Paperwork for your life in Germany

Once you have decided to move and live in Germany, you need to consider that sooner or later you will have to do the following:

Registration. regardless of your status in Germany, if you are a citizen of the EU or not, you need to register at the local "Anmeldeamt". In most of the cases, if you want to rent an apartment, open a bank account, etc, you will need this document.

The document is to proof that you live in Germany.

Get a Health Insurance. If you don't have an international insurance, you will have to get a German one. I highly recommend you do some deep research on these matters as there are many options, prices, etc. For example, if your husband/wife is working and you are not, you are entitle to share the insurance in the time you are unemployed or if you earn less than a certain amount of money per month.

Get a Tax Card. To start working you will need to get a tax card. This goes beyond my knowledge still about how and what are the uses, and, very important, about all the kinds of taxes there are. If you are employed by a company, you need to choose which class of tax you are, in relation to, for example, your marital status. I've heard, that if you are single, you are likely to pay more taxes. Again I have not lived in Germany long enough to have much experience in this area.

And more depending on what you plan to do. If you want to get a loan, you need to have a Schufa documentation on your credit background; if you want to rent an apartment, you are likely to be requested a recommendation letter from your previous owner; etc etc.

Note please that I am in no way a legal advisor, I am just telling from experience what an average person needs to settle down.