Arrival and Settling in Germany: The First Weeks
Arrival and settling in Germany begins before the new employee sets foot in the office. The moment an international professional moves into their new home, a sequence of administrative steps starts, each of which depends on the one before it. Knowing this sequence makes the first weeks manageable. Not knowing it costs time that nobody has to spare.
This is the fifth article in our blog series on the international employee journey. After the framework overview, Phase 1 on international attraction, Phase 2 on recruiting and the pre-check and Phase 3 on pre-relocation, we now reach the weeks immediately after arrival.
Why arrival and settling in Germany starts with one appointment
The Anmeldung, Germany’s mandatory address registration, must be completed within 14 days of moving into a new home. In practice, authorities are often lenient about a few weeks’ delay, provided there is evidence of having searched for appointments in good time. What depends on the registration certificate, however, allows no delay at all. Without it, opening a bank account becomes difficult, health insurance cannot be arranged, and the tax ID cannot be issued. Since employers need the tax ID to process payroll correctly, professionals who don’t have it on time are taxed under the least favourable default class in their first month, which substantially reduces the first salary payment.
The practical challenge is rarely the deadline itself, but the appointment availability. In cities like Berlin or Munich, Bürgeramt appointments are often fully booked weeks in advance. Someone who tries to book only after arriving may therefore wait longer than the legal window allows. Professional settling-in support books the Bürgeramt appointment during the housing search, well before arrival.
One additional complication is the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, a confirmation form that the landlord must sign before registration can proceed. The rental contract alone is not sufficient. Because this is often overlooked in advance preparation, it becomes a last-minute obstacle that delays everything downstream.
What follows registration
Once the registration certificate is in hand, the next steps begin. The tax ID arrives automatically by post, typically two to six weeks after registration. Until it arrives, payroll cannot be processed correctly.
For professionals from non-EU countries, the residence permit must be applied for at the Ausländerbehörde. The entry visa is valid only for a limited period, so this appointment needs to be secured promptly after arrival. Waiting times at the foreigners’ authority vary considerably by city, and in larger urban centres they can stretch several weeks.
Running alongside all of this: selecting and registering with a health insurer, arranging a mobile phone contract, setting up electricity and internet, and registering for the German broadcasting fee. For families, school and nursery enrolment adds its own timelines and waiting lists.
Arrival and settling in Germany: why structure makes the difference
For someone who has just arrived, is still learning German, doesn’t know the city, and is simultaneously starting a new job, this sequence carries real weight. Most difficulties in this phase arise not from any individual step being complicated, but from the dependencies between steps being unknown to anyone who hasn’t navigated this path before.
What makes the greatest practical difference is a person who knows the process and accompanies it directly. Not an information pack handed over on day one, but someone who attends the first Bürgeramt appointment, checks the documents in advance, ensures the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung is in place, and knows which authority to contact in which order.
At HereLocation, our settling-in service accompanies international professionals and their families through each of these steps, with dedicated contacts on the ground, deep knowledge of local authority procedures, and the commitment that no appointment takes place without preparation. If you’d like to know how this works in practice for your organisation, get in touch.
The next article in this series covers Phase 5: Onboarding and Integration. Follow HereLocation on LinkedIn to stay updated on the full series. And if you’d like to know now what a structured relocation policy could look like for your company — get in touch. We know the way.
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