DoubleDTown

depending how far into your 7th year you are, by the time you get your docs together you might be at the 8 year mark.  You likely need about 2 months lead time to even sit for the B1 and citizenship tests, then a few more weeks to get results.

  in Dresden they told me they wanted to take my U.S. license.  I thought "that's annoying, but okay",  Then they said they wanted to charge me a storage fee.  That sounded crazy.  Then they volunteered that if I got a letter from the U.S. consulate saying it was inconvenient to give up my U.S. license that I could keep it.  So I did that.  The U.S. consulate in Leipzig sent me a short letter saying that in the U.S. licenses are used as common personal I.D.  Then the Dresden Amt let me keep my U.S. license when they gave me the German one. 

  I recently asked my U.S. high school for a transcript from the 1980s.  The school referred me to a vendor, Parchment, which for $7 emailed me a pdf in just a few hours.  For more money a certified copy could be mailed.  I was impressed.    But, it wasn't quite correct.  We had a school year with 2 semesters, each with 2 "quarters".  We got grades for each quarter and for the semester.  So one might for example get a "C" for the second quarter, but get a "B" for the semester.  The transcript only had semester grades, and I am pretty sure some of them were wrong.  Also, the transcript had my phone number wrong.    But as Brad notes, it was 30 years ago. At least they could confirm I graduated.   this is just what OP TheFisherman wanted to know, right?  :-)     My tip to the OP, if he's headed to Dresden or Leipzig, act quickly to make an appointment at the Auslaenderbehoerde (unless EU citizens don't go there?).  My experience has been that after the migrant influx, it can take weeks or months to get an appointment in Dresden.  Of course, the appointment system is better than the take-a-number free-for-all that reigned in years gone by.  

  I think possible and legal are two different things.   Residents of Germany, even illegal ones, enjoy infrastructure (streets, railroads, airports, communication, electricity, water, sewer, trash collection) and a safetynet of emergency services provided for by people that are following the rules.

  1. is the domain name and/or social media username that would correspond available?  If not, move on.   2. Nobody likes paying for it, and many people think "I'm a small business, it won't matter", but consider a trademark clearance search before starting to invest time and money in building awareness for your business name.  (a) can you use the name without someone successfully objecting to your use? and  (b) can you expect to protect the name?

  my experience has been the key to keeping kids on public is the public-eligible parent must have higher income than the privately insured parent.

If you are eligible for public, get on the socialist gravy train.  It's cheaper.  Occasionally practices might be faster to get you an appointment if you are private, and you may have fewer requirements to get a referral from your general practitioner if you want to see a specialist (e.g. dermatologist, orthopedic), but in my opinion the lower cost of public insurance trumps all that.

  Oops, I forgot it was U.S.-Austria treaty.  One would need to check that U.S.-Germany treaty is same.

  that's a freaking mouthful.  I'm not sure which state is the "first-mentioned contracting state".  But, irregardless, it seems 19.1 is clearer and resolves OP's issue (as he said), that government pensions are only taxable by the government that pays them:   19.1. ...pensions, ... paid from public funds of a Contracting State ... to a citizen of that Contracting State for labor or personal services performed as an employee of that Contracting State ... shall be taxable only by that Contracting State     but wait, there's more: I can see an argument how after OP has 8 (?) years of legal residency in Germany (if he figures out a way to finagle that) he could use this provision as the basis for holding on to U.S. citizenship if he applies for German citizenship. Namely, loss of U.S. citizenship would be a hardship because of the change of taxation.    

  Yes, AOK is public.

 

  if a lawyer is billing you by the hour and charges for more time than s/x/he spent or for a task that was not undertaken, then that is fraud and the lawyer can and should be disciplined by the Rechtsanwaltskammer.    When a tradesman does work on your home, you are not just paying for the 45 minutes spent performing the task, but also the related expenses to develop the capability to perform that task and to get to the site with the right materials and tools.  When a lawyer speaks to you on the phone for 45 minutes you are not just paying for chatting with someone for 45 minutes.  if a lawyer charges you EUR 200+ per hour to learn from you what your problem is and answer your question based on that lawyer's expertise with applying the law to your situation (which might include some research to confirm nothing has changed recently), you are getting reliable information (hopefully) and the lawyer deserves compensation for the time and effort taken to (i) develop that expertise and (ii) jump through Germany's hoops to obtain and maintain a law license (which includes 6 years of education and 2 tough tests; as well as a physical office and mandatory malpractice insurance).    if a lawyer charges you a flat rate to provide the advice, you know ahead of time what you are going to pay to get the information you want and can decide if the price is worthwhile.    If you think you can educate yourself better on your own or get the right answer from fellow Toytowners, then more power to you.

  good grief. res ipsa loquitur   you are right that if a lawyer lies to you and says they are doing something for you for 5 hours and they were not, that would be fraud.  But I doubt many lawyers do that.  Apparently you think they do.   In that case, carry on re-inventing the wheel and believing your savvy approach is better than asking someone with expertise in the field.   it's sort of like paying a music teacher, the teacher doesn't have to learn how to do anything, they've been practicing for years already and teach based upon established expertise, why pay them? good luck.

  Take your ideas to a German immigration lawyer.  Spending even EUR 1.000 on sound advice now will make your planning immensely easier. Immigration law is very complex and not always intuitive.  Often things you do or don't do can have big impacts on your chance of success.  Get the right answer from someone in the know, it will be money well spent.

This is one of the downsides of Germany's medical system.  The system has upsides, but you experiencing the downside of what happens when the Landesarztekammer essentially rations access by limiting how many doctors of a particular type can be in a particular area.    It may not be fair, but IF you private insurance rather than "public" insurance, if you make that clear when contacting a practice they sometimes are more willing to take you because they will get paid by you faster and more.