# Moving to Munich from South Africa



## Darrengsmith

Dear all,

Any and all advice welcomed and appreciated.

1) It is likely that I will be made an offer of permanent employment to join a large multi-national bank, based in Munich. It is our intention to move permanently to Germany.

2) If all goes according to plan, they would expect my start date to be circa October 2013

3) I am a South African Citizen and resident

4) My Fiancé' is an EU (Italian) Citizen and South African Resident

5) My Fiancé' has a 10 year old child from a previous marriage (widowed) who is also and EU (Italian) citizen and South African resident

6) I have a 13 year old child from a previous marriage (divorced) who will not be immigrating at this stage, but will visit for holidays

7) I will secure my residence (and work) permits with the support of my employer

8) I understand that my fiancé' does not require any visa to live or work in Germany, except to register upon arrival

My Questions are as follows:

1) Would it be better to get married (civil union) in South Africa prior to arrival or to get married once we are in Germany?

2) What should I expect my Visa processing time to take? Does anyone from South Africa have experience in how long it took to get their residence visa once the contract of employment has been obtained?

3) Given that we are English speaking, there are basically 3 school options: BIS, MIS and St Georges (opening Sept 2013). I am not so worried about the quality of the schools as they will all be much better than anything in South Africa, but I am interested in which suburbs would be best to live in. I will be working near Altstadt and do not mind commuting up to 40min (in either direction) on public transport (don’t want to drive). We are looking for a good mixture of German culture and don’t want to be too isolated for the first year (i.e. no country living), so ideally within reach of good shops, restaurants, bars etc. without being in the middle of the city. Any ideas?

I hope to be in Munich next month and want to visit suburbs.

4) Any other advise / cautions / for a South African about to make the continental leap?

Regards


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## Nononymous

A couple of answers. Don't know Munich well enough to say much about #4. 

#1 Anything I've ever seen suggests that it's much easier to get married outside of Germany, unless both partners are German.

#3 Ten might be getting a bit old for a plunge into the deep end, but you should at least consider the possibility of putting your stepson in a local school. If it's a permanent move, you'll want him speaking German as soon and as well as possible.


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