Job Discussion Forums

[NuestroJuan]

Greetings,


I hope everyone has had a good, productive semester so far (That is, if you're on a semester system ). My wife and I moved to Regensburg, Germany, in the region of Bavaria, in September. While my wife has a full-time position at a local university here, I am teaching freelance at the same institution. We're from the United States.

Since we arrived here, I have had the "accompanying spouse" status with regard to our residency permit and insurance. With insurance (Techniker Krankenkasse (TK)), I am allowed to maintain that "type" of coverage as long as my income remains at a certain level. That is, if my income is dreadfully low, I can maintain the status of an accompanying spouse. I do not have the exact figures on hand, but I'm basically allowed to make 400-something euros a month.

At the moment, that is not a big deal because I'm only teaching two classes at the university. However, between the end of this semester and the next, I'm scheduled to teach an intensive course for three hours a day (Or, in German academic hour terms, that would be six hours a day.) for just over a week. There's a chance that will put me over the mark.

I understand I'm not making a fortune here, but I want to play it safe, as well. With regard to freelance teaching, what do you all recommend? Work-wise, I see myself going in one of two directions: 1. Finding more substantial full or half-time employment with more benefits. Or 2. Adding to my freelance workload (at other places) and hopefully making it worth our while financially. If I take option 2, though, it seems that I will need to change my status from "accompanying spouse" to "freelancer". I understand also, though, that that changes things with regard to insurance and taxes. Does anyone have the figures for this? I find online information for these types of issues to be vague, outdated, or unhelpful.

If anyone could provide some information or recommendations, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you very much.


Juan