I might be relocating to Germany

I met the most amazing girl from Germany. We ended up getting engaged in August. Unfortunately she had to return to Germany because her Visa expired. We are now trying to decide whether or not we will live in Germany or New York City.

I have been doing research... which included reading books such as:
Living and Working Germany (edited by Dan Finlay)
The Indispensable Guide to Working and Living in Germany (In The Know Series)

They have been interesting and very informative, but I would like to hear from others that have relocated to Germany... because its nice to get various opinions.

1. Where do I find cheap flights to Germany? Does anyone know of websites that discount codes or promotional codes for airfare?

2. I have contacted the German Consulate to ask what I need (paperwork, documents, etc.) to obtain a Work Permit and a Residency Permit. However, they did not seem really interested in helping me out. They said I have to ask people at the Auslander Office once I get there. But I think I should know before I come that way I can line up everything in advance and have it all nicely put together. I really want to be prepared. Are there fees?

3. Getting Married in Germany: Of course I would prefer to have a more traditional planned out wedding. But it doesn't seem we may have the luxury of doing so. Even if we stay here it seems that in order to obtain work permits its easier to get married first. From my understanding its that way there too... Is this true? What kind of paperwork do I need to have to get married in Germany? How much does it cost to get married in Germany? I have also heard its cheaper and there is less paperwork if one gets married in Denmark... is this true???

4. I have been slowly learning German on my own... using various books, podcasts, audio CDs, an online version of Rosetta Stone, etc. Will it really hurt me when it comes to looking for a job if I can only speak basic German? Are there any books, websites, podcasts, or CDs I should use to help improve my German? I feel I should take some sort of class here in the States before I come... I think it will help me focus a little better. Does anyone know of any classes available in New York City??? Are there meet up groups in Germany for those trying to learn the language? Do you think it will be easier for me to pick up the language once I get there? Should I watch or read books geared towards children that teach the language?

5. Can one find temporary work teaching English or tutoring English in Germany?

6. I have been working in the film/television industry since 2000. I would love to continue working in the industry. Does anyone have info on the film/television industry there? Are there any job boards or job sites geared towards the industry there? Should I be looking for jobs in any specific places? Are there any cities in Germany where the industry is bigger? Are there Channels or Networks there that are in English that I might apply for work at?

7. I was curious to how others have adjusted to living in Germany? I have heard good things and bad things. Are there any things that I should expect?

8. Driver's License: I have one here. Should I apply for the AAA International License before I come? Is it worth it? Will it help me get a license there or am I fine with my NY License?

9. Are there any big NO-NOs or don'ts that I should be aware about... I don't want to do something that typical american does that would be offensive to a German person. I do have German friends here in America, but they know what Americans are like and don't get offended easily.

10. I heard its not as easy to make friends there... is this true? I am midwestern/southern guy... I am very out-going and friendly. Will this be a put off to Germans?

11. If I do move I plan on selling most of my things here... and sending several items to my parents. Are there any cheap methods of shipping items to Germany? Or should sell everything I own and come with just a suitcase full of clothes and a few other items that I do not want to part with? Are there any items that I would have to bring or that would make my life easier there?

12. I have a Mac and my fiancee has a PC. Right now we use Skype and Yahoo messenger... are there any other online or free ways to chat with each other while we are apart?

13. My fiancee says she is not sure they have calling cards there that she can purchase to call me. Are there any places that she could find them or do they not exist there? If I do move there it will be important for me to keep in touch with my parents and family here in the states. What is the best way to do so? Also does anyone know of any good phone cards or free online calling services where I can call my girl using my computer?

14. Besides the German Toilet Shelf... is there anything else that might freak me out there? (more a of joke question... but curious if there are things that I will find odd or unusual there).

15. Insurance... The joys of working freelance in the film/tv world means that I am not covered by a company. Should I purchase insurance before I come? Should I get travelers insurance? If I move should I wait to get it? I hear its expensive if you do not have a job?

16. Eventually my fiancee after we get married will have kids... Is is better to raise a child there or in the US? Do children get a better education there? How hard is it to raise a child to be bilingual... has anyone done this? Are there any benefits for kids there? Insurance for kids??? I am just asking... not planning on having kids until we are ready. But this will have an impact on my decision on moving to Germany.

17. How are American treated in Germany? Do they like us? Or are we stereotyped there? Should I tell people I am from CANADA???

18. Comparing the various larger cities in Germany, which ones would you feel Americans can adjust to living in more easily? Which cities are cheaper to live in? I live in NYC and its ranked in the top ten expensive cities in the world. I think several of the Germany cities are in the 70s.

19. My fiancee took Travelers Checks home... Most banks have a high fee to cash them. Then on top of that the US Dollar is not worth as much as the Euro right now. Are there any places she should go to try to cash them that would be better? I will end up having to do the same if I do move there. I right now I feel I should do my best to save up as much money as I can, because half of it will be taken away because of that. Is that the only best thing to do???

20. Are there any English words there I should not use??? I know AFTER and GIFT translate into totally different things there. Is there any slang I should know? Are there any websites out there where I can find German Slang? ((I do like teasing my German friends here by using 1950s lingo... it really throws them off))

I am sure I could come up with a million other questions to ask and probably will as time goes by. But I think those are the important ones. If anyone has any other advice, suggestions, ideas, or comments please let me know. I really appreciate any help and info I can get. I just want to be prepared and I want to make the right decision for me & fiancee on where to live. Its important that we do the right things... I know we will make mistakes along the way, but I want to do my best to limit those to just a few and avoid making big ones.

Please email me your answers at email address removed by admin

Thanks,
Kenn.

there are so many ways to reply to this one... ok, i'll be kind.

Sir, may I refer you to the "search function", which is available on this fine website. By using that function, you will find a wealth of information and very likely the answers to all your above questions.

I would also like to add that the benefits of the Search Function are lost when there are no postings within the website. For this reason, it is unadvisable to make requests such as the following:


it is also unadvisable to include your e-mail in any posting in an open forum.

wishing you the best of luck.

too many questions in one topic, try asking 1 per day maybe?

Your fiancee, her family and friends can also answer many of your questions.

Holy moly ... looks like someone is not ready for a new culture. Listen mate, don't expect people to sit down and read that list. Make the move, deal with the trials and tribulations that go along with such a move and act like a man. How about asking your future wife? If she's german, surely she can help you.

I just figured some people could answer some things. I am not afraid of moving. I simply want to be prepared. I want to do the right things and go through the proper channels. I am sorry if I offended anyone by being inquisitive. I just want to make sure I don't screw things up and that I know everything. I guess I am that way because of my line of work... When you have to deal with big budgets you have to know exactly what you are doing.

I hope others will find it in their heart to answer at least one or two questions. I don't expect everyone to answer them all. I really do appreciate any help or advice people give. It means a lot.

Again... sorry if I offended anyone by trying to learn.

Kenn.

Fair dues for making the effort to type all that in but I can't honestly see anyone here taking the time to answer all those questions again. Maybe dino 666 will show us his true Christian side and make the effort...

Please don't take offense, but... you're hardly trying to learn, you're just trying to get people to regurgitate their learned information to you. It's definitely not easy to make the transition, or to decide to do so, but you can really find most of your answers by searching here or on google with minimal effort-- and probably the same amount of time as sitting there refreshing the page and waiting for answers.

This isn't a crutch, it's just a community.

On the driver's license, see if New York State has a reciprocal agreement with Germany because otherwise getting a German license will be more difficult.

EDIT: you might find this site useful:
http://gettingaroundgermany.home.att.net/regeln.htm

You can only drive for 6 months with your US license once your permanent residence starts. Getting a German license is a very difficult and expensive process, so make sure you come over here with a license from a state with a reciprocal agreement.

To be frank, given what you have posted, I would advise you and your fiancee to think about her coming back to the US after you two get married, especially if she has better job prospects in the US than you do in Germany.

Kenn, you don't offend anyone by trying to learn.

You offend by not doing the legwork on your own, and by expecting people to read a million questions, all of which have been asked on this forum before and all of which you could get answered by doing a search in this forum for the answers.

Since you are new to TT, you are well-advised to take ANYTHING you read here with a grain of salt. If you follow erroneous advice (or just old advice, many of the laws regarding foreigners change often and have changed recently), the German authorities are not going to take pity on you.

The best source of advice for most of your legal questions are with the German authorities. Surely your fiancee and her family can help you out with getting the information you need on marrying in Germany and getting your legal permits to live and work there. You have such an advantage over many foreigners in Germany in that you have relatives (almost) who can help you get sorted and who have an interest in helping you get sorted. You need to use them. You seem to be trying to do everything on your own.

Speaking of doing everything on your own, why is it that your fiancee can't seem to figure out a cheap way to phone you from Germany? It's her country, after all, and she speaks the language. I will tell you this: there are cheaper ways to use a landline telephone to call the US from Germany using numeric codes before phoning the telephone number. I forget what they are, but they are really easy to find out.

A German language course will set you straight (over time) on what to say and what not to say in German. You can't say anything at all in German at the moment. Nobody will even speak to you in German until you gain a certain amount of proficiency - they will switch to English if they can speak it, for quite a while. Forget about slang until you are fluent.

great. move.


kayak.com


relocation agent


search

yes. do you think it would hurt if you spoke no English in America. You can get a job with Spanish there, but what kind of job? Mr big budget?

yes, search again.

Munich

there are good and bad things

no on the international, get a virginia, trade in.


Leave the I heart Bush T-Shirt at home, Germans don't get irony.


Horrible here, all Germans frown, especially east Germans. Has something to do with the toilet paper they import from Poland.


come and visit, then decide.

MSN, Facebook, VOIP, email


Dump her, she is blind. calling card ads are everywhere.


Depends on you. Come visit. Then decide.

You will have to have local health insurance. Acquired here. Search.


Easy to raise kids here - less guns.
Bilingual - easy as pie - go for triglot at least.


Mars.


Munich.


Use them in stores.


All,yes,yes. Search.


Those are not important questions, not yet. - just come and visit. The most important questions you will need to ask are about yourself.

I don't know why people have to be sarcastic. I would imagine they were once new to Germany and had several questions too. I am just trying to find out information. I would hope people would be nice enough to give me appropriate answers and not try to be funny or hateful.

When people move to NYC for the first time I go out of my way to be nice and help them out as much I can.

I am again sorry if I offended anyone. I take moving very seriously and I just don't want to make mistakes that I will later regret.

Kenn.

I am not being that sarcastic. Look at some of those questions, look at some answers. And the answer is: Relax. Visit. Focus on one or two subjects.

To the OP, you really need to get a realistic appraisal of your job prospects here, or life will likely be rather disappointing, unless you are marrying a wealthy woman. Labor markets function differently here. The other stuff you brought up is child's play in comparison with divining what your career might be like here. You'll have your wife to help you with bureaucracy and integrating, so try to figure something out on your career before you spend a lot of money and some time to come over here. Do not be surprised if it turns out that it is better for her to come back to the US.

BTW, you will have to take 600 hours of language training if you do come here (unless you pass a German language test called the Zertifikat Deutsch in advance) so don't worry too much about becoming skilled enough to read the Nibelungenlied or Peter Squenz before coming over. Immersion works better for most anyway.

4. Language is quite an issue. Do your best to learn as much as you can in advance, even if just the names of every object you can think of (sod the grammar). Sure many people speak English in the cities (but not where I live), and I think it is quite a tough language compared to the French and Spanish I did at school. Personally I see it as one of the biggest issues for longterm relocation.

As i'm still at work and waiting for some knobjockey lawyer* to finish his work so i can review it I'll do all the work for you. I have searched for you and on each link are all the threads on this site that address your questions. Seriously. Every one of them has been asked before, answered, dissected and asked again. I hope you find it useful.

1. don't know

2. search

3. search

4. search

5. search

6. munich or hamburg

7. search
8. search

9. search

10. search

11. search
12. is that a serious question?

13. cheap phone codes are listed in the newspaper

14. mullets, socks with sandals, shell suits. just like the mid-west really. you'll feel right at home

15. search

16. search

17. search
18. Hamburg and berlin are proper cities. Munich is awesome but not a proper city in that there's no tramps, or crime (apart from those bastards who stole my bike) search.

19. cash them at her bank. or spend them, like normal cheques

20. don't get it.

I hope your move goes well, and you get married and live happily ever after with Helga, or Britta or Sigrid or whatever your missus is called.

If anyone ever ever ever in the history of TT asks any of those questions again I will kill them. Slowly. With a bulldog clip and post-it notes. I might also use a hole punch if I'm feeling merciful.

*who probably supports Spurs. Or Chelsea.

wow, Lassie did all the searches. Chapeau. You fetch, girl.

You need to be very careful. The supermarkets in Germany are dire. The food is so bad that people are dying in their thousands. A quick look at the death columns in any German newspaper will confirm this, nothing but deaths, deaths, deaths. If you have a way to get your own food over here - parachute drops like that time in Berlin - you might just survive. Your relatives will be able to confirm how bad things are. Here's a picture of a typical German on an average day:


Economists say the situation is getting worse but will improve if the supermarkets can get their act together which is unlikely anyway.

yeah sometimes i do good things. i rescued little timmy (not to be confused with Timmeh) from a well last week.

But will Farms get it?

Good luck with your adventure. Learn German and bring a bunch of flowers, chocolate and as many bottles of decent wine as you can for carrotcake.

Yep, you can't get that stuff in the supermarkets here.

In fact most people find it convenient to live somewhere not too far from the nearest border to ensure a reliable source of essential supplies.

Forgive me I am clueless but I might have two Google ideas.

The first is Bavaria Film Stadt near Grünwald.

The second is Panther film company in Oberhaching. They are international so try them.

No ther info than that, sorry, I am not in that industry. Wel...I am not in any indutry at all for that matter...well okay I change nappies all day. And wipe up spilt mugs of tea. And put jigsaws strewn all over the floor back together.

Hope the leads help.

www.crewunited.de
www.dreharbeiten.de
jobs.medibiz.de
Mandy.com

Hope they help...know that unless your German is good (fluent) you are gonna have a hell of a time trying to find anything in production.

Good luck!
-----

TT Lassie = garçon

There are also many media companies in Unterföhring, just north of Munich on the way to the airport. There you will find

ProSiebenSat.1 conglomerate (just merged with SBS so a lot of international people are jumping aboard)
ZDF
Bayrischer Rundfunk
Premiere

I'd suspect that at most of these companies you'd have to speak German, though, but wouldn't hurt to check them out.

Cities big in media are also Köln and Hamburg.

You will need to be able to speak fluently when applying for a job in media here. Try learning German faster by this method: http://www.birkenbihl-insider.de/PDF/MethodEnglish.pdf
It is more effective and more fun than any other. I've used it and can really recommend it.

health insurance - if you can, get one in your country to cover the first months in Germany. Beeing self employed in Germany means having to pay for your health insurance on your own. Friends of mine ended up with a kind of basic insurance which will cover hospital service but not normal GP or dentists visits. It saved them a lot of money.

You should get very used to this if you plan to move to Germany, service doesn't exist in the dictionary here.

As for the film business, as others have said - Munich. However, not sure how easy it will be for you to find work. What do you do exactly? Film or tv production stuff? I also worked in the business in Chicago [I.A.T.S.E. LOCAL 476] since I could legally work as I grew up in the business and I still work when I go home. I've spotted a few shoots in Munich and the set seems to operate pretty much like any movie production in the States; it was easy to spot who was a PA, who was a grip, etc. So that made me feel like the transition wouldn't be too difficult. I just never felt like pursuing it myself but would be interested to know what you find out if you do. Its a great business to work in which is why I worked for 2 of the 3 weeks I was home...good times

Holy shit batman, that was an awfully long missive...

Since you have so many questions, and sound rather apprehensive (!!!) I'd suggest you come out for a visit - THEN you and your girlfriend evaluate the pros and cons..

smart move leavin that Timmeh fellah down there

was tempted to throw Psioni and Dinio 66whatever down there to keep him company.

and we all live in igloos or caves right?

"say you are canadian?" are you serious?...if so, make sure you know at least what Tim Horton's coffee is...or you'll just get busted for being an idiot american

You should check ARRI out, they're based here in Türkenstrasse 89. If you work in production it'll be impossible not to have heard of them already.

I admit that people do sound pretty rude in this thread, but really they are not. Your intentions are good, but imagine if every person who was moving to Munich posted something like you did. Most of these people have seen this exact thread (ok, maybe not so long) 100 times already. There are threads on almost every single one of your points. If you searched, read the thread, then still had a question and posted it on the end of that thread, you would be much more likely to receive good answers to your questions.

I wanted to thank all those who have emailed me and have posted advice. I really due appreciate the time you took to respond.

I am constantly reading things on the web and in books. Right now I have several books on speaking German... Podcasts... Audio Files... An Online Version of Rosetta Stone, etc. I also have read the two books that I have mentioned before.

Every little bit of info people share adds to it. I just want to do the right thing and give my fiancee the type of life she deserves. She means the world to me.

I realize where we live it will not be easy... It rarely is for new couples. Financially things may be difficult. But I want to do my best. I want be the best husband I can be when we are married.

I appreciate people emailing me about the their experiences. And I hope one day I can offer advice and share what I went through to others seeking information.

The info on the film industry has really helped out. Its something I want to continue doing... I have come along way in the business here in the states and if I do move I think it would be great to stay in the industry. Ten to twenty years ago it would have been next to impossible to find a job in film in other countries... But so many countries have created flourishing film communities. Luckily I have Graphic Design and Illustration to fall back on as well.

Again... thanks for all the info.

A few answers to your long post may be found here.

FYI Graphic Design is not a great fallback here at the moment. You won't be paid much, you have to have a degree (in that field), and a great portfolio, and you must speak German well enough to conduct business in an office with flighty artistic people. Something to keep in mind if you're considering seriously relying on those skills. Salary-wise, t's definitely not something to support a family with.

I disagree with most of the above, salaries start around 35k for an entry level, permanent position and freelancers can charge anywhere between 30 and 70 euros an hour, but that would mean acquiring clients, which is tough enough, tougher still without German. Enough to support a family? Just depends then on the size of the family. German is necessary, but, having said that, I also know designers and folk working in agencies here, who can barely order a sandwich in German, but get by on English alone, and have been doing so for years. The most talented and successful designers I know have no formal design qualification, or one in a field unrelated to design, so, while a degree might edge you over some competing candidates, it'll be the strength of your portfolio that gets the job. Perhaps you should register with Designerdock, trawl Das Auge, Jobsafari. There've been an abundance of graphic positions advertised of late, both print and new media. Although, if you promote yourself as an artworker (Reinzeichner), you should have no problem getting an interview as there is a shortage of artworkers at the moment. So I wouldn't discount Graphic Design as a fallback just yet. If your portfolio's up to it is another matter. Relying solely on illustration would be very risky, it's an extremely niche jobmarket, with fierce competition between illustrators for clients that more often than not don't pay very well.

35k in an agency is an extremely good starting salary. I've no idea what the market is like in Munich, but in Berlin, you can expect closer to 20 starting at a top agency. If you are one of the most talented designers out there, and have a fabulous portfolio, then, sure, the usual expectations (German, degree) are less important. If you're average, then you'd better bone up. There has been some hiring recently, but agencies are not willing to pay more just yet. Best to work on your portfolio and then apply.