Housing with German wife

[nickstraub 2]

I will soon be marrying a German National and want to be able to live housing with her. However I will ets in just under a year. Will we be eligible to get any on or off post housing? Does being married to a German National allow me to extend longer in Germany even if I am almost done with my 3 year tour?

[JG52 589]

The best source of accurate answers to all of your questions in this forum are in your unit's S1 and/or your 1SG.

 

Edit to add:  Assuming you do get married (congratulations in advance!) and ETS within a year, what do you plan on doing in Germany?  Do you have any skills and training that are in demand for any of the U.S. Government contractors in the Stuttgart area that would enable to you have Technical Expert status and remain in Germany under the NATO SOFA?  If not, you will need a Plan B that will satisfy the immigration and residency requirements.

[nickstraub 2]

16 hours ago, JG52 said:

The best source of accurate answers to all of your questions in this forum are in your unit's S1 and/or your 1SG.

 

Edit to add:  Assuming you do get married (congratulations in advance!) and ETS within a year, what do you plan on doing in Germany?  Do you have any skills and training that are in demand for any of the U.S. Government contractors in the Stuttgart area that would enable to you have Technical Expert status and remain in Germany under the NATO SOFA?  If not, you will need a Plan B that will satisfy the immigration and residency requirements.

Do you know how I can contact the contractors in Stuttgart?

[danielg 19]

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.

[Bier_me 1]

Nickstraub,

 

Be careful when you separate and live with your German spouse.  The German Finanzamts have been targeting US personnel who are married to German spouses.  Google the topic and look for the numerous Stars and Stripes articles.  BL, if the local Finanzamt thinks you have showed "intent to stay" they will back-tax you for all your time spent in Germany while under the SOFA status.  This has cost hundreds of service members and contractors thousands of dollars, legal fees, and headaches.  Some have been back-taxed as much as six figures.  You might be better off PCS'ing back to CONUS for a bit and then come back to Germany.  Otherwise you run that risk of tax issues.  It sucks, and its illegal.  But, unfortunately, USAREUR who runs the SOFA program in Germany, hasn't done too much about it.  The Bundestag is finally starting to look into it, but I'm not sure how long it will take for them to stop the Finanzamt's predatory tactics.

 

Here is the latest article from Stars and Stripes about the issue, worth the read and research: https://www.stripes.com/news/europe/german-lawmakers-investigate-whether-double-taxation-of-us-troops-civilians-violates-sofa-1.629267