My partner and I had fancifully discussed living somewhere outside the US ever since we were dating. In the last few years those talks became more serious, and we started making plans. Germany had always been on our list, and quickly solidified as our top pick as we started filling out the details. There were several ways we could have gone about it in terms of visas, ultimately we settled on having me shoot for an EU Blue Card, and my partner for a family reunion visa. There are a number of reasons to go for the Blue Card, but what we found particularly appealing was the abbreviated timeline it affords for permanent residence and citizenship, which can be accomplished years earlier than otherwise possible.

As we were preparing to make the leap, I found a lot of good information, but it was very fragmented. Official websites, excerpts from regulations, blog posts, Reddit threads… There’s a lot there, but vetting it and synthesizing it into a coherent plan was a lot of work. Additionally, a lot has changed in the last few years due to COVID and other factors. So, in the interest of helping others navigate all of that, I’d like to provide the results of my own recent experience in one place, start to finish.

Disclaimer: I’m not a professional or a lawyer in the field of immigration. This article reflects my own research and experience, but may have inaccuracies, become out of date due to changes in the law, or simply not apply to your particular situation. Please double-check the information you’re reading here, and consult a professional if you aren’t sure about anything!

The high level order of tasks was:

• Review the whole idea one more time
• Submit degree for evaluation of equivalence to a German one (Zeugnisbewertung)
• Obtain a contract for employment with a company in Germany
• Set up temporary services necessary for the entry visa: Lodging and insurance
• Obtain an entry visa from the consulate in San Francisco
• Line up a more long term apartment in Düsseldorf
• Relocate!
• Register with the city (Anmeldung)
• Obtain additional prerequisites for Blue Card & employment: Tax ID, insurance
• Apply for & obtain Blue Card

An additional bit of context that had a huge influence on the difficulty of the process is my knowledge of the language. I’m far from fluent, but I took a few years of classes while I was earning my degree, practiced off and on since then, and have been benefiting a ton from being fully immersed since moving. I’d put myself somewhere in the B-levels of the CEFR, though I’m far stronger with written German than spoken.

Having this familiarity with the language was crucial. While there is a lot of information out there in English, and a lot of English speakers in Germany, the official language of the country and its bureaucracy is German. There are many steps along the way where not being able to communicate in the language would have stopped my progress cold. A great deal of information that was absolutely necessary was available only in German, I had to correspond in German dozens of times to effectively navigate the bureaucracy, and in-person appointments were with only a few exceptions conducted entirely in German.

There are plenty of people online who will tell you you can move here knowing only English, but I suspect most of them had someone else handling the paperwork, or at least hired or befriended someone to translate for them. I would emphatically recommend against moving here without some familiarity with the language already, and the intent to become fluent. The language is critical to navigating and enjoying life here, and neglecting to learn it would be setting oneself up for failure and frustration.

With that said, let’s get started…

Choosing a city & double checking we wanted to do this

Before we fully committed to the move, we wanted to spend some time in Germany and try on a few different cities to see which felt right. We spent a few weeks traveling around in a big loop around the country by train, with a few days in each of several different cities. Ultimately, everywhere we spent time felt livable, and we were sure we wanted to go through with the move, but not quite certain to where exactly until we’d had some time to reflect on the trip.

Düsseldorf won out in the end for a few reasons. We loved that it was on the Rhein. The Hofgarten, Königsallee, and the generally massive amount of parkland and great public space charmed us. The transit system (and its integration with that of nearby cities!) is extensive and very pleasant to use. It also has a good international vibe and easy access to neighboring countries.

Feeling secure in the decision to relocate, we got on with it in earnest…

Obtaining the Zeugnisbewertung für ausländische Hochschulqualifikationen (statement of comparability for foreign high education qualifications)

You don’t technically have to do this as early as I did, and I’d read that many people were able to get expedited processing for this when they did it with an active Blue Card application in process. But, I’d also read that others had to wait months for results even with a Blue Card application in the balance, to the extent that some reported having job offers rescinded due to how long things took. So, I decided to get the ball rolling immediately after we decided we were really going to do this thing.

The requirements are pretty straightforward and well documented on the Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen web site. You can find the application forms, and the checklist of documents required, here:

https://www.kmk.org/zab/zeugnisbewertung/antrag.html
https://www.kmk.org/zab/zeugnisbewertung/dokumente.html

The only real tricky thing to get was a sealed copy of my transcripts, simply because I had to reactivate my old student accounts and get back into them to order them and the lead time was a bit long.

I mailed my application with required documents in mid-May of 2022. My application was submitted with the status of “Blue Card intended”, which affected the processing time. In early June, I received a statement of fees, and went into my credit union to make the transfer to pay those a few days later. Mid-June I received confirmation of the payment, and commenced waiting…

In mid-July, I had not yet received any results yet, but did get my work contract settled, so I wrote to the Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen (ZAB) asking if it was possible to expedite my request as now I was applying alongside a Blue Card application. I was told this was not possible due to the current volume of requests. More waiting…

In mid-August I received confirmation that the documentation I submitted was acknowledged as complete. More waiting…

Finally, in mid-October, I received the digital results of my degree evaluation. I also got confirmation that a physical copy had been mailed to me, which I received a few weeks later.

So, around four months, start to finish. Not great, but not the worst I’d heard of either. I was definitely glad I did this well in advance, as one of the big variables in the whole process was now locked in, and I had a physical copy of the paperwork I could bring in for the following steps. My partner applied a little bit after I did and had a roughly similar experience (not necessary for the family reunion visa, but nice to have done).

Obtaining a contract for employment with a company in Germany

This one is obviously going to vary significantly for everyone. I had a bit of a winding path, myself, but was fortunate to ultimately be able to stay onboard with the German branch of my long time employer in Portland. This was very lucky, and I’m extremely thankful to the folks in leadership positions who helped make this happen for me… I was already totally upending many parts of my life to make this move, having stable employment to depend on during all of that was a massive boon.

Setting up temporary services for purposes of the entry visa application

In order to apply for a visa, one needs to have certain things that turn out to be pretty hard to get without already being in the country. Namely, lodging and health insurance. Fortunately, there are some temporary solutions for both of these. For my immediate purposes of acquiring a 6 month entry visa, I simply made a cancellable booking at a hotel for a few weeks, and got a traveler’s insurance policy. I picked a random hotel with online booking and cancellation, and used AXA’s Schengen Europe travel insurance.

I also set up an Euro denominated bank account around this time, via Wise. It’s a relatively new online bank that allows you to maintain accounts in a variety of currencies and easily transfer balances between them, as well as use a common debit card to draw from them as appropriate for credit/debit transactions, and give you access to the local bank transfer standards (e.g. SEPA for Europe). It was really nice to be able to set this all up in the US and have it ready to go when I moved, as many things (e.g. paying the fee for the Zeugnisbewertung, setting up a phone plan, paying the rent) require a direct transfer and doing that with a dollar denominated account with a US bank is a pain.

Applying for an entry visa

I’ll preface this section by saying you don’t technically have to do this if you’re from the US or a number of other countries that allow for visa free entry to Germany. I could have entered Germany without a visa and stayed for up to 90 days, and commenced my Blue Card application once already in the country. But, I knew that the process would take a long time, and when you enter visa free you are not allowed to work. Ultimately, it took nearly six months from entering the country to receiving my Blue Card. Very few employers would tolerate their employee being unable to work for that long. I would also have long overstayed the 90-day limit, which would be legal as long as I was in the process of applying for a Blue Card and had proof of that, but would still make for several stressful months.

So, I would strongly, strongly recommend anyone intending on immigrating for a job arrange for a visa that allows them to work immediately on entry to Germany. Not doing so is taking on a huge risk for very little reward. Applying for an entry visa also has the side effect of making sure you have all of your documents in order for the Blue Card before you leave. The list of documents I needed for the entry visa was the same as what was required for the Blue Card itself, and some of them would have been a real pain to obtain if I had to do so from Germany instead of within the US.

Anyway, that said… This part wasn’t too bad, except for the fact that it had to be done in person at a consulate. Unfortunately, Germany’s consulates in the US each have a fixed set of states within their scope of responsibility, and the one I was living in fell under the umbrella of the notoriously overloaded San Francisco branch. Getting an appointment took several days of waking up at the crack of dawn and F5’ing the booking website. Once I had that, I quickly booked plane tickets and a hotel, and double checked my documents. The German consulates have a nice checklist of documentation required that makes this part pretty foolproof. At time of writing, these are available here:

https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/visa/residence-visa/922288?openAccordionId=item-2435482-1-panel

And for reference, here is the list as of the time of writing:

• Two completed & signed application forms
• Two biometric passport photos not more than six months old
• Valid & signed passport issued within the last ten years
• Two uncertified copies of the passport data page
• Current residence permit in the US (if different from passport, e.g. a Green Card)
• Proof of US address (e.g. driver’s license, utility bill)
• Two copies + signed original of Employer’s Declaration of Employment form (Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis)
• Two copies + original proof of university qualification (diploma and transcripts)
• Two copies of recognition of your university qualification (e.g. Anabin page printouts, ZAB statement of comparability)
• Proof of housing in Germany
• Proof of health insurance coverage in Germany

The Declaration of Employment (Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis) took a while to get from my employer because they didn’t have much experience hiring foreigners into the German branch, it’s probably worth asking for in advance if you know you’ll need it for your visa application.

The list for the family reunion visa is similar, absent the job specific things like work contract and EkB. One nice thing about the family reunion visa is that it itself doesn’t have any restriction on its holder’s ability to work, so my partner has a lot more flexibility in what jobs they can take on.

On the day of our appointment we got to the consulate about 15 minutes early. Security at the gate to the courtyard did a quick metal detector scan, and took our phones for safekeeping in a locker (none allowed inside!). We were then sent inside to the visa department. We were seen almost immediately, and the agent at the counter was very nice. Aside from our passports and ID cards, we ended up not needing any original documents, just copies were acceptable. Our fingerprints were taken during this appointment as well. We had our own biometric photos already prepared, but there was a photo booth available in the waiting room. Total fees for my work visa application, my partner’s family reunion visa, and return shipping via FedEx, were $174. This was payable with cash or card.

At the end of the appointment we received a receipt with a file number for reference, and were notified that our application information would be sent ahead to the Düsseldorf Ausländerbehörde. The agent we spoke to was emphatic that once in Germany, we should not move to another city until the Blue Card application process was fully resolved, as each city has its own Ausländeramt and transferring case files between them is notoriously prone to problems. Based on a cursory reading of experiences others have had with trying to do that, it was good advice.

We received our passports back in the mail with the 6 month entry visas affixed inside six days later.

Finding an apartment from abroad

Knowing how tight the housing market is in Germany, I didn’t trust in my ability to get a permanent apartment set up from day one. Without being able to make an in person visit and already having an established presence in the country, it’s borderline impossible. So, I sought out temporary solutions, and eventually settled on Wunderflats.

Wunderflats isn’t perfect, but it was the least foreboding of the options. It’s essential to be able to register as a resident at your rental for the visa process, so this generally rules out things like AirBNB, and most of the other fixed term rental sites had advance payment or contractual requirements that made them pretty sketchy feeling. I talked to a half dozen different providers on Wunderflats before finding one that worked out. We mutually agreed to buck the process a little bit, with no payments made until I had actually seen the apartment in person, which provided a lot of peace of mind.

The move

We did our actual relocation in two stages. I went solo for a week first to secure our apartment and get things set up a bit ahead of the arrival of the rest of the family. Then, I came back to Portland, we tied up loose ends there, and then made the journey to Düsseldorf all together, myself, my partner, and our cat and dog.

For that first trip, I had a bit of trepidation going in as I still had nothing more than some emails and text messages to back up that this was a real thing. Thankfully, the person behind the listing was indeed real, and met me at the apartment on the prescribed day just as promised. We did a brief walkthrough, reviewed the contract, I paid the deposit and first month’s rent, and they handed me a set of keys, and a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung (landlord’s confirmation of tenancy) form.

The Wohnungsgeberbestätigung is very important. If the person you’re renting from won’t provide one they’re probably doing something shady and you may have problems registering with the city (Anmeldung), which will cause more issues later on.

I spent the next few days doing a little nesting and stocking the pantry, and then flew back to Portland to finish things up there and prepare for the next phase…

During the gap between trips we also finalized our documentation for our pets. Both of ours are small enough we planned to take them along in the cabin with us, which simplified things a bit. A USDA health certificate is required, and this must have been issued within ten days of travel. We got ours via Pearl Animal Hospital in Portland and they were super accommodating and pleasant to work with. Cost for this was around $250 for both of our pets. Additionally, your pets must have been vaccinated against rabies no less than 21 days before traveling, and the vaccination must also not be too old (generally a year, potentially up to 3 if it was a booster).

For more exacting details see the USDA’s website:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/pet-travel/by-country/eu/pettravel-germany

We’d also previously made arrangements for their passage with the airlines, which was a little nerve wracking because there’s no way to make 100% certain they have a spot! You just have to call after booking and let them know you plan to fly with pets (one per human passenger), and then hope you check in before anyone else who might also be doing so before the limit for the flight is reached. You also have to do this for each airline involved, not just the one you booked through. Not the nicest process, but we ended up not having problems.

On the day of the second trip, we piled up all our stuff and got lunch from Burgerville while we waited for our pre-scheduled cab ride to the airport. Was very weird to sit on the floor of our now-empty apartment eating burgers while the very eager paint crew sent by the property manager got an early start on their work on the other side of the room. They were nice enough not to give us too odd of looks. Finally the taxi arrived and we loaded up our suitcases, our pets, and ourselves for the journey.

Check in at the airport was smooth enough. We’d booked tickets through KLM, with Delta serving the leg from the US. Both airlines have been mostly pleasant to deal with, and quite a bit less expensive than the alternatives as well. I also like transferring through the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam with KLM much more than the others I’ve been through (Heathrow and Keflavik), the amenities are nice and the passport control process is generally brisk.

In Portland, we checked in our bags ($75 extra fee for the second, and I believe it ratchets up further from there). We also checked in our pets at this time, which ended up being the only place we actually had to present documents for them. The Delta counter agent checked the USDA health affidavit and collected a fee of $125 per pet.

Since we were bringing them along as carry ons, we kept an eye out for relevant facilities. The Portland airport has a nice pet relief area past security. The Schiphol one unfortunately did not. Also worth noting that pets count toward your carry on allowance, so we had to get creative with how we brought along everything we wanted during the flight (big winter jackets with a lot of pockets can fit a lot of stuff!). The pets’ carriers also had to meet pretty stringent size requirements and fit under the seats in front of us, so we had to buy them new ones that were designed with this in mind.

The flight itself was thankfully uneventful. We got settled in and tried to nap as much as we could. Our pets were super easy going which I was extremely thankful for. We lined their carriers with pee pads as required by the airline just in case. In the end our cat did end up peeing in her carrier, but was considerate enough to wait until we were in the destination airport to do so.

Customs was oddly enough a non-issue. I’ve only ever even seen agents at the Düsseldorf station once, and they only looked at my bag because I flagged them down because I wasn’t sure what the rules were for my situation (nothing due, it was all personal property not for resale). On the day we brought our pets and thought we’d have to present our documentation for them, we found the station locked up, and looked around for a few minutes trying to find someone to talk to about the animals before one of the airport’s staff just asked us if the animals were being moved for a client, and since that wasn’t the case just told us to head out. I didn’t have to be told twice, especially after 14 hours in transit!

We took a cab to our new apartment from the airport, and celebrated our arrival by exhaustedly collapsing into bed after a quick shower to wash the airliner funk off.

First days

After a short break to acclimate to calling a new country home, it was straight back to business. Some obligatory bureaucratic tasks, and a few more prerequisites for the Blue Card, demanded attention.

First was Anmeldung (registration) with the city. This is compulsory, and not doing it will make your life a lot harder and potentially land you some fines. Fortunately, it’s also really easy.

Düsseldorf has an online appointment system giving you your pick of the different Bürgerbüros (citizen bureaus) around town, with plentiful slots available. You choose your appointment, fill out a short form, and bring it, your passport, and your Wohnungsgeberbestätigung to the Bürgerbüro when the time comes. You take a number and wait your turn, and then go talk to an agent who will check and enter your data, and then give you a Meldebestätigung (statement of registration). All in all the process took around a half hour. We did ours with separate appointments, but it turns out we probably could have done both in one go if we wanted to.

When you complete your Anmeldung, this will automatically set you up for two other things. A tax ID, which you’ll need for things like setting up payroll with your employer, and registration for the Rundfunkbeitrag, a monthly fee assessed per household that supports public broadcasting in the country. You’ll get mail about these pretty shortly after Anmeldung, in my case it took about two weeks to get my tax ID and about a month to receive the Rundfunkbeitrag information.

I also set up an insurance plan with Die Techniker during this time, to replace my stopgap traveler’s insurance policy. Not much to say here, it was very straightforward. There was some followup to get the insurance properly tied to my employer for their contributions. Also, I wasn’t able to fully set up the TK phone app with my USphone number (MMS two-factor auth would always fail), I had to get a German number before it would work.

We also had to register our dog and pay a tax, and set up a pet liability insurance policy for her. The insurance part isn’t mandatory, but a very good idea for any dog owner that takes their pet out in public.

Blue Card application

With all of the prerequisites checked off it was time to get in touch with the Düsseldorf Ausländerbehörde. Since COVID, they’ve moved many functions of the office to email, with in-person appointments kept to a minimum. For Blue Card applications, you simply email the office (the current contact address can be found at https://www.duesseldorf.de/auslaenderamt). I did so, and a few days later received a reply with a checklist of required documents attached, which matched up with what I’d had to provide to the consulate earlier.

I sent in all of that stuff in PDF form, along with my partner’s documents, and after about two weeks received confirmation of their receipt, along with an appointment for an in-person visit for identity verification and collection of biometric data.

The required documents for the in-person visit when I went were:

• Valid passport
• Current visa or residence document for Germany (in my case, the entry visa affixed in my passport)
• Biometric photo not older than 6 months
• EC or credit card for fee payment (the Ausländerbehörde in Düsseldorf does not accept cash!)

On the appointed day we went to the Ausländerbehörde and checked in with security at the front door. They verified our appointments and then directed us back to a waiting area further in the building. After a short time we were called back to an agent in one of the offices.

She reviewed our documents and scanned copies of various articles. My photo apparently wasn’t quite up to her standards, but since it was the exact one used on my already issued visa that had passed muster with the consulate I didn’t have to retake it. If that had been necessary, there was a machine in the waiting area that could be used to take and print a set of passport photos for EUR 7. After the documentation was checked over and entered, we each had our index fingerprints scanned, signed affidavits toward the accuracy of the information provided, and then paid our application fees. We were given a confirmation of application and payment, and the agent told us it would be a few weeks for the Bundesdruckerei (government printing office) to finish up our ID cards. We were also given a file number and website URL to check if the cards were available for pickup yet online.

A little under three weeks later we received our letters containing the PINs for our ID cards, indicating the printing was done. After just under two more weeks, the status page showed the cards ready for pickup at the Ausländerbehörde. We went the same day and picked them up, took about 20 minutes and required no appointment, just a short wait at the counters up front after checking in with security.

Closing Notes

All told it took about a year to make all of this happen. I first applied for the Zeugnisbewertung in mid-May of 2022, and received my German employment contract in mid-June, which kicked off the effort in earnest. We picked up our Aufenthaltstitel cards in late-June of 2023.

It was a very time consuming process, but for all that relatively straightforward. The requirements at each step, and what one can expect to receive in return, are generally clear. The timings, quite a bit less so, I think because of how disruptive COVID was, along with the added strain on the system from influxes of refugees from various parts of the world during the last few years. Düsseldorf’s Bürgerbüro and Ausländerbehörde were both quite easy to deal with, compared to what I’ve read from other people who did the same thing in other cities. It was also apparent during the year I worked through things that the city is making a strong effort to improve its processes and scaling up the capacity of the various bureaus as needed.

Six months in from landing in the country to call it home, I would say it’s all been quite worth it. Living here has been extremely good for us, and the quality of life improvement really cannot be overstated. The infrastructure and public services are on another level, and it’s nice to live in a place where the prevailing ethos leans toward improving things. There’s a lot more I could say as far as the differences between the two countries and life in them goes, but I’ll leave that for future posts.

Thank you for reading, please leave a comment if you found it helpful or have any questions!