Registering your place of residence in Germany

To take up employment in Germany, it is advisable to register officially with the municipality or city in which you have found permanent accommodation.

Nevertheless, EU citizens are generally not obliged to establish residence in Germany if they will only be working in Germany for a few months or if they regularly travel to their home country for longer periods. You only have to register in Germany if you are staying in the same place in Germany for longer than three months at a time.

The legal basis for this is Section 27 (2) of the Federal Registration Act: “For persons who otherwise live abroad and are not registered in Germany in accordance with Section 17 (1), this obligation [zur Anmeldung] applies after three months.”

This also applies if you have been staying in the same accommodation for longer than three months, regulated in §29 of the BMG.

However, if you are always working in different places in Germany with constantly changing accommodation or as a long-distance driver (e.g. for assembly work), it is also advisable for practical reasons not to register a place of residence, as you are always at different addresses and therefore cannot provide a summonable address. In this case, you are not required to register and enter your address in your home country everywhere. However, you must then ensure that incoming mail is regularly processed at your home address.

Nevertheless, registration simplifies numerous processes. When you register with the municipal or city administration responsible for you, the tax identification number will be sent to you automatically. If you are not resident in Germany, you must apply for a tax identification number manually at the Federal Central Tax Office. Since mailing abroad often goes wrong, the future employer should be entered as the authorized recipient, otherwise you may have to wait a very long time for this important number.

You will need German health insurance in any case. Some health insurance companies also have difficulties with foreign residential addresses.

In addition, you can only open a German bank account if you have a German registration address. This proves to be helpful for the future employer, who can thus dispense with a foreign bank transfer, which may be more time-consuming or costly. In this way, you yourself prevent possible losses from currency fluctuations if your home country does not have the euro.

How does the residence registration work?

You must have a confirmation of residence from your landlord to register your place of residence. You can obtain these from the landlord of your accommodation. Your landlord is legally obliged to cooperate and will therefore usually comply with your request to issue a landlord’s confirmation of residence without delay. The following data must be shown on the landlord’s confirmation of residence:

• Move-in day
• Address of the landlord
• Address of the apartment
• Your name (with date of birth if applicable)
• Signature of the landlord

You can send this template to your landlord pre-filled.

As soon as you have the landlord’s confirmation of residence, make an appointment with the municipal or city administration where your accommodation is located. The best way to do this is to make an appointment online. Some municipalities allow an audition without an appointment, but this varies greatly from municipality to municipality, which is why a specific appointment is always preferable to “showing up at random”.

Now present your landlord’s confirmation of residence and your identity card or passport to the municipal or city administration.

You must also inform the processor whether you are registering in Germany for the first time or whether you have already registered in Germany before. Your religious affiliation may also be requested for statistical purposes.

You will then receive the registration confirmation, which is best copied several times and kept very carefully!

After registering, make sure that your name is on the letterbox. You are legally obliged to do so.

Advantages and disadvantages of registering your place of residence in Germany if you are not required to register

Advantages

• It is possible to open a German bank account
• Satisfied health insurer
• satisfied doctors
• satisfied employer
• Automatic sending of the tax identification number
• unlimited tax liability is automatically assumed
  (only an advantage for full-time employment in Germany)

Disadvantages

• You will probably have to pay a broadcasting fee of €55.08 per quarter.
• After one year at the latest, you must register your car in Germany and pay the German motor vehicle tax.

So even if there is the threat of paying the annoying broadcasting fee and later the motor vehicle tax, the advantages of registering your residence outweigh the disadvantages.