Job Discussion Forums

[dannenbr]

First of all, a big thank you to everyone on this forum who so patiently answered so many of my questions. As promised, I am writing a thread on how I received my freelance permit / residence permit. I am a U.S. citizen and am in Berlin.

Requirements to work as English teacher/trainer - From what I've heard/experienced, you need a Bachelor's Degree. A certification to teach English is also very helpful (TESOL/TEFL/TESL or Cambridge, etc). I had no experience teaching English before with the exception of taking part in some different tandem programs. My bachelor's degree is in education, but not focused on teaching English as a foreign language. A friend of mine studied health science and had no experience/background in teaching and was hired by Berlitz in Stuttgart. As a side note, most language institutes seem to pay around 12-16 euro hourly.

What to say at the border when arriving in Germany - I was very nervous about what to say at the border because my ticket was for almost the full 90 days allowed on my tourist stamp--I was not sure if I should say I am searching for work or just there as a tourist. This is how the entire scenario went: I walked up to the border officer's counter and said "good morning", handed him my passport and a form I had to fill out at the airport, he looked briefly through my passport and saw on my ticket that I was heading to Berlin, stamped my passport, and I moved on. He did not ask a single question.

-------Things you are required to do-------

Place to stay - You need to go to the Einwohnermeldeamt (local residents' registration office) in your district where your apartment is and get your Anmeldebestätigung (within 2 weeks of moving into your apartment). Living in a hostel or hotel does not suffice. Just as a suggestion, I would look into WGs (Wohngemeinschaft / shared apartments) as they are not so expensive. I had the luxury of just staying with my boyfriend's family. You need your passport and also a birth certificate if you never registered yourself as living in Germany before. If you're staying with friends then bring one of them with you (it is important that they are also registered at the same Einwohnermeldeamt) and they need to bring their I.D. as well.

Health Insurance - As a freelancer you can ONLY get privately insured. If you somehow get offered contracted work (which is highly unlikely), then a public health insurance company is required to insure you. Traveller's health insurance through the private health insurance company Hanse Merkur (up to 1 or 5 years) is no longer considered sufficient at the Ausländerbehörde/Foreigners' office. Hanse Merkur offered me a different kind of health insurance which would've costed around 280 euro/month. Instead, I decided to go with aLC. I pay quarterly but monthly the fee is around 173 Euro, so this is a better alternative in my opinion. Here is the contact information for this:

http://alchealth.com/

My personal contact:
John Gunn & Partner
INSURANCE BROKER
Rehrstieg 52
D - 21147 Hamburg

Tel.: +49 (0)40 7666309
Fax.: +49 (0)40 76753301
Mobil: +49 (0)172 9482994

email: info@gunn-partner.de
web: www.gunn-partner.com

Foreigners' Office/Ausländerbehörde Appointment - Make an appointment to go to the foreigners' office. If you do not make an appointment you will most likely have to wait around for hours and hours. For me the first appointment available was 2 weeks out so it may be a good idea to do this as soon as you arrive. You can always cancel it if you don't have your documents ready. When you make the appointment, they will send you a .pdf file for all the information you'll need to bring with to the appointment. Because everything at the appointment is said in German, I would suggest bringing a native speaker with you if you do not speak German. My experience is detailed below:

What to bring to the foreigners' office -
- Valid passport
- One passport photo (For specific size requirements, visit this website: http://www.bundesdruckerei.de/de/service/service_downloads/service_buerger_ePassMstr_05_300dpi.pdf)
- They ask you to fill out a Finanzierungsplan (financial budget plan) and have it ready when you arrive, but they never asked to see this in my appointment, so it's probably not really necessary...
- On the website it asks you to bring an Etragsvorschau (how much money you would on average make) but I was never asked to show this at my appointment.
- Resume/CV
- Possibly a diploma or transcript to prove that you have a degree (I was not asked to show this)
- Proof of health insurance which your insurance company should supply for you either by post or e-mail (it is called Krankenversicherung Bescheinigung). Mine was sent to me via e-mail and that sufficed at the foreigners' office.
- Letters of employment (from what I've heard you need at least 2 letters of employment, but the officer I spoke to said that as a freelancer I can work at only one school if I wish).
- A current bank statement
- The actual form to apply for a Aufenthaltstitel (residence permit). The form can be found here: http://www.berlin.de/labo/formulare//formularserver.php?path=/zuwanderung_und_aufenthalt_auslaenderbehoerde (its called Aufenthaltstitel Erteilung). They have it in different languages.
- Enough money to pay for the permit (this varies from 50 - 110 Euros according to their website). I had to pay 60 Euros.

Misc -
My Aufenthaltstitel (residence permit) is good for one year. The officer at the foreigners' office said that in order for me to extend the residence permit, I need to show that I have made around 12,000 Euro / year.

Tax -
You need to get a tax number (Steuernummer) from the local Finanzamt (the tax office). I have not gotten mine yet but I've been told it takes about 2-3 weeks to obtain this. In order to obtain this, you need to bring your residence permit with you, so this is something you can wait to do until you've got pretty much everything else sorted.

You also need a German bank account. You need your Anmeldebestätigung to open a bank account here. I would suggest opening one at Sparkasse. If you are a student, it is free. Otherwise, the monthly fee is 2-4 Euros.

That's it!

I would plan on organizing as much of these things before your trip to make your time the least stressful as possible--also, because you only have 90 days to get everything organized once you arrive. It took months of planning to make sure everything would work out well for me. As a tip, I would e-mail as many schools as possible in your destination city with your resume and cover letter (make sure there is a professional picture of you on your resume). Even if you do not hear back from them, continue e-mailing them about once a month showing that you are interested in working with them. I would also write in the e-mail your date of arrival.

Obtaining health insurance was the most challenging part of all of this for me. I do not know what the experience is like in other cities, but I've had around five or six institutes offer me work and I have not even been here for a month. As a heads up, some institutes may actually want you to work for them even before you have your permit. I would suggest not to do this (not only because it is illegal), but because it is very stressful working when you do not yet have everything else sorted.

Finally, I received my permit on the same day I applied for it. I have heard horror stories that people have had to wait months at a time and visit different officers. This may be the case for you, but as I have heard, if an officer is not helpful to you, just make an appointment to see another one!

Feel free to send me a personal message if you have any questions!

[ioamosalerno]

This sounds like what I had to go through in one form or another. It may also involve dealing with the Industrie und Handels Kammer (spelled something like that) who deals with freelance matters. Just as a side note regarding the insurance: I'm paying 285 euros a quarter, but males pay a lower rate (no pregnancy coverage) and my deductable is 600 euros.

[BritgirlInDE]

Wow thanks! Kudos to the admins for making this post sticky.

I came to the forum to ask about getting a freelance permit in Germany. I'll be there for my post-graduate studies and I'm thinking into working part-time as a freelancer.

That was the plan. Little did I know that you aren't allowed to work in Germany on student visa. Now everything is complicated.

It's the health insurance: Since I'm going to study in Germany I've already payed for 1 year coverage at Mawista.com but since I will also be working there I'm worried if they'll give me the freelance permit at all.

I have all the other required documents.

Do I need to pick another plan in order for them to give me the freelance permit?

I'd really appreciate your help!