you!

Hi all, I currently live in southern CA and am planning on retiring in Berlin so it will be awhile until I relocate. That'll give me lots of time to learn the language.

My mom was from Berlin, and my first trip there was when I was 12 to visit my opa and other relatives. I still have a half-sister that lives there. Interestingly, my mom never became a US Citizen and was a citizen of Germany when she passed.

I've been there a couple of other times since she and I went there... I want to live somewhere that has excellent public transportation (was considering London in the past ... no longer) and NYC isnt an option for me.

So, we'll see how it ultimately plays out for me, but this is my goal for now! Nice to meet everyone.

Hi and welcome to the group.

I actually just came to Munich last week from LA as well, but from my short time here the public transportation anywhere in Germany has been amazing, especially compared to LA.

Good luck with your German lessons and hope your journey here will be exciting.

Thank you so much! Yes, LA is so populated but we rely so heavily on our cars. Public transportation is the worst and shows no signs of improving in the near future U and S Bahn are nearly equivalent to the Underground in London, IMO. Really great

mmartin50 wrote:

Hi all, I currently live in southern CA and am planning on retiring in Berlin so it will be awhile until I relocate. That'll give me lots of time to learn the language.

My mom was from Berlin, and my first trip there was when I was 12 to visit my opa and other relatives. I still have a half-sister that lives there. Interestingly, my mom never became a US Citizen and was a citizen of Germany when she passed.

I've been there a couple of other times since she and I went there... I want to live somewhere that has excellent public transportation (was considering London in the past ... no longer) and NYC isnt an option for me.

So, we'll see how it ultimately plays out for me, but this is my goal for now! Nice to meet everyone.

Welcome to the site. I'm just wondering if you have German citizenship, which would make it much easier for you to later relocate to Germany? If not, you might want to look into it.

A person born now days of a parent with German citizenship at the time of the child's birth is a German citizen. Place of birth is not a factor in citizenship determination based on parentage. Those born after 1 January 1975 are Germans if the mother or father is a German citizen.

BUT:  those born before 1 January 1975 could normally only claim German citizenship from the father and not the mother. Exceptions included cases where the parents were unmarried (in which case German mothers could pass on citizenship) or where the German mother applied for the child to be registered as German on or before 31 December 1977.

If you are considered German by birth then you can presently hold both US and American passports. If say born before 1975 and thus not a natural born German, one would have to give up their US passport to acquire a German one.

Once having both passports, I doubt they could ever take one away yet the rules for dual citizenship could change. Formerly, US rules meant holding a US passport and another, one had to decide by a certain age which one they wanted to keep. (I think it was around 26) The upshot is that it would be advisable to get a Germany passport sooner than later if you qualify. Another big plus is that if you actually decide later to live elsewhere in the EU, having a German passport is a huge plus

TominStuttgart wrote:

Welcome to the site. I'm just wondering if you have German citizenship, which would make it much easier for you to later relocate to Germany? If not, you might want to look into it.

A person born now days of a parent with German citizenship at the time of the child's birth is a German citizen. Place of birth is not a factor in citizenship determination based on parentage. Those born after 1 January 1975 are Germans if the mother or father is a German citizen.

BUT:  those born before 1 January 1975 could normally only claim German citizenship from the father and not the mother. Exceptions included cases where the parents were unmarried (in which case German mothers could pass on citizenship) or where the German mother applied for the child to be registered as German on or before 31 December 1977.

If you are considered German by birth then you can presently hold both US and American passports. If say born before 1975 and thus not a natural born German, one would have to give up their US passport to acquire a German one.

Once having both passports, I doubt they could ever take one away yet the rules for dual citizenship could change. Formerly, US rules meant holding a US passport and another, one had to decide by a certain age which one they wanted to keep. (I think it was around 26) The upshot is that it would be advisable to get a Germany passport sooner than later if you qualify. Another big plus is that if you actually decide later to live elsewhere in the EU, having a German passport is a huge plus

I was actually wondering about this! Thanks so much for the information.

I was born before 1975 and my parents were married in Berlin and relocated to California (my dad is from L.A.). Sadly, according to what you say here, I do not qualify.

While I'm sure the info that you provide here is correct, I will look into it and see if there's even a slight possibility... can't hurt that's for sure.

Thanks again. Very helpful and much appreciated!

Hi everyone!!!

I am not that new here in Germany. My husband is a German and since 2014, we normally had oue vacation here for a couple of weeks. Both of us by the way are based in UAE by then. Just recently, when we decidee that i will stay here in Germany (April 2018). I got my residence visa on 2016 without integration course and language certificate since we already have a baby on same year.

But I am aware that I will need this integration course, my residence visa have to be renewed on October. The problem is, I am exclusively breastfeeding our second baby which make it me so hard to attend this integration course.

Do you think they are considerate enough with my situation?

Regards,

Yneng

Hi, I'm Norbert

As you can probably guess from my username, I do a lot of web stuff. I live in Germany ATM, and MA is sort of my "average" spot -- I move around a lot.

Grew up in the States (USA), did Uni there + also in Germany. Been here for quite a while, but I do consider myself to be more of a global citizen (or something like that).

Don't have any questions, but feel free to HMU if you're interested in more specifics, and/or if you want to know something about USA, Germany, the Web or whatever (I can't promise to know everything about ALL of the above, though ).

Hello,
I hope to find a job with doctorate program in EU. I can't decide where to start and apply. There are lots of information. So I chose Germany for innovative vision in general. I am computer engineer and working as a software developer. I just completed my master degree on medical informatics. I found doctorate program of medical informatics in Lübeck University. But nowadays in my country euro exchange is so high. I am afraid of my financial status.
Anyway, Germany is a country which I can prefer than others.

Hi!

I currently live in South Africa and work for a company designing shipping software for dry bulk carriers across the globe. My wife is an English Teacher at a prestigious all girl school in the Western Cape. I recently received a very attractive job offer from a world renowned shipping company based in Lübeck and Hamburg.

We are looking into accepting the offer, but we have to consider all possibilities, i.e. what opportunities there are for my wife in teaching, etc.

Hallo, all

I'm from Nairobi, planning to study around Dresden from October 2018, and would be very happy to talk to you all and make some friends around.

Hi I'm Bec,
I'm new to this forum, I joined because i had so many issues with Tax and the DVKA, i hope this forum assists me with answers to some of my future questions and that I can help others through my experiences.

I was born and raised in Australia, moved to the UK for 4 years and have lived in Karlsruhe, Germany for 3 years with my German husband.
I have been lucky enough to have a Eu passport ( through my father) which made a lot of things easier.

I work in travel from my home office. My German is good but not great and I am eventually looking to join the German workforce soon.

Hey there!

I am Jessica, from Singapore! I will be moving to Germany in October to start my job and be finally reunited with my boyfriend. I am really looking to this new adventure and should any have any recommendations for my apartment search, hit me up!

Hi from a fellow German-Singaporean family - in Stuttgart.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need help!

Hello All,
I am in Germany since July 10, 2015. I am from Goa India. I worked on Passenger Cruise ships and there I met my wife from Romania. We have two luds and we live in Krumbach Schwaben

Hello my name is Anar and I think that expat site is very good one to get to know new people hehe:-)

Hello i am joe, i am a British born indian, coming to Frankfurt next week, any recommendation on what to see, and anyone fancy going for a drink.

Hi,

My name is Sonja and I live in Atlanta GA. I am an Autism Teacher that loves working with special needs students. I live in Germany in the 80's for 9 years. My son was born in Stuttgart GE.  I am looking forward to returning back to Germany, but I don't know what city I would like to live in. I am looking forward to meeting new people.

Hi all, nice to meet you in this forum.

I am Victor Wright (Vic), and i am a Burgher from the sunny island of Sri Lanka. I have been to Germany/Austria/Italy last June and will be coming over for a short stay again next December.
I would like to work/live in Bavaria and so i would like to connect with people in this area.

I am 50 years old, and I work in a Solar Renewable Energy company. But i also manage and operate a Holiday Villa for my boss. You can find it on booking.com as "Tropical Villas" in Negombo, Sri Lanka.

I am interested in your stories of how you find living and working in this area. I am also a Nature-loving person and would like to find a job opportunity in gardening/parks/camping/hotels/hospitality or tourism in the Miesbach area, since i can live with my German friend who also lives in Bad Weissee.

It would be awesome to make new friends, and here's to merry meets!

Cheers!
-Vic

Hi Vic,

Welcome to the forum! You can read here a lot of good advice about living in Germany, how to find your way around, how to settle down, how to learn the language, how to find a job, and many other useful topics.
In addition, you can post your questions here, too. (But please check first if the same has been posted and answered before!)
Solar energy is a big business in Germany an there are certainly jobs available, provided you speak good German (because the customers will be, obviously, German). Since there's a shortage of technically skilled people, getting a work visa should be easy.
For gardening/landscaping jobs I believe you'd first have to complete an apprenticeship, or study landscape architecture.
Holiday villas are uncommon here - and jobs in tourism are highly localized (non-touristy areas have none). In addition, you'd have to compete with plenty of jobless EU citizens. Again, speaking good German might be the key here.

Good luck!

Thanks for your advise Beppi!

yeah i want to move to Germany fo my masters coz i have spent 5 years here in turkey studying mathematics.And i want to try somewhere else.can you help me with  the application process

Tarrick: Welcome to the forum!
You have come to the right place to get information about studying and living in Germany. Please read the many existing discussions and contribute if you can!

tarrick wrote:

yeah i want to move to Germany fo my masters coz i have spent 5 years here in turkey studying mathematics.And i want to try somewhere else.can you help me with  the application process

The kind of help offered here is advice. And the first advice is to look yourself in the internet and the threads about such situations already posted rather then repeating already answered questions.

I am once again posting a link to the official English version of German Academic Exchange Service site. It shows a comprehensive list of requirements and information about studying in Germany as a foreigner. Then, if you still have specific questions, feel free to ask on this forum.

https://www.daad.de/en/

that is great.thank you very much.

Hi I'm Taryn, I will be doing an internship next year in Berlin, and while to connect with people while I'm there.  Also I would like to know what is the best way for finding temporary housing for more than 6 months

Hello Everyone, I'm new in the forum and living 2 years in Stuttgart city, I've been working in a private project promoting the city, is a website with a lot of information about the city, what to do, where to go, all the parks and museums, but also inmigration information that was very usefull for me when I arrived, here I share the link and I hope it helps to somebody. travelstuttgart.com/living-in-germany.html

Hello there,

My name is Sandra and I live in Brighton, UK. My partner and I are thinking of relocating to Germany in a couple of years, he has a small tiling and flooring company so basically freelance and I'm a support worker but finishing my Printmaking BA and going for a 1year MA, so I would look into becoming a Printmaker technician/high school Fine Art teacher/professor. Obviously, the first step is to learn German but I wanted to collect some info about fine artist community- printmaking and where are the best BA courses or MA for that in Germany as my idea is to be an academic. In the further future, our idea is to commute to that city and live in a small town around, preferably very green and with a sense of tradition (not like residential concrete areas) we love to spend the day walking around fields, forest, countryside and nature and this are very important for us as it feeds our creativity!
We are looking into Stuttgart and Munich as Southern looks very greeny.


Any recommendations? Any Printmaker around/Artist around?

Thank YOU!

Sandra
xx

Hi Sandra,

Welcome to the forum!
You did not mention why you want to move to Germany - and without language skills this is certainly a bold move.
For one thing, you do not know the visa situation post-Brexit.
Then, tiling and floor laying are areas overcrowded by workers from Eastern Europe and there is basically no money to be made, even if he manages to manouvre the German buerocracy and get a business registered (a trade certificate may be required for this - and I have no idea whether any from UK are recognised).
As for yourself, the life of an artist isn't easy anywhere (I guess your country is the same here), but you cannot become a teacher without educational degree or professor without PhD here. If you want to study, websites like study-in.de and others can give you the information you need.
In addition, Stuttgart and Munich are attractive, but also very expensive. Do not rule out other, smaller cities if you can find opportunities there!

Hello Beppi,

Thank you for your quick response! Moving to Germany is something we are considering thought is not decided yet. If this happens to be our next destination then we will take an intensive German course to have at least B1 Level. I don't think we will have any visa issues as we are a Spanish and Italian couple so EU. Regarding our qualifications is something we need to look into it and one of my options is to apply for PhD there but not sure if it will be any English programmes or I will need to excel in German.

Overall, we just want to experience another country, another culture and after considering other EU countries we think Germany tick almost all the boxes (plus we love German). The Netherlands and Portugal are plan B and C.
Specifically, we love to do a lot of weekend travels and Germany allow us to visit different countries a few hours drive; it is relatively close to Aosta Valley where we go twice a year to pay family visits; we are uncertain about BREXIT pos and cons and how that may or may not affect our situation as Europeans (even if we are residents still we need to consider a list of things); we have few friends who can compare living in UK and Germany and we think it could be a better fit for the lifestyle we have.

We are paying GB1100 plus bills for one bedroom flat with a tiny garden which is a luxury for us after spending the past two years living in a mouldy basement. Saving money is like never gonna happen and I have serious doubts my economy could be that tight after living in Germany for 8 years even Munich. We have considered moving somewhere outside Brighton but the cheapest towns around are not very recommended and indeed look depressing, the ones well linked and populated are a maximum of GB100 cheaper/month plus you will need to pay the train which is GB 54.00 a week so there you got the deal!

I would absolutely love moving to Scotland but neither of us two can cope with the weather, Brighton does very well in that sense.

There is always something to sacrifice, no country/city/place is perfect!

Any more information or advice will be greatly appreciated and thank you very much for the link! I look into it!

Regards,
Sandra
xx