Moving to Germany in New Year. Advice please!

[MultipleMama]

It's finally official. DH signed his contract today, and starts his new job in January. We will be living there permanently. We plan to start the whole moving process this weekend but have no idea where to start.

DH is German and his family are there. My insurance is covered by work. Do I (& kids) need to apply for a residence permit if DH was born and raised there?

Our checklist;
Insurance.
Permit?
Movers.
Realtor/s.
Dog license.
German Tax.
Banking.
Car license.
Passports?

Anything important that we're missing? Also, I'm pregnant and a SAHM but plan to return to work in a couple of years, would this hinder/slow down the process?

Hello multiplemama
Where are you moving from and what is your own (and your dc) nationality?

We're from England. Dc and I are all British.

Then, as far as I know, you won't need any residence permit as its within Europe. You will all need to go and register your new address, but your dh will know about that.

What are your other questions?

There's an online auction site where removal firms can place bids on carrying out your move. When we moved from just to Germany we got a good deal through that.

What do you need to know about estate agents? Most houses (sale and rental) go through estate agents. It's expensive but Norway around it really.

You have to pay for a dog license. But it's done through the council, so after you ve moved and go to register yourselves at the new address,you should be able to register your dog there too. The amount you have to pay for your dog varies widely, depending in where you live.

Ah, thank you.

DH knows pretty much how to do everything, and we have his parents to help also. He has to be in Germany before end of December and he's got 10 weeks leave from work, expenses covered. It's just overwhelming.

We'll be moving to Frankfurt as his work is in the city centre. What about schools? My youngest should be starting school in September. I've sent an inquiry of to FIS but I don't know what other schools there are.

I am not far away...

Do your children speak German as they have a german father? If so then I guess a completely english school as FIS (i think german is minimal there) would be ok. There are other schools such as IFS, Phorms, Dr Obermyer, KidsCamp. I am not that familiar with the ones in Frankfurt city itself but there are a couple of others.

how old are your children?

as regards housing, it is very easy to commute into Frankfurt. There are some nice bits of Frankfurt but it is not the most attractive of cities, having been heavily bombed in WW2 and not sympathetically restored. I live in the Taunus and it is super. Frankfurt is not my bag - have you been there?

DS is 4 (5 in Sept) and is almost fluent in Germany, sometimes he needs things repeating in English, and then he'll reply in German. And his sister is 2, she knows phrases and a quite a few sentences, but DH speaks German almost constantly at home so I'm sure she'll pick it up real quick.

We've heard back from FIS, they were really helpful. I don't mind if it's outside the city centre, as that's where we are looking to live and we don't mind commuting. Never been to Frankfurt, so I'm skeptical but the job is more beneficial so we're accepting it.

However, I would love to move to either Berlin or Bonn.

Silly question, but are the photos on google of Frankfurt accurate? DH has never been either and we're really curious. Not heading out there to visit until August.

I guess I would say have a look in a few areas as there are lots of possibilities here. Frankfurt is ok and some areas are apparently very nice, but for me Wiesbaden is far nicer. All depends on what you want. If you want city living then Frankfurt or Wiesbaden, if you want outdoors, countryside and smaller towns, then there are lots of options in the Taunus. I am in the Taunus with young children and I love it.

I will be interested to here what you think after you have visited, do let us know!

Dc here mostly start school at 6. I don't know anything about international schools, but from what I've heard, school is quite full-on from the start - no EYC with play-based learning. Even if it seems like a backwards step from a British perspective given that your ds will have a term of learning to read and write in the UK, it might be a lot less stressful to put him into kindergarten first.

Pet passport if you are thinking of bringing your dog back to the UK on holidays or permanently?

We arranged one for our dog when we moved to Germany, it was straightforward although there was a minimum time period of six months when we could not bring him back to the UK to re-enter.

I loved living there so much!

Some of the international schools work on the British system and have a reception class. We are in Munich and there is an international school that works on the British model, so although regular German school starts at roughly 6 (depending on month of birth and the cut off month is not exactly the same in each state) it could be that an international school will work on the British model.

We moved over with a 4 week window when I was pregnant with no. 2 and DH only had a week off work (and during that time he drove a removal lorry from S. Germany to Surrey and back) so it is doable! You will be fine! Bank account is the biggest hassle - remember almost nowhere but cash machines and petrol stations will take a credit card, so getting a German account with EC card set up in advance would be the most useful thing - we use DiBa as it is one of the few online options and one of the few where you don't pay account fees.

Remember you may have to buy a kitchen for your rented apartment or house (this is where we came unstuck as we moved into a rented house with no kitchen units or appliances and as I was pregnant and we had a toddler we wanted to get one in asap - even my German DH had forgotten we wouldn't be able to pay in Ikea with a credit card)

If you are bringing your car over you just register it when you get here, it is straight forward. You don't need to change to a German licence immediately.

If your kids speak German you could just put them into local KiGa and save your international school fees for later (unless the company is paying! :) )

Thank you so much for all the advice!

Mentioned the kitchen thing to DH and he had forgotten too! Thanks for the reminder.

Good advice on the bank situation. DH is in finance so I'll leave him to sort that out!

Work have gave DH 10 weeks leave running up to his start date. 2 are unpaid. Work are covering travel expenses and agent cost plus the 1st 6 months of child care if we have to put the older 2 in groups until the August term or if we have to wait until eldest turns 6.

Great to know it is doable. It's one thing to move to a different part of the country but to another country is overwhelming.

We will be taking the car too.

All this advice is really helpful :)

In The Frankfurt Taunus area there is the British Club - friendly people, great magazine to let you know lots of stuff going on and not all twin set and pearls! I have both german friends and some from the British Club of the Taunus.
www.british-club.de/

Also there this is Newcomers Festival - that is in Sept but ask your relocation agent to get you a copy of the Newcomers guide as it is very useful (or you could buy for 5 Euros).

www.newcomers-festival.de

The international schools have kindergarten and reception class (vorschule) and then grade 1 so you could avoid having to more your children.

move your children :)

Thank you, always