Moving to Berlin with a rake of pets

Sapsorrow

Hi guys, so finally finished college and am planning on moving to Berlin in a year or so with the boyfriend, 5 cats and a dog. I have loads of questions and concerns if anyone could answer some I'd really appreciate it!

So don't really know where to start, we plan on saving as much as possible before we go, maybe in the region of 6 or 8 grand so we don't have to get too stressed with paying rent and finding work immediately when we've a load of pets depending on us for a roof over their heads and feeding.

Just wondering does anyone know what the story is with social welfare there if it all goes badly? What about healthcare? My partner is only expensive meds he needs a monthly prescription so I'm wondering will we get any help with that? Is there such as a thing as rent allowance? Also if there is social welfare how much is it? Is there a minimum wage? I'm wary of renting somewhere under the impression that it's good value when we may end up on much less money over there whether we're working or not and not able to manage it.

Also what would be the best way to go about finding a place to rent? Are there any good websites life Daft.ie for finding budget apartments to rent long term? Seeing as we will have all our furniture and pets to shift I was thinking of heading over in advance and looking for a place, but I'm a bit apprehensive about handing over money with a foreign language contract I don't really understand. I read online that things are quite different over there in terms of how they rent. Anyone had any experience of renting over there? I heard they're generally more accepting of pets in general than here.

Also any tips on finding work there? I have a science degree and the fella has plenty of factory experience, so hopefully we'll be able to find something pretty quickly and not need any benefits. Hopefully the whole recession thing will be blowing over there in a year, although I have no idea how badly Germany or Berlin has been affected by the whole thing. I'm wondering how much of a barrier not having german will be to our finding work in Berlin, I was there 2 years back and it seemed nearly everyone spoke excellent English. Anyone have any thoughts? I did leaving cert German and plan on brushing up now and should be able to get back into the swing of it no problem but the boyf has never spoken a word which I'm a bit concerned about.

Is there any problem with moving animals around the EU? I guess they need to have check ups from the vets and certs of some sort?

Anyway as you can tell I'm pretty stressed about it all, I wouldn't be only moving the animals is going to be a big responsibility and so I want it all to go as smoothly as possible as much for their sakes as for mine!

Thanks in advance for any responses!

jester77

I'm not sure what the law is on bringing pets into Germany from within the EU is, but from outside the EU the pets are required to spend time in quarantine. Germans love their dogs, don't see so many cats around though. There are lots of parks in the cities and special areas for the dogs. Some people bring their dogs to work and most restaurants allow dogs inside.

Getting set up in Germany can be expensive. Most apartments but not all, will require paying a fee to an agent (Markler), 3 months cold rent is the usual standard and you would also have to pay a 2 or 3 month deposit to the landlord. Look for listings with courtagefrei to avoid the agent fee. Most apartments come with no furniture, they don't even have light fittings. You will get an empty apt with wires hanging from the ceiling, some will even have no kitchen.

I don't know what the story with social welfare is if you have not contributed to the system. You might be entitled to something under the Hartz IV system. Health insurance is a legal requirement and can be expensive but the system is excellent. You pay only €10 one time each quarter to visit the doctor and you can visit as many times in that quarter. Some medicines would be covered by insurance. There is no minimum wage in Germany, although some professions have one.

These 2 sites are good for finding accommodation:
http://www.immobilienscout24.de/de/finden/wohnen/index.jsp
http://www.immonet.de/

It can be difficult to find places but that might be because of where I've looked. You could easily have 20 or 30 people looking at an apt and you may have to fill out a mini CV about where you currently live, what you work at, salary, pets, etc and sometimes even an interview. I had to that for my current apt. but I am renting from a private landlord. Lots of the apts. are owned by large property companies.

Not having the language is not a major problem but it won't make things easy when looking for work and will leave you with fewer options. Lots of large multinationals in Germany where English would be the main language but you might still have internal meetings in German.

The Local has listings of English speaking jobs within Germany.

Toytown is an excellent resource for asking questions and finding info. Lots of people will already have experienced what you are asking so it's good to search through there.

Best of luck!

Sapsorrow

Jester, thanks so much for putting the effort into such an informative post, I really appreciate it! I had a look at the property sites, they're really good. It seems that for 400euro you can get a really nice ground floor apartment, but I see what you mean about being unfurnished. We plan on moving all our furniture over anyway so that's only a minor pain in the butt.

Does anyone know how hard it is to find work over there? Is it as competative as here? I have a 1.1 science degree but only 6 months experience (from a placement) as I only just graduated this summer. I started looking for work over there and there is a lot going on in biotech and pharma, but I'd work at anything if it meant staying over there. I'm seriously fed up with Ireland these days.

nattyguest

I moved back to Ireland last year, my partner is English so we spent a lot of time researching pets and basically the move back to Ireland or the UK is very very difficulty in order to curtail the potential movement of rabies, but the move from Ireland to Germany should be very straightforward, you pretty much need a pet passport and standard vaccinations. You should check this out with your vet though who can advise you further

Sapsorrow

Thanks for that Nattyguest, looks like me and you are moving in two different directions!

jester77

I'm not sure how hard it is to find work, I know in my company we are struggling to find people but it really depends on industry. Unemployment levels in Germany haven't moved much over the last few years, think they are around 8% or 9%.

Pharma is a big industry in Germany but I don't know where the big players are situated, it would be worth checking that out before you decide on Berlin as a destination. You might have a better chance in other cities.

I know a lot of people who came here and taught English. Most of them initially start work with Berlitz, you need zero previous teaching experience, a degree of some sort (doesn't matter what it is) and that you are a native speaker. Berlitz will train you up and you basically teach from a book, no German required. It can be tough going, you might have some classes in the morning, sit around for 3 or 4 hours and classes again later in the day. But it's a job and a good way to get integrated into Germany at the start and you can make some good contacts in these classes.

Sapsorrow

Thanks again Jester, you are giving me really useful links here! Again I appreciate it so much, as this stuff can be so hard to come across yourself online. I will definately check Berlitz out, I was actually looking at the TEFL website last night but it's a pricey investment to do it in Limerick, so doing it over there sounds ideal. I would love to do something that involved teaching, and I am more interested in living there and being happy than earning lots of money, if I can just get by over there I'll be happy. I am actually starting german classes next week to start brushing up on the last remnants of my leaving cert german, I want to go over as prepared as possible so I don't have to worry about coming back, so saving a comfortable amount of money to get started with and building up a competent level of german are my main two goals. Hopefull then I'll be well enough equipped to settle down there.

Sorry I have more questions feel free to ignore me if I'm getting annoying How do I go about registering as a citizen, I mean, when I get there hopefully I'll find work pretty quickly or have it lined up in advance, so I would need to do all the paperwork for paying taxes and medical insurance etc fairly sharpish once I land, is there a website for the relevant government dept etc?

I know I might be over thinking the whole process but I really want to do this right and have all little stress and confusion once we actually get there as possible.

#15

toytowngermany is a good website for those thinking of moving to Germany.

Berlin can be a tough place to find work in, from what I know. But I'm no expert.

jester77

Sapsorrow wrote: »

Sorry I have more questions feel free to ignore me if I'm getting annoying How do I go about registering as a citizen, I mean, when I get there hopefully I'll find work pretty quickly or have it lined up in advance, so I would need to do all the paperwork for paying taxes and medical insurance etc fairly sharpish once I land, is there a website for the relevant government dept etc?

You need to register by law in Germany, pretty much straight away. It's fairly straight forward, you need to find out your local Einwohnermeldeamt (Registration Office) and I think you only need to bring your passport, apartment contract and maybe your work contract. You will then get an Anmeldebestätigung, very important document, don't lose it. You will need this to open a bank account, or if you become unemployed, or want to buy a car, etc

Just a side note when registering, you will be asked what religion you are. This can be an expensive question, if you put down any of the main religions then you will pay church tax which is around 8%. This will automatically come off your salary and it can be difficult to get out of this at a later date. If you don't declare a religion then you are not entitled to get married in a church or have any church services.

g5fd6ow0hseima

jester77 wrote: »

Just a side note when registering, you will be asked what religion you are. This can be an expensive question, if you put down any of the main religions then you will pay church tax which is around 8%. This will automatically come off your salary and it can be difficult to get out of this at a later date. If you don't declare a religion then you are not entitled to get married in a church or have any church services.

Wow! Atheist it is then!

Im surprised a country like Germany would have such a system in the 21st century..