Documents required for registering in Germany?

Can anyone tell me what documents I will need to register me and the kids when I get to Germany? Also for kindergeld? Would I need translated birth certificates or would passports suffice? Thanks

Hellie,

Bring everything you have & make sure everything has a stamp
Sorry can't really help with this, it's been too long Do bring a utlilty bill of some sort though, I remember needing some kind of official bill that had my name & address, even though I wasn't living there.

For Kindergeld you need UK birth certificates,your Birth cert and or passport and probably a copy of the anmeldebescheinigung (paperwork when you register in the town) Your application may take a while because they check that you are no longer receiving Child benefit from the UK and Newcastle takes ages. It will be backdated to when you applied though. I haven't done this lately maybe someone can add whatever else you need. Best bet is to bring everything and then they can make copies of whatever they need.

Would Newcastle confirm to me in writing that I am no longer receiving it in UK? Perhaps they would accept this?

Hi there, I only got mine sorted out 9 months ago, the biggest hold up is they want a letter from the social saying that you are not entitled to family allowance inthe UK anymore. Thats the thing to sort out, there is a standard form for it, you jsut have to tell the social for it. The hold for us was simply that they lost is 3 times, and it just was not reaching us.

You don't have to get anything translated.

Lastly not sure if you aware of the religous payment system over here, when you register you will be asked your faith - if you answer protestant or catholic, you will pay extra per month, not fair to call it a church tax but can't think of another name for it.

if i think of more i'll add it here

Thanks very much for your help. As for the church tax, I think I read on a thread on here that if you write C of E they don't recognise that? Otherwise leave it blank?

Hellie I have always left it blank and had no problems

ahh yeah innoculations, the school wanted the a list of all the innoculations ours had had, that was easy to get though from our GP. He just printed it off.

The school also wanted a form saying that the children were fit to go to school, that was a suprise.

fit to go to school? where did you get that from? how old were yr kids when you moved to Germany and did they speak any of the language, what type of school did they go to? oooh sorry...too many questions! :$

Just make sure all documents are originals and not photocopies, all stamps are in date.

C of E does exclude you from the church tax because as my local amt said "its not a real religion anyway" Bless em eh!

ok now for the next question...i'm divorced...still have a copy of the marriage certificate tho along with the decree absolut. will they query my name at all..my name is still my married name. and as you know on the marriage certificates in uk, you dont sign in yr new name just yr maiden name. god i hope this makes sense...i'm confusing myself here

can never ask too many questions, its a big jump.

Children came here when they were 9 and 10 respectively, they could not speak any of the language. We were fortunate to get a place in a european school, there are 3 in germany as far as I know - Karlsruhe, Frankfurt and Munich. So they get schooling in Maths, english, human science and science in english language by english teachers from the UK. 3rd year of secondary school and human science gets dropped to be a foreign language as well.

If we had not have got a place in the European school, then plan B was the next step - to enroll in a language school. Most cities have them hiding around, there the children are only taught german language - nothing else, every 3 months or 6 months they are tested on the language and if sufficient they join the national germany education system. the gutenberg institute i think has a network of these.

the younger they are the better it is really especiallyl when they make german friends it really takes off.

Funny that this should crop up just now because literally 5 minutes ago I got a call from the Bürgerbüro here in Stuttgart-West following some confusion about my religious affiliations (see a previous thread from a couple of months ago) confirming that Church of England is not a recognised religion in this context and therefore exempts me from paying church tax.

Like others have said, get a letter from Newcastle Child Benefit office to say you no longer receive CHB as you(or your partner) will also need it for your german tax return! We have just had a scrabble to find this!!

The schools here need your children to get a basic health check from the Jugendamnt (young persons office) its done by the german equivalent of a Health Visitor and a community paediatrician. We sent our oldest to german school initially but had a bad experience ( I won't bore everyone with the details!) and coupled with that with all the reports about the deteriorating standards in the school system here,we changed her and now my youngest to the British military school..at a price!! but we have no regrets. I do realise not everyone has that choice.

British Military school, are there many of these in Germany?

Well I have been looking into a Bi-lingual school ...the kids would be mainly learning the language big time to start with and then the other subjects will be introduced. The kids are very keen and enthusiastic about it. Yr right ramon its a HUGE step and at the moment I am trying to keep calm whilst my stress levels are at top level...house selling, moving, taking kids out of school etc etc...the list is endless...the men in white coats will be coming to get me soon

Once your house is jettisoned, I hope you don't look back, we dont (apart when we run out of mint sauce). Seems like you've found a pretty useful school too. You're coming over at a time when there should be snow on the ground, and plenty of it around, that should help (if you like snow I suppose).

As you go around all the various departments, you will be asked time and time again for house rent/purchase agreement, a well as the residents permit. I did manage to do all of this stuff in one day including the health insurance bit, I felt daunted at first, but there was not that much too it. Even when i bought a sim card for the phone they wanted my passport.

I made the one mistake when asked what kind of religion the C OF E was, I said protestent not realizing the consequences. When the tax form came through, off I went to the tax office who then said, go back to the buergerburo, I then had to sign a form declaring i was neither protestant or catholic, then go back to the tax office again.

Everytime you change you address you must go the buergerburo to report it, even when I had temporary accommodation in an hotel.

if you work here, you will recieve a form sometine in the future asking you all about the employment life, this is for social and pension reasons, the thing is in germany if you went to university or college, you get a pension credit for that year. They wanted every company I ever worked for! couldn't supply it, they also wanted a letter from the college in England to show that I had been there, this is important because as I understand the situation even the present legislation allows non germans to get these pension credits, perhaps someone else can add a comment on this area?

If the house rent agreement is in my b/f's name, will that matter...we will be staying there until we can find somewhere bigger. And I won't be working to begin with (not unless I really have to) is that a problem...I will have money behind me though.

Hellie,

Don't know if you have check these out:

http://www.montessori.de/

Our rental agreement is only with me, and was not a problem, the buergerburo will sort you out, the first time you go there just take it along with your passport and they'll help you.

ahh they always ask for a few photocopies too, cannot remember what they were, start of there anyway, and all it becomes clear. anyone remember?

This could be a source of trouble. My wife and I got married in England and between the signature in my wife's maiden name and the fact that there is no equivalent of the "Familienbuch" in the UK, it took over six months to convince all the various authorities that everything was on the level. That can hurt if the Finanzamt doesn't want to recognise your married status!

so what is the answer RMA? What should I do? Will the divorce papers suffice?

If your passport has your married name and your children have this name on their passports and the only document with your maiden name is your marriage certificate then you should be OK. The important thing is that everything can be connected and as your ex appears on both marriage and divorce papers it should be obvious that you are not pretending to be someone else.

Do photocopy everything several times and keep one copy of everything safe at home. You will need to collect the forms to Anmeld (register), get them signed by someone who can confirm your address, and then return them to the townhall to complete the process. Then you need to go to the Auslanderamt to get a residence permit. At this stage they may want to keep your passport for a few days while they process it, particulary if it has to be sent to their head office. We got around this by saying we needed to go back to England for the weekend and they settled for phototcopies.

Don't worry about tax cards and pensions until you have a job offer.

I have found that sending an email (in German) to the relevant Amt, asking what exactly they will require in my specific case is helpful. They typically respond quite quickly (I believe they are obliged to) and they give specific answers about documents required for whatever I need done.

Maybe you could email them, suggesting what documents you intend to take and see if they are happy with it.

I suspect, since you're divorced, the problems may not be so bad, although they may still want the "Familienbuch".

However, since in your case, it's not likely to have any financial consequences, I wouldn't worry about it.

I can't remember how we finally got things sorted out, after all, it was 1990! But obviously there is no way we could produce the "Familienbuch", I suspect it just dragged on until it landed on somebod'y desk, who knew the circumstances in the UK, or else perhaps somebody got in touch with the consulate.

I wouldn't worry about it, just don't be surprised if you get asked a few funny questions!

Not really connected to the Kindergeld question but in order to get the residency permits, you will need to prove that you and the children have valid medical insurance and the ability to keep yourself and the kids throughout your stay in Germany. Generally the Auslanderamt is in a different place to the Buergerburo which means you will need to hand over the original of the insurance cover note and proof of your income and/or capital as well as your passports when you go to register (anmelden) at the Buergerburo. According to the relocation company I freelance for, the various Buergerburos will rarely allow you to submit copies of these as they have to hand them over to another department. The only possibilty to keep them is if both departments are in the same building or you go to the Auslanderamt yourself taking the documents with you and waiting for them to be processed!. Saying that,I have heard that some people have pleaded family illness and had it handed straight back but I wouldn't bank on it if I were you. Mine took 3 months to come back last year but apparently most Amts take only a week or so.

The alternative to the income question is if your boyfriend signs an undertaking that he will support you and the kids. If you are married this is assumed. I'm also not married to my German partner so I had to arrange for medical insurance from the UK (couldn't get Krankenkasse cover because we aren't married and also not able to get cover under my partners private med. insurance for the same reason) and also had to prove my capital by showing them the bank statements and the original of the rental agreement. This caused much confusion as the house is rented through an agent and I the agreement is not three-way. Apparently that doesn't happen here!

Best of luck and happy packing

You will need passport size photos for your residence permit. I have no idea at what age kids need to have their own permits.

The kids need their own permits at 16, this is when German kids get their own "Personalausweiß". Before that, there is a "Kinderausweiß" for german kids -- no photo, just name, dob and name of whoever is responsible for them.

Don't know what the reg is for Brits under 16 -- my kids are both German nationals. Still, the friendly people at the Ausländeramt will tell you what you need.

Just to add a bit of confusion, the rules about residency permits are changing in January to make it more straightforward for EU citizens to get one. Whether the people who issue them will be familiar with the new regulations in January is anyone's guess. As I understand it you should only need a passport and the residence permit will be unrestricted. There is a thread about this which started yesterday on the Toytown Munich board.

Ours are both less than 13, and just had to show the passport once, there's no id system so far , of course we had to get them medical insurance too, but they just joined mine.

Yes Ramon, there are quite a few mainly in the northern areas. It was our only alternative here, apart from the International school in Hannover and it doesn't get a good report and 60-70% of the pupils are german!! so that speak volumes to me about the german education system.