About ExpatDe

A notes file for anyone moving to Germany.

Written by one person who has filed, registered, and paid for all of this himself. No affiliate network decides what goes in.

Guides
25
Categories
20
Editors
1
Last updated

What this is

A single, no-nonsense resource for expats in Germany.

Moving to Germany is paperwork-first. Anmeldung, tax ID, health insurance, bank account, phone contract, before you can even sign a lease. Every one of those steps has a wrong forum thread from 2019 sitting at the top of Google.

ExpatDe covers every step a foreigner in Germany actually goes through: visas, banking, taxes, investing, health insurance, freelancing, raising kids, and the small daily things (Pfand, recycling, mobile plans) that nobody writes about because they feel obvious once you learn them.

Every guide is written from a single position: someone who had to figure it out himself, without a relocation service, and wrote down what actually worked.

How it’s made

Five editorial rules, enforced on every guide.

  1. Specific facts, or no facts.

    Every price, tax rate, visa fee, or contribution ceiling is anchored with the year it applies to. If I am not sure a figure is still current, I link to the official source instead of inventing one.

  2. Official sources over opinion.

    German bureaucracy has canonical sources (bundesfinanzministerium.de, elster.de, deutsche-rentenversicherung.de, make-it-in-germany.com). I link to them directly rather than paraphrasing a forum thread from 2019.

  3. Honest affiliate mentions.

    A product only shows up on ExpatDe if I would actually recommend it to a friend arriving next week. Affiliate links are disclosed every time and never change the advice.

  4. Guides get refreshed, not abandoned.

    Time-sensitive posts carry a visible "Updated" date. When a rule, rate, or deadline changes, the guide is rewritten in place, not replaced by a new slug.

  5. Corrections are loud.

    If you find an error, email me. Corrections go in at the top of the affected guide, with the date of the fix.

Who’s behind it

One editor, evenings and weekends.

Mahiuddin Al Kamal · Editor

I moved to Germany a few years ago and spent my first months drowning in paperwork, confusing insurance options, and Google searches that led nowhere useful. I remember standing in the Auslanderbehoerde with a stack of documents, hoping I hadn’t forgotten something critical. Spoiler, I had.

ExpatDe is the resource I wish I’d had on day one, written by someone who is still using it himself.

If a guide helped you, or if one steered you wrong, email me. Reader email is the only metric I care about.

Start where you are.

Pick the stage of your Germany life that fits. Every guide lists real costs, real deadlines, and links to the official source.

I’m new to Germany Browse all 25 guides