Welcome To Gießen/Germany!
Since you are reading this document, it is likely that you are either planning to move to Germany or may have already moved to Germany. Either way, this guide should help you in understanding a few things about Gießen from an expat’s perspective and what you may want to do or not do when you get here.
This guideline has been written from a working professional’s perspective but it still might help if you are not one.
Document Outline:
Visa
Booking Your Air Tickets and accommodation + preparing before travel
Travel
Anmeldung
Local SIM card and bus pass
Bank Accounts
Health Insurance
EU Blue Card and Residence Permit application
Searching for an apartment
Indian Groups, stores and restaurants
1. Visa
Applying for a German national work visa is quite some paperwork. Head over to https://visa.vfsglobal.com/one-pager/germany/uae/english/pdf/employment.pdf and prepare your document set exactly as prescribed. Since nothing actually gets submitted online, you will need to take printouts of the application forms etc. when applying for German work visa. If you are traveling with your spouse/family members, they will also need to have their document-sets in hard copy ready as prescribed.
Please note that getting an appointment for a German visa interview is kind of a little difficult (as of Dec 2022). So as early as possible, go ahead and try to get an appointment for yourself (which will automatically include your family members as well). No separate visa appointment is required for your family members.
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/ind/en/deu/book-an-appointment will give you a Group URN and you should receive a confirmation email. Make sure you definitely book for SMS/Email notifications.
You may need to show a travel insurance for ach member. 30 days travel insurance will be more than enough for the visa but VFSGlobal Premium lounge suggests taking 6 months’ travel insurance. We took it from policybazaar.com from Tata AIG for 6 months each but 30 days would have been sufficient for all practical and documentation purposes. You will take a local health insurance anyways later on.
About VFSGlobal Premium Lounge Service
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/ind/en/deu/premium-services
You should also note that you have an option to book for VFSGlobal’s premium services as well. Though, you will be absolutely fine without it, but if you choose to book for premium lounge services, it’s a little expensive and you have to pay for yourself and for each person going into the appointment with you. That said, if you did take the premium lounge services, you will not need to wait in the queue outside the VFSGlobal building complex in Mumbai. You can just tell the security guard that you have paid for lounge services and they will let you in, after you show them the payment receipt. In Mumbai, the standard visa interview for non-premium German visa applicants is on the 2nd floor while for premium applicants is on the 5th floor. They help review all your documents, put those in order, take free printouts if needed (but taking color photo prints is chargeable). They also offer tea/biscuits/water as refreshments and call you for the final document review for visa appointment on 5th floor itself. There will be no further need to go on the 2nd floor separately and you will be done sooner. You will get the final receipt of all payments and an acknowledgement receipt of the visa interview before you leave the lounge.
Family members accompanying you to visa appointment
If your spouse or any other family member(s) is accompanying you to the visa interview appointment, please send an email a couple of days before the appointment to Info.germanlongterm@vfshelpline.com with a subject line: *Group URN <Your Group URN Here>| Employment: Blue Card, ICT, ZAV pre-approval + dependants* where Blue Card, ICT, ZAV is your applicable visa category.
They will respond back to you. You can take a printout of that email so that your family members can be allowed to accompany you.
The content of the email can be as follows:
Dear VFS team,
I, <Your Name>, have an appointment on <Date of appointment > from <time of appointment > at Visa Application Centre, Mumbai. I am applying for the EU Blue Card. Kindly see attached visa appointment letter for your reference.
My husband will accompany me as a "dependent" on the day of the appointment. Kindly allow his entry at the visa application center as well. Please see his details below :
<Spouse Name>
Passport Number: <Family member’s passport number>
Date of Birth: <Family member’s DOB>
Nationality: INDIA
Thanks & Regards,
<Your Name>
<Attach your visa appointment confirmation letter you received after booking an appointment >
About certificates etc. required for Visa
Please note that as prescribed in the visa application, you are going to need to have multiple certificates and their copies ready for visa appointment. As many blogs suggest online, you may need to have those certificates translated into German for visa appointment. Of special significance is your marriage certificate. If this or any other certificate is in any of the Indian vernacular languages, you should have a copy translated into English and in German. Marriage certificate is definitely helpful to be in English and German (helpful but not required to be in German). Other certificates, like your degree, birth etc. may not necessarily be required and if you like, you can skip those getting translated into German (but should definitely have them in English at the very least).
You do not need any of these German translated copies notarized or apostilled, for sure. Institute of German Studies in Bangalore offer their translation services and they are good at it. They also send you translated copies via courier.If you just need the certificates translated into English, you can just take the help of any local notary advocate to get it translated from vernacular language. That will also work.
You should also check and ensure your degree and your college/university is recognised at https://anabin.kmk.org/anabin.html. If it is not, you can reach out to ZABService for getting your degree certificate or college/university evaluated. https://www.kmk.org/zab/zentralstelle-fuer-auslaendisches-bildungswesen/kontakt.html
Please note, however, that ZABService charges are 200 Euros for each evaluation. Sending documents to their address in Germany from India post might cost you another INR 2500 (with a copy of PAN/aadhaar at post office) and it takes almost 3 weeks for them to respond back to you. India post provides full end to end tracking so you will know when they have received it. You will need to make a payment of 200 euro or so (+ local charges of 10 euro + 55 international transaction charges) when they send you an email to make it. SBI in India is the best bank to do the transfer and they are the cheapest in terms of charges. Even after making the payment, it will take at least a month for the evaluation. For us, the hard copy of the final evaluation never reached us back in India, but they did share a soft copy with us over email. German/Deutsch Post does not provide any tracking service for India when booked by ZABService.
Post Visa Appointment
After the visa appointment, it will take 3 weeks or so before you know whether it is approved. You can track it online https://www.vfsglobalservices-germany.com/Global-Passporttracking/Track/Index?
2. Booking Your Air Tickets and accommodation + preparing before travel
Once you have your visa approved, and you have received your passports with visa, please ensure you have checked the date from which the visa is valid, Make sure you book your flight tickets for a date only of or after that date. The visa may get issued on date X, but may be valid from a future date Y. You will be allowed to board a flight only on or after date Y.
Most direct flights from India allow you to take 20 kgs of check-in luggage by default unless you pay additional charges and book additional luggage of 20/30 kgs per person. Most connecting flights with a layover allow you to carry 2 check-in baggage (20 Kgs each) per person
For accommodation, you can book an AirBnB at the desired location or any of the hotels. Just make sure the landlord or the hotel is willing to give you a landlord confirmation certificate (called Wohnungsgeberbestätigung) stating that you and your family members are staying for the given dates at the given address. This certificate will be required for registration with the local city administration. https://www.giessen.de/index.php?ModID=10&FID=1894.569.1&object=tx%2C2874.2
You can in fact take an appointment for Anmeldung (Zuzug nach Gießen) with the city hall even before you get to Gießen (but of course only for a date when you will actually be here in Germany). If you can’t make it on that scheduled date, please ensure you cancel the appointment.
https://www.giessen.de/index.php?ModID=7&FID=2874.5897.1&object=tx%7C2874.5897.1
3. Travel
Carry in your check-in luggage whatever you’d like. Most of the Indian spices etc are perfectly allowed to be carried in quantities of Kgs each, unlike some of the blogs suggesting that those can get confiscated. At least, we did not have that problem.
Please note that if you plan to book an Uber after landing in Germany, you may wish to be ready to use your Indian Debit/Credit card for booking an Uber. Have it pre-configured in Uber before you land. Our multi-currency Euro travel card and/or cash was not allowed as payment methods in Uber when we landed in Frankfurt.
Before you begin from India, it might be helpful to keep 1000 euros in cash and load your multi—currency euro travel card (freely available from ICICI and/or other banks) with 2000 euros or more as needed. You can use this travel card to get a luggage carrier/cart at the belt on the airport after landing.
You may also wish to keep your Indian phone on international roaming for a few weeks for banking purposes. Though, you should know that you can easily get a local SIM in Gießen. Please note that if you plan to arrive in Gießen on a Sunday, almost all of the markets/shops etc. are closed on Sundays, except for a few restaurants.
Ensure that your mailbox at the place you are planning to stay has your name/surname clearly displayed because you are going to receive a hell lot of paper mail/post from registration office, bank, finanzamt, insurance firm etc. If the label does not clearly have your surname/name, the Deutsche Post personnel will not deliver the mail/document and you will forever keep waiting to receive them.
4. Anmeldung
Take an appointment for Anmeldung (Zuzug nach Gießen) with the city hall in Gießen if you have not taken that already. If you can’t make it on that scheduled date, please ensure you cancel the appointment.
https://www.giessen.de/index.php?ModID=7&FID=2874.5897.1&object=tx%7C2874.5897.1
On the scheduled date/time, please reach the spot(Stadtbüro Gießen
+49 641 3061234
https://maps.app.goo.gl/DC4ptaUPnmgNNNTU9?g_st=ic) and head over to the reception. They will take in your confirmation number and ask you to wait while your number gets displayed on an electronic display. Once your turn comes, your confirmation number will be allotted against a counter number at which time you should go to that desk/counter with all documents (passports, degree certificates, birth certificate, marriage certificate and their originals, passport size photos, employment contract etc) along with all family members. The person at the desk/counter will be reasonably good at speaking and understanding English but if you have translated a copy of your certificates, that will help him/her. You will also need to carry the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung that your landlord/hotel owner gave you with all family members’ names on it as well as the form/to dates of stay at the given address.
Make sure you clearly tell the person at the desk/counter barbour your marital status and understand about which tax class they are putting you into. You should receive an acknowledgement from them once done with the process of registration. This registration acknowledgement/confirmation is one of the most important documents you will be having here to begin with.
In approx 3-5 weeks from your Anmeldung, you will receive your registration certificate, taxID/number and tax class information from Finanzamt. However, you can also get the same from the Stadtburo by booking another Anmeldung appointment after 2 weeks if you really need to submit the tax class information or tax ID/number to your employer.
If at all, the tax class in the received documents is wrong, you can request to have it changed by using the elster app (https://www.elster.de/eportal/registrierung-auswahl) or by writing an email to Poststelle@fa-gis.hessen.de with your tax ID details and filled out application form (https://www.steuerportal-mv.de/static/Regierungsportal/Finanzministerium/Steuerportal/Inhalte/Antrag_-_StKlWe_0320%282%29.pdf). You can also visit Finanzamt (Finanzamt Gießen
+49 641 4800100
https://maps.app.goo.gl/x4PvFq7HDd1pcmTZ7?g_st=ic) and submit an application.
5. Local SIM card and bus pass
You can easily get a local Lycamobile SIM card in your name. It can have 4GB (200 minutes India calling and 200 minutes local ), 13GB (500 minutes India calling with unlimited local calls) for 10 euros or 200 euros respectively. Head over to a Handy shop (Stern Handy Shop
+49 1577 7777788
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8qJfn39MeGkSSdtB6?g_st=ic) with your passport, your phone and ask for Lycamobile SIM with International Plus M/S/S Extra plans. The shop owner will take your passport, register the SIM in your name and recharge the SIM with the plan. Pay him for the plan (10 euros for International Plus S,15 euros for S Extra, 20 Euros for International Plus M) valid for 28 days. That’s it. You are all se with an active per-paid SIM with local and international calls already enabled. Check/verify by dialing *137# from your phone.
You can also get a monthly bus pass for 43 € that will work from 9am to 12am on weekdays (and throughout weekends) or for 52 € that works 24 hours all days and weekends within Gießen municipal limits by visiting Gießen Bahnhof (Gießen Bahnhof
https://maps.app.goo.gl/N99iDFxrt1qSrCcZ9?g_st=ic) and going to the information center. You can pay by cash or giro card that you got from the bank.
6. Bank Accounts
After the Anmeldung is done, you can head over quickly to any of the Volks Bank branches and hand them your passports, photos and Anmeldung confirmation document. The bank personnel will take all the details and might ask you to come back again after 3-5 days at which time your bank account will be opened. Remember to take down your bank account number and BIC code so that you can share that with your employer. (Volksbank Mittelhessen eG - Campusfiliale Gießen (Licher Str.)
+49 641 94888590
https://maps.app.goo.gl/a3EBgjiiZJnFtV8F9?g_st=ic) is especially good because they have English speaking front desk personnels and do not ask for a lot of documentation to open a bank account for expats. Just the passport, photo and Anmeldung confirmation is sufficient. Ensure you ask them for enabling NetBanking and for a free giro card.
Once your bank account is opened, you should expect to receive your bank giro/debit card, Netbanking credentials and a lot of other paper documents from the bank. If you don’t receive those in the expected time, ensure you go and follow up with the bank. Please note that all cash transactions (like cash deposits into your bank account) will be free only until you have not received your giro card.
Big banks like Commerzbank, Deutsch Bank etc. require a lot more documentation for opening the bank account but may have some more features compared to Volks Bank. So far, though, we have found VB to be much better in bank dealings and charges. We have only taken basic banking services (giro card, netbanking) for 1 euro per month. Once you have your netbanking credentials and you have followed all activation process sent over to you via paper mail, you should have the bank’s mobile app ready to use for bank to bank transfers etc. Bank to bank transfers via IBAN are free and are credited instantly within VB and may take 2-3 days for other banks.
You don’t need to update the bank records with your Tax ID/number because they’d already have it from the interconnected system from Stadtburo and Finanzamt.
7. Health Insurance
Write to the insurance firm from which you would like the health insurance coverage (https://www.aok.de/pk/kontakt/). You should write to them even before you fly to Germany. It’s way they’d have all your details registered.
After Anmeldung is done, head over to the insurance firm of your choice with your passport, photos and Anmeldung (for yourself and your family members). We chose AOK (AOK Hessen
+49 800 0000255
https://maps.app.goo.gl/1pGdvChc7PVsNsoi9?g_st=ic). Once you go there, they will ask you for your passports and employment contract, photos etc. They should already have all your details registered with them if you wrote to them earlier. Ask them to give you a temporary insurance certificate for you and each of your family members.
AOK will also send you an insurance card and some other documentation via mail/post. Register yourself online with the insurance number for yourself that you get from AOK and activation code over postal mail. You should also register and activate Meine AOK mobile app.
You are going to need to have the insurance certificates and proof of insurance from a local health insurance provider to apply for your residence permits.
8.EU Blue Card and Residence Permit application
After your Anmeldung and health insurance is done and you have proof of health insurance for yourself and for all members of your family, you should go ahead and write to Auslaenderbehoerde@giessen.de requesting an appointment. Please note that in general, they might respond back with a date 3 weeks into the future. So you may not necessarily wait for your proof of insurance. You can get those a week after your 1st visit to AOK anyways.
The residence permit application form is here that you will need to fill out for all members. https://www.giessen.de/media/custom/2874_2395_1.PDF?1656341116?direct
The content of the email can be as follows:
Dear Foreigner’s Office ( Gießen),
My name is <Your name>. I arrived from India in Gießen along with my <family members> on <date of arrival>. I am on a work visa with an employment contract with <your employer organization name> starting from <date of beginning employment contract>. My spouse has accompanied me as a dependent.
We have already registered ourselves with city administration office of Gießen and have our Tax IDs with us as well as insurance from AOK.
We wish to apply for a residence permit for both of us. Kindly find attached my and my husband’s filled application forms for residence permits. I have also attached a copy of passport and visa for both of us.
May I please request you to let us know how we can book an appointment for further processing?
Thanks,
<Attachments with filled in residence permit applications, passport copies, Anmeldung copy, Tax ID from Finanzamt or Stadtburo>
When the Auslanderbehorde member responds, they will give you a date/time of appointment along with the documents that you need to report with. Confirm the appointment date/time via email response and be prepared with all documents as required.
On the scheduled date/time, head over to Ausländerbehörde
+49 641 3062280
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aAyTyjHunLtS13YVA?g_st=ic
They should already have everything ready. The office member may just ask for your passport size photo and proof of insurance and as you to pay 100 euros per member. S/he will give you a card (like a debit card) that you will need to put into a payment machine beside the area where you had gone for anmeldung Stadtburo. You will need to put that card into the machine make payment via your giro/debit/credit card for the requisite amount. You can leave after making the payment but not without collecting the payment receipt from the same machine. Keep that receipt with you.
The office member should have told you that your application for residence permit will go to Berlin and may also tell you up to what date your EU Blue Card and your dependent’s residence permit will be valid. S/he might ask you to come back again for collecting your cards after 3-5 weeks. Don’t forget to ask her/him about the language course discounts before you leave for making the payment for residence permits.
In the next 3-5 weeks, you should receive your PIN(s) for your EU Blue card and residence permits for your dependents. As soon as you receive it, write to Auslanderbeorde again requesting for an appointment to collect your cards because you have the PIN(s) now. Don’t write to them for an appointment without having the PIN. S/he will respond to you again giving you a date/time of an appointment for collection of your cards. Confirm the appointment date/time and go visit them again with your passports and all family members to collect your cards. That’s it! You are done here until the expiry of your residence permits
9. Searching for an apartment
As soon as you land in Germany, you should begin this process(maybe even before you land here). Searching and finding a suitable apartment for you and your family members may be the toughest job you have at hand. Devote a good amount of time to this. We spent and lost the first few weeks because we did not write to our prospective landlords in German, did not divulge our salaries and did not talk about things like who we are and what we did. Of course, we did not get a single response. But we soon realized our/mistakes and began receiving responses from a lot of prospective landlords.
Go ahead and register ourself at https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-wohnung-mieten/35390/c203l4712. Fix your search criteria, enter your search location and then begin responding to the advertisements you like. More on the content of response later.
Go ahead and do the same at https://www.immobilienscout24.de/? and https://www.immowelt.de/
Now the most important part. When responding to prospective talk about who you are employed with, what’s your employment contract length (longer the better), what your annual salary is (higher the better), whether you like pets or not (not having one is an advantage), how many members will be staying (smaller family is better), how many family members are earning (more the better), how long do you intend to stay (longer the better, forever), what you’re looking for (for example, fitted kitchen, furniture’s etc. or whatever), how financially good you are (financial stability is good), how soon you need it (within 1-3 months is good) and whether you’re peace loving(of course, you are!) etc.
Whoever asks you for a brokerage etc over email, you should probably just ignore them. We didn’t have a need to pay any brokerage and we got a lot of viewing appointments from landlords without paying any brokerage. Here is a sample (in both English and German, but you should always write in German only) of what got us a lot of responses from prospective landlords. We used Deepl for better contextual translations than Google translate (https://www.deepl.com/en/translator)
English version
Dear Ms/Mr. <landlord name>,
I am very interested in viewing this apartment for rental purposes. May I please request for an appointment ?
We are very interested in your advertisement for an apartment/house. My name is <Your name> (age <your age>), I have recently (<date of arrival in Germany>) moved from India with my husband <spouse Name> (age <spouse age>). We are new here and still learning German. That's why we are using a translator for this email :) but we are both very good at English.
We are looking for an apartment or a house to rent from <date of beginning of rental>, with at least one bedroom, a fitted kitchen and at least one bathroom. If the apartment or house has more bedrooms or bathrooms and has a washer/dryer, that's great. Budget is negotiable depending on the amenities. We would love for you to show us the house/apartment or forward our application or share offers. We have no pets and always make sure the place is clean and tidy. We are very peace loving and love our surroundings to be quite.
Background:
We have been married since <year of marriage>. I and my husband are working since <year>, are engineers from top 6 Ivy League colleges in India. I am also an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad which is the top Ivy League College for Management in India. I am here in Giessen on a long term work visa working for <Employer name and address>. I have a long term indefinite work contract as a <Your job role/position name> with an annual salary of EURO <annual salary>+. I am happy to provide references if needed. We are debt free homeowners in India and have been financially sound and independent for over 20 years. We are currently living in an AirBnb apartment at <your current hotel or AirBnB address> and can provide you with all the required documents and references.
Please contact us here:
<Your name, local mobile number, email, whatsapp number etc along with the timings when they can contact you, for example, Mondays through Fridays - 6am to 9am and 5pm to 10pm. Saturdays and Sundays 6am to 9pm)
Thanks,
German version
Sehr geehrte Frau/Herr <Name des Vermieters>,
Ich bin sehr an einer Besichtigung dieser Wohnung zu Vermietungszwecken interessiert. Darf ich Sie um einen Termin bitten?
Wir sind sehr interessiert an Ihrer Anzeige für eine Wohnung/Haus. Mein Name ist <Ihr Name> (Alter <Ihr Alter>), ich bin vor kurzem (<Ankunftsdatum in Deutschland>) mit meinem Mann <Ehepartner Name> (Alter <Ehepartner Alter>) aus Indien zugezogen. Wir sind neu hier und lernen noch Deutsch. Deshalb benutzen wir einen Übersetzer für diese E-Mail :) aber wir sprechen beide sehr gut Englisch.
Wir suchen eine Wohnung oder ein Haus zur Miete ab <Datum des Mietbeginns>, mit mindestens einem Schlafzimmer, einer Einbauküche und mindestens einem Bad. Wenn die Wohnung oder das Haus mehr Schlafzimmer oder Bäder hat und eine Waschmaschine/Trockner hat, ist das großartig. Das Budget ist je nach Ausstattung verhandelbar. Wir würden uns freuen, wenn Sie uns das Haus/die Wohnung zeigen oder unsere Bewerbungen oder Mitwohnangebote weiterleiten. Wir haben keine Haustiere und achten immer darauf, dass die Wohnung sauber und aufgeräumt ist. Wir sind sehr friedliebend und lieben es, wenn unsere Umgebung ruhig ist.
Hintergrund:
Wir sind seit <Jahr der Ehe> verheiratet. Ich und mein Mann sind seit <Jahr> berufstätig, sind Ingenieure von den 6 besten Ivy League Colleges in Indien. Ich bin auch ein MBA von IIM Ahmedabad, die die Top-Efeuliga College für Management in Indien ist. Ich bin hier in Gießen mit einem Langzeitarbeitsvisum und arbeite für <Name und Adresse des Arbeitgebers>. Ich habe einen langfristigen unbefristeten Arbeitsvertrag als <Ihre Jobrolle/Positionsname> mit einem Jahresgehalt von EURO <Jahresgehalt>+. Ich bin gerne bereit, bei Bedarf Referenzen vorzulegen. Wir sind schuldenfreie Hausbesitzer in Indien und sind seit über 20 Jahren finanziell gesund und unabhängig. Wir leben derzeit in einer AirBnb-Wohnung unter <Ihr derzeitiges Hotel oder AirBnB-Adresse> und können Ihnen alle erforderlichen Dokumente und Referenzen vorlegen.
Bitte kontaktieren Sie uns hier:
<Ihr Name, Ihre lokale Handynummer, E-Mail, Whatsapp-Nummer usw. zusammen mit den Zeiten, zu denen man Sie erreichen kann, z. B. montags bis freitags - 6 bis 9 Uhr und 17 bis 22 Uhr. Samstags und sonntags 6 Uhr bis 21 Uhr)
Vielen Dank!
After you receive response from your prospective landlords, use Deepl to write and correspond to them and fix viewing appointments. If you are going to meet rental agents, do not sign any document for them until you are absolutely sure of what you are signing up for.
Hopefully, after viewing a few of the apartments, you will get what you are looking for.
After you have liked and zeroed in on one of the apartments, you should meet the landlord again and view the apartment in greater detail for ensuring there are no major maintenance works. If everything is good, you should ask to sign the agreement, Have the landlord share a copy with you beforehand over email. Use deepl to translate the entire document(you can upload the entire document and get a translated copy) in English and understand all aspects of the contract. Ask questions and clarify all your doubts from the landlord. If all looks good, sign the paper and get the keys to the apartment when you sign it and plan for the move.
You will need to go for anmeldung again to register your new address after getting the landlord certificate from the new landlord. That’s the first thing you will need to do. Then update your communication address at the bank, insurance firm and Finanzamt (use Elster app to do this: https://www.elster.de/eportal/registrierung-auswahl)
10. Indian Groups, stores and restaurants
<Work in progress!> If you’d like to contribute, please write/tag a comment from your gmail ID here.
Indian restaurants in Gießen: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1NFCb9VxzFl21djf1_ewP797RVcwIja0&usp=sharing
You may wish to join the local vibrant Indians WhatsApp group noted in https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=40FED9DD7AC10BBC!143999&ithint=file%2cdocx&authkey=!ALaOLvQVaNApL4E
