Getting Started in Düsseldorf, Germany

Airport to your destination:

I assume that the entry point is Frankfurt. Frankfurt is one of the busy airports and it could be that you are entering European Union at Frankfurt. If you are a first time traveller, this might be helpful

• Leave the plane
• Walk towards Baggage Claim.
• Once you get your baggage, there should be EXIT called "Ausgang" in German
• Immigration Check- Declare Gold /Diamond Jewellery if you are bringing any. Take them. Just ahead, you should see two police officers sitting there (Immigration Check), they will look at your passport, stamp it and let you go.
•  Follow the signs towards train or bus station depending on your itenary.
• Train station: Head towards the train station. You should find it easily. It is in the same building as the airport, in the lowest floor. There are different types of trains in Germany, the most prominent ones are Intercity-Express (ICE), EuroCity (EC), Regional Express (RE) & RegioBahn (RB), S Bahn where ICE is the fastest & expensive one and S Bahn being the slowest and normally cheapest one of all. 
• For buying the train ticket, look for thIt is called "ReiseZentrum" (Travel Centre) somewhere near the train station, you will find it easily normally one needs to get a token and wait for your turn. Try to get a direct connection if possible as it makes your life easier. Sometimes there are long waiting time, one can also buy the ticket in the ticket vending machines which are in English and other languages as well. If you buy an ICE train ticket you can take any other train
• Alternatively one can buy the tickets online from German Railways website (www.bahn.de) in advance and save the time and money. If you are buying it online make sure you buy a flexible ticket which allows you to take any train of that class in case of delays. One can either print them or carry it on your smart phon both are accepted.Deutsche Ban app is very user friendly as well.
• You can check the time of the trains on the website of the German Railways (www.bahn.de). It is available in English. In Frankfurt Airport, many people speak English, so you can ask for help also.
• Busses: There are several bus services these days for example: www.meinfernbus.de. Bus stop is very close to the terminal, there are signs placed every where. For the person who landed in Frankfurt for first time and doesn't speak any German it might be hard to find the bus stop, so make sure to have 2-3 hours time. This website below would search for all the available buses in Germany including the prices to book online https://www.busliniensuche.de/

Tip : Carry some euros in change, like 1 euros 2 euros coins, 50 cents etc. About 5 euros in change should be good enough.
It is also recommended that you look up the german words for some common words that you would need in your conversation with people; that also helps.

Searching for a house
Looking for a house in Germany can be a bit tricky, so you might want to start early. You can get a single apartment / WG ("Wohngemeinschaft") / shared flat depending on your preference. Consequently, other factors such as room rent etc. will also depend on the type of house you want. Typically, you can start looking online for a house, there are many websites such as:

Finding a private place to stay in Germany.

http://www.wg-gesucht.de/
http://www.fh-weihenstephan.de/studium/kleinanzeigen.html
http://studenten-wohnung.de/
http://www.mitwohnzentrale.de/
http://www.wohnung-jetzt.de/
http://www.wohnpool.de/
http://www.zimmersucher.de/
http://www.wggruendung.de/
http://www.wg-welt.de/index/index.html
http://www.studenten-wg.de/
http://muenchen.kijiji.de/
http://www.easyroommate.com/
http://www.boardinghaus-freising.de/
http://anzeigen.wochenspiegelonline.de/?z=category&group=8
http://www.zwischenmiete.de/angebote_lesen.php
http://www.homecompany.de/
http://www.immobilienscout24.de/de/finden/wohnen/index.jsp;jsessionid=480908BD32C1420E2146AEC940E528F8.worker2
http://www.immowelt.de/Immobilien/Mieten_Inland.aspx
http://www.immopool.de/
http://www.wohnungsmarkt24.de/
http://www.immonet.de/
http://www.wohnungsboerse.net/
http://www.immobilo.de/


Tip : If you are unfamiliar with the German administrative system, then the house rent has two components - the principal house rent and the Nebenkosten (additional costs). The Nebenkosten includes electricity, water, heating etc. In some cases electricity is not included in that and has to be paid directly to the city. Make sure you know the complete details before signing the contract.

Registration at the Citizens Office (Bürgeramt) - Getting your Meldebestätigung
For staying in Germany, you will need to register at the local citizens office (Bürgeramt) in your place. For this, you will need:

• Passport
• House contract (Mietvertrag)
• Confirmation from your landlord (wohnungsburger bestätigung)

In Düsseldorf once can go to any Town Hall (Rathaus) for registration. Here is the link to find the addresses: https://www.duesseldorf.de/einwohnerangelegenheiten/kontakt.html
Check up the opening timings and / or take an appointment online before goin to avoid long waiting times.

Getting your Tax number (Lohnsteuer)
For working in Germany / getting money in your bank account you will need to register at the local tax office. Sometimes the employer registers you automatically, please verify with them.

Visa extension:

If you are not a German / European Union national, you will need extend your entry visa for staying in Germany for more than 3 months. This can be obtained from the Foreign Office (Ausländerbehörde), in some cases at Rathaus as well. Now that the Visa is not printed on Passports and are issuing Biometric cards. They require 5 weeks to receive them. Hence it is recommended to contact the Visa office 5 to 6 weeks prior to your Visa expiry date. You can either contact them by phone or write an email  with your full name, address and passport number.

For getting the visa, you will need the following documents:
Student:

• Passport
• University Admission Letter / Scholarship letter (if applicable)
• Immatrikulationbescheinigung
• Letter from Bürgeramt (Anmeldungbestätigung)
• Insurance confirmation (Having Insurance Card is not enough, one needs to take a seperate letter from the Insurance company)
• Biometric photograph (like on the visa). You can also take one from all Photo machines either in the City or in the Visa office. At least the main office behind Düsseldorf Central train station has such machine and costs around 6 €.
• Financial Proof: Bank statement with sufficient funds or Blocked Bank account or Scholarship letter
• Take around €130 in cash for the visa fee for the first time. It can vary on the type of visa that you get. For students, it is €80 for an extension. EC card payments are accepted now in all Burberbüros, if you want to pay cash one needs to pay some commission.
• For scholarship holders, visa fee will be waived.

Employee:-

• Passport
• Job contract
• Letter from Bürgeramt (Anmeldungbestätigung)
• Insurance Contract (Having Insurance Card is not enough, one needs to take a seperate letter from the Insurance company)
• Biometric photograph (like on the visa). You can also take one from all Automatic Photo machines either in the City or in the Visa office (6 € cheaper than the regular studios charge)
• Financial Proof:
• Take around €130 in cash for the visa fee for the first time. It can vary on the type of visa that you get. For students, it is €80 for an extension.
•  It varies for Blue card holders.

Bus ticket

If you are registered with the university as a student, then you can pay the Semester ticket its around 200 € / semester (as per Summer semester 2016) and travel all over the state in buses and locals train for free. You can get your student card validated from the University Campus Centre. It is mandatory for all students to registration.

If you are NOT a student yet, you need to buy a Monthly pass (Monatskarte) from the transport office /busses/ticket vending machines. Depending on city it can cost any where in between 50 & 90 € for month,

*** The student fee varies a little based on the University, so plan them accordingly in your first month expenditure***

Bank account

You will need a bank account for transfer of funds or get your salary etc. There are many banks you can go to like Deutsche Bank, Sparkasse, Targo Bank etc where you can go and get an account. You might want to get a Deutsche Bank account, because they have many ATMs (Geldautomat) and branches all over the world and several partner banks where one can withdraw money from ATMs without any surcharge. However, it is always your personal choice where you want an account.
If you decide to go to Deutsche Bank, there are several branches in Düsseldorf (just google them or ask one of your colleagues).

***Now most of the students open their Bank accounts before coming to Germany so this is not applicable to them, but in any case your have to go to the Bank personally and activate your account.***


Family: Germany is a great place for family and social security. If one of the partners are paying the public health insurance, dependent partner and chilren under 18 will be covered as well.

• Children Support (Kindergeld):  All minor children of expats receive the support of of 194 € for kid every month from the goventment along with German / EU nationals. Familienkasse Düsseldorf is responsible for handiling this, here is the address: Grafenberger Allee 300, 40237 Düsseldorf , Tel: 0800 / 4 5555 30 (Kindergeld und Kinderzuschlag)

• Kindergarten: Finding a place is extremely hard in Düsseldorf and normal waiting time is around 6 months untill and unless you are lucky. Child care is free for kids above three years in Düseldorf in all public KITAs, one has to pay only for Lunch and other expences. Under 3year kids has to pay around 300€ / month but I am not sure about it. All the registrations are monitored by the central system called Kita Navigator (https://www.duesseldorf.de/jugendamt/kinder-betreuen/kita-navigator.html), it is necessary to register on their domain and one can apply to as many Kindergartens as possible.

Transferring money to/from Germany to India:

For transferring money to/from your bank account in India, you can use services of Transferwise. They give very good rate and completes the transfer mostly on the same day or next day. Its very easy to make a transfer. You can chat with their executive for any difficulty. There are other options like ICICI Bank money2india.
https://transferwise.com/
http://www.money2india.eu/
https://secure.xendpay.com


Cell phone contract
Cell phone contracts in Germany are usually for 2 years and can be bought from the service provider of your choice – O2, T Mobile, Vodafone etc. Shops for all of these are located in the city on Bahnhofstrasse in the main shopping area. Just go to the shop of your choice and ask for a contract. Most of the Indians  have an O2 connection and you might want to take that too because O2 to O2 calling is Free all over Germany (on postpaid) --> we all stay in touch ;)
Other websites for cheaper contracts from O2 or Vodafone etc
http://www.eteleon.de/
http://www.mobilcom-debitel.de/
http://www.sparhandy.de/tarifsuche.html


In case you dont want to sign a contract or you are here for a short time, you can get a prepaid SIM very easily. Such prepaid connections are offered by Lebara, Lyca etc. and you can get them in any small botiques or internet centres or phone repair shops for ~2 euro or order it online for free. They have special cheap rates for calling to landline or mobiles in India.
http://www.lebara.de/
http://www.lycamobile.de/en/


Getting a German Driving license:
Please refer to my other blog which is written for Indians but the procedure is almost same for most expats. Some countries have a special agreement with Germany, so they might be exempted from the regular process. Here is the link:

https://expatdiariesgermany.blogspot.com/2017/05/german-driving-licensedeutscher_25.html

***** Most IMPORTANT: Don't sign any contract with out knowing what is written in there. Normally the sales person in the shop try to translate you the contracts, but if you don't want to trust them take some one your friends who knows German.*****

****This was written for Students at Universities****

*** I am still working on this document, if you feel some information is missing and needs to be added please leave a comment I will try to address it***

** Please feel free to share it to your friends**