Saturday, May 5, 2018

Red Tape for Days

... a.k.a., the Saga of Moving to Germany.

I've been in Germany for 3 months now, and with the receipt of my Aufenthaltstitel (residence permit card) I can proudly say I've finally waded through all the bureaucratic red tape and officially reside in Germany for the next 3 years.

It all started off with a simple application to a PhD position I'd seen posted on the web: the opportunity to do some hydrology/fluvial geomorphology work in Tibet based through a German university, to which I merrily sent off my resume and letter of interest. A skype-like interview and research presentation followed, and then the notification that I'd been selected for the position. From there it was all downhill.

The worst part of the whole process of getting to Germany was getting the visa on the US side. Americans can technically wait until they get to Germany to apply for a work visa, but I needed to have the visa processed before I could sign my job contract and start working. So I had to set an appointment a month out to go to the German consulate in Atlanta in-person. I carefully prepared all the materials listed on the consulate's website ("documents you need for the working visa"), stayed overnight in Atlanta, showed up on time... only to have the woman working there inform me that she wanted a whole slough of other documents that weren't on that list. "Each case is different; the list is only a suggestion!" she coldly informed me, and gave me an hour to run around and find a print/copy shop (God bless you, free Marriott wi-fi and FedEx).

Meanwhile, my job position is a civil servant position, which means my salary is set by a very specific set of German standards. In particular, you get paid more for having previous job experience, which you document by showing mysterious documents called "job contracts." As an American, I thought a job contract referred to an offer letter (you know, the binding document that sets your salary and job title and start date), which I happily produced for some previous positions. Apparently the offer letters don't quite cut it in the German bureacracy, for reasons I don't understand at all since my own job contract here is not that different from an offer letter... anyways, I had to get signed letters from HR documenting some past positions, not too difficult except that for some reason a lot of HR people really suck at their jobs.

Speaking of job contracts, when I signed my official job contract with the university, I ended up signing about a BILLION papers, all in highly technical German that my supervisor loosely translated for me. Somehow, either through the job contract or from signing up with my health insurance company, I was registered for a tax identification number and signed up for unemployment insurance and some other social benefits programs with German names that I don't fully understand the implications of.

I also had to register with the Buerger service in the city: anytime you move or change addresses in Germany, you have to register with your local municipality (even German citizens). Not too difficult a process, but you have to have some official paperwork each time you go. Naturally.

And finally, with the extension of my visa (because the one in Atlanta was only issued for 6 months), I am officially here as a resident through 2021, with a cool pink and blue card. Hip hip hooray!