# Thinking of Moving to Germany



## GreyFox (Apr 4, 2014)

Hey everyone, I'm a 23 year old single male from New York City who is looking for a change of pace. Does anyone know the most inexpensive/safest places to live in Germany? And how would I go about finding an apartment? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!


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## _shel (Mar 2, 2014)

Before worrying about apartments have you had a thought about what visa you would apply for to live outside of the USA?


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## GreyFox (Apr 4, 2014)

No, I have not Shel, please give me all of the details I need. I figured I'd just get a passport and stay for up to three months and see if I could find some work for a work visa, but please give me all of the details


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

GreyFox said:


> No, I have not Shel, please give me all of the details I need. I figured I'd just get a passport and stay for up to three months and see if I could find some work for a work visa, but please give me all of the details


Try this.


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## _shel (Mar 2, 2014)

You can visit as a tourist throughout Europe but cant live there. In many countries you would be breaching the conditions of tourist entry by activity seeking work. It would be virtually impossible to rent an apartment without evidence of a visa that allows you to live in the country long term.

Employment will be hard unless you have extensive skills and qualifications in a shortage area. Employers throughout Europe have to try and fill posts from the 800 million Europeans before being able to offer them to and sponsor a non European. 

Have you been to college? Got any special skills?


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## _shel (Mar 2, 2014)

Nononymous said:


> Try this.


One of my favourite sites 

In case you didnt check. The OP has posted similar in Portugal, Greece etc


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

Everywhere is Germany is safe. That is not a concern.

Berlin is inexpensive and awesome.

Do you speak German, or intend to learn? If not, you will likely become one of many many thousands of super-annoying Anglo expats who are colonizing certain urban neighbourhoods. 

For short stays your best bet is to look on Craigslist, Kijiji or AirBnB. There are many German listing sites (immowelt.de and so on) but they are either looking for long stays with a full lease (which you'll never get) or it'll be through agencies that charge beastly commissions for vacation rentals. Again, you can use the awesome power of Google to find this information. One small note - the authorities in Berlin are really cracking down on the short-term private rental market; entire neighbourhoods have become pseudo-hostel districts in recent years. So that may be more difficult now.

Working. As you know, you are only entitled to stay in the Schengen zone for 90 days. After that, to remain in Germany you would need a job, or to be a student, or have some other halfway valid excuse for staying. As a US citizen you have no right to work in Germany so any potential employer would have to make the case that nobody else with an EU passport can do your job. (There are various working holiday schemes for youngish Canadians, but not, I believe, for Americans.) If you work in the IT or design or creative fields, or find something for which native English is necessary, you have a better chance. All that being said, I've found the Berlin Ausländerbehörde to be fairly tolerant of and generous to North Americans, but then I'm long past 23, have an exotic skill and speak the Deutsch fluently, so I'm not sure my and others' experiences will necessarily apply. You could also look into the "freelancer visa" racket - Google it - if you have money to support yourself. 

That's about all the advice I have to offer.


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## Nononymous (Jul 12, 2011)

_shel said:


> One of my favourite sites
> 
> In case you didnt check. The OP has posted similar in Portugal, Greece etc


It's my stock response to any and every lazy-ass request for others to do basic research. A small piece of passive-aggressive gratification to get me through the day.


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