Thankfully none of my nightmares came true. One sunny Thursday morning I simply joined a queue at our local Bezirksamt to register my and my family's arrival in the city. As Britain was (and thankfully, still is) a member of the European Union, I only had to submit two forms supported by about ten documents (among them our passports, European Health Insurance cards, marriage certificate, my son's birth certificate and an apartment rental contract). I had anticipated the worst and, as tempting as it would be to claim the experience reduced me to tears, the encounter could not have been more pleasant. The Berlin bureaucrat was civil and efficient. She helped me to tick the correct boxes. She didn’t boggle me with legalese. And when she was finished, she told me, 'I won't need to see you again.'
Germany is obsessed with order and documentation. For example whenever a German moves house, he or she must register at city hall within a week. Wait eight days and they're fined. Similarly apartment-dwellers who buy a washing machine are required by law to take out insurance (to protect their downstairs neighbours from flooding). Half of the world's tax literature is written in German because the system is so complex. This need to put everything in its place is summed up in the maxim 'Ordnung muss sein', literally 'order must be'.
But of late the requirements for foreigners wishing to work, train or study in Germany have been eased. Why? Because Germany is ageing. There aren't enough young people entering the jobs market, and so German businesses are facing a major challenge. As a result, the government is actively looking to attracted incomers.
Over the last year Germany has carried out a number of reforms to make immigration easier. Entry requirements for skilled workers have been eased so much that Germany is considered now to have some of the most liberal requirements in the world. There have also been improvements in the recognition of foreign educational qualifications. Plus a six-month visa has been introduced for skilled workers from outside the EU who wish to come to Germany to look for a job.
On top of that, the programme 'MobiPro' has been launched for young people from within the EU who are aged from 18 to 27 years and are interested in completing a course of vocational training in Germany.
Two new websites – or at least series of webpages -- have been launched to help people interested in working, training and studying in Germany. First up is a most useful site created by the German Embassy in London. Second is 'Make it in Germany', a collaboration of various ministries and the national employment agency. Although the latter site appears to have been designed by someone who lost themselves in a vast Bezirksamt in the 1980s, it's chockfull of earnest information from visa and job-hunting enquiries to advice on health care and how to use shopping trolleys (available in German, English, Russian and Turkish)!
Do check them out. And don't plague yourself with nightmares as I did (apart perhaps over the business of mandatory washing machine insurance…)
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