danielg

The websites are easy: usajobs.gov, also nafjobs.org. It is however not all that easy to slide into a nice overseas GS job with LQA directly from active duty unless you truly have some skill that is in demand, often you have to return to the US and then reapply.

For what it's worth, I just MPS'd a package from Germany to Japan and it arrived within a week. For free! Your milage will definitely vary with the military postal system.

There are a few reasonably well-written PDFs available if you google "USAREUR marriage German citizen" which I'm sure you've read but in case you haven't, go for it. I think the legal offices generally have handouts on it as well.   If you are active duty then no, simply being married to a German doesn't per se allow you to extend your tour in Germany. That said, of course you see quite a number of military and civilian people who have stayed quite a while in Germany and who have been shall we say creative in getting extended. Maybe doing an unaccompanied hardship tour somewhere if the promise to extend you in Germany or moving to another location in Germany (both not really attractive as newlyweds, I agree).   Housing wise, I think you just add her as a dependent and then your housing situation/allowance will change. Whether that will allow you to move somewhere else if you have less than a year left who knows?   If you are going to the US then get on getting your wife a green card as soon as you can!   Definitely agree with JG52 - unit S1/1SG will know more.

It would be a special case but theoretically, if you worked for a German company while under SOFA and paid into the German social security system, the three years may be counted towards the requirements for a Niederlassungserlaubnis (permanent residency permit), which you would generally need prior to getting citizenship. And I guess theoretically if you would qualify for German citizenship for other reasons (through parents for example) then it wouldn't really matter if you were under the SOFA or not.   But for all practical purposes, no, for the vast majority of cases, time spent under SOFA does not count.

I guess the more correct answer is the USAREUR vehicle registration office won't actually register the plane in the military system; it remains in the FAA N registration system with an N number. So not quite like with a car where you de-register in your state before you come over and re-register with USAREUR. But you do get a registration document with which you get a fuel ration allotment so for practical purposes, yes, it is registered in the USAREUR system. It's complicated. I hear most times the club needs to reregister the plane the clerk initially says no and then once they see the registration document with "Cessna" on it, it goes through without issues.

The USAREUR vehicle registration office strangely enough will actually register an airplane. It's funny as the registration slip looks exactly the same as one for the car, just with an absurd monthly fuel allotment (something like 400 liters for a POV versus 5,000 liters for the plane).   The aero club is alive and kicking by the way - if you still have SOFA status come on over!   Thanks for the info!

A plane. 50-100k-ish. So significant VAT burden.

I think I know the answer to this question already - namely not easily - but has anybody under the SOFA in Germany had any luck in getting a VAT exemption for purchases outside of Germany? I’d probably have to get a VAT exempted entity (ie a German based company) in Germany to buy the product from the merchant in say Belgium, import it into Germany and then resell the item to me with me using an NF2 VAT form?