# Procedures to leave Germany - How much time will I need? Any way to make it quicker?



## leryval

Hello.

I found some related posts but please allow me to ask here, as I couldn’t find the exact answer to my specific question:
If you suddenly have to leave Germany, what would you do to wrap everything up?

For example, you’ll need to do abmeldung. I heard some cities allow you to do this online or by post, otherwise you’ll need an appointment at a rathaus which might be booked out for the next few weeks/months.

If you’re a freelancer or self-employed, you’ll need to talk to the finanzamt and close your business. I’m not sure how long the procedure takes but anyway you can’t complete it in a day.

In many cases the notice period of your flat/house is 3 months (if it's open-ended). Finding a nachmieter will be an option. Or just pay for the next 3 months. Either way talking to your landlord would be the first step I guess.
Apparently this 3-month notice period applies to many other contracts, like phone, internet, etc.

Anything else?

If you know you’re leaving more than 3 months in advance, I think it should be fine, but what if you don’t have that much time before leaving?

Any advice/suggestion will be appreciated!


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## Nononymous

You can do the Abmeldung by post, that's easy. (Well, in Berlin you can, not sure about other cities.) Mail it from Germany a few days before leaving. I always ask for the form when I do the Anmeldung, but you could probably find it online or pick one up at the Bürgeramt without an appointment. If you give a new address abroad they will send you the confirmation.

No idea what's involved in wrapping up affairs with the Finanzamt but I expect that doesn't need to be done before departure because you probably need to sort out your final tax return the following year anyway.

If you have a lease that requires 3 months notice, then yes, your options are either to pay in full or to find a Nachmieter acceptable to the landlord.

For cellphone, utilities, etc. check your contracts for the notice period. Often you can get let out early if you are leaving the country - it is worth asking. You might need to provide copies of airline tickets to prove it.

There is one thing to be very careful with when you depart Germany - memberships in fitness studios, sports clubs or any other sort of Verein. Often they renew automatically and require ridiculous notice periods to cancel - the dreaded Kundigungsfrist. I've heard horror stories about people leaving the country then facing years of threatening letters claiming membership fees. One friend returned after spending a couple of years in Canada and had no choice but to pay over a thousand euro to a fitness studio because she hadn't given enough warning when she left. I had a similar experience with a sport club, thought I was being super organized by sending them a Kundigungsbrief a month before departure but was told that I missed a deadline and would owe the entire next year's fee. I ignored them and refused to pay; when letters arrived in Canada I wrote "deceased, return to sender" on the envelope and dropped it in the mailbox; later I asked a friend still in the club tell them that I'd left Germany permanently, closed my bank accounts, and they should stop wasting money on postage stamps. That seems to have worked and there were no legal repercussions when we returned some years later. The approach I would take is to notify them as soon as you know your departure date and be politely aggressive, insisting that you will be leaving permanently and have no interest in paying for a service you won't use. And it's not always a problem, I was once able to cancel a gym membership without penalty by providing a copy of the plane ticket.


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## leryval

Thank you so much for your convincible answer.



Nononymous said:


> You can do the Abmeldung by post, that's easy. (Well, in Berlin you can, not sure about other cities.) Mail it from Germany a few days before leaving. I always ask for the form when I do the Anmeldung, but you could probably find it online or pick one up at the Bürgeramt without an appointment. If you give a new address abroad they will send you the confirmation.


Thanks, I found the abmeldung form on their website.
A few more questions if I may: What if you haven’t decided where to live next? How can you confirm that you’re successfully deregistered?
To avoid failing to deregister and having to pay the resident tax and public utilities etc, I was thinking of booking an appointment and handing in the form directly, but my local rathaus seems really busy and the earliest available date would be almost 2 months away.
(I heard someone got a huge bill from Germany after getting back to his home country, just because his abmeldung wasn't successfull. They hired lawyers or embassy or something to find his whereabouts, so the bill ballooned to a massive amount..)



Nononymous said:


> No idea what's involved in wrapping up affairs with the Finanzamt but I expect that doesn't need to be done before departure because you probably need to sort out your final tax return the following year anyway.


From what I heard, to quit freelancing you’d need to send a letter to the finanzamt, and then they’ll get back to you with some questionnaire. So if you want to complete it on the same day you should visit them and finish the Qs and As there.
Because I don’t speak good German, I prefer exchanging letters with them, but I’m not sure how many times I’ll have to send/receive and how long it’ll take.
Another thing is, I’m regularly receiving letters from the finanzamt, regarding the tax payments. If I can’t receive a letter and fail to pay in time, I'd get fined.
If I already have a new address, I’ll let the finanzamt know and request the post office to forward my mails, but getting the new address can be crucial then.



Nononymous said:


> For cellphone, utilities, etc. check your contracts for the notice period. Often you can get let out early if you are leaving the country - it is worth asking. You might need to provide copies of airline tickets to prove it.


Yes my internet contract requires 3 month notice, but thanks I'll ask if I can get off early when leaving.

And also thanks for the interesting tips about memberships - that’s good to know.
Fortunately I don’t have these membership but it reminds me of insurance contracts. I’ll search how to cancel them, maybe the proof of “leaving Germany” will be enough though.


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## Nononymous

Normally, leaving with an a proper Abmeldung is not a huge deal. There is probably more to the story of the huge bill. Twice we failed to abmeld properly, returned years later, and only got a polite lecture when we did the Anmeldung. (The second time was deliberate, for school registration purposes.)

If you don't know where you'll be living, give them an address you can have mail sent to outside of Germany - parents, friends, family, whatever. It doesn't need to be where you actually live. Similarly for the Finanzamt.


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## Nononymous

Nononymous said:


> Normally, leaving with an a proper Abmeldung is not a huge deal. There is probably more to the story of the huge bill.


Correction. What I meant to write was "leaving *without* a proper Abmeldung is not a huge deal"


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## Bevdeforges

Honestly, the real tricky one is "properly" giving notice on subscriptions, memberships, insurance policies and all that other good stuff. Many contracts that are automatically renewed every year require that you give notice 3 months before the annual renewal date. Miss that deadline and you're renewed for another year.

In a really drastic situation, you can always move and just close the bank account. They'll send you nasty notes saying that if you don't pay up they'll cancel your contract (which is what you wanted in the first place). But that approach is best reserved to those situations where you KNOW you won't be moving back to Germany in the foreseeable future.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Nononymous

Yes to all of the above. Even if I didn't have a departure date fixed yet I would immediately contact everyone you regularly pay money to and inquire as to what you need to do if you leave at some point in the future. 

In some cases they are cool about it, just show a copy of the plane ticket and we'll cancel the contract. In other cases it's a nightmare, literally "if you didn't tell us to cancel before 1 September 2018 you owe us membership dues for all 12 months of 2019" in which case the only reply is to close your bank account and disappear. But you might need the bank account to settle up tax affairs.


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## ALKB

Nononymous said:


> Normally, leaving with an a proper Abmeldung is not a huge deal. There is probably more to the story of the huge bill. Twice we failed to abmeld properly, returned years later, and only got a polite lecture when we did the Anmeldung. (The second time was deliberate, for school registration purposes.)
> 
> If you don't know where you'll be living, give them an address you can have mail sent to outside of Germany - parents, friends, family, whatever. It doesn't need to be where you actually live. Similarly for the Finanzamt.


Health insurance laws have been changed about three years ago. They will now invoice at maximum rate up to the date on the Abmeldebescheinigung and will want to have a copy of it to actually terminate the health insurance.


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## Nononymous

ALKB said:


> Health insurance laws have been changed about three years ago. They will now invoice at maximum rate up to the date on the Abmeldebescheinigung and will want to have a copy of it to actually terminate the health insurance.


That might have been the source of the huge bills for failure to abmeld. We've used Canadian insurance on sabbaticals so never faced those issues.


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## leryval

Thank you again.



Nononymous said:


> Normally, leaving with an a proper Abmeldung is not a huge deal. There is probably more to the story of the huge bill.


Yes it might be. It’s a hearsay story and I don’t know what his situation was like, but I just want to properly deregister to avoid anything unexpected.



Nononymous said:


> If you don't know where you'll be living, give them an address you can have mail sent to outside of Germany - parents, friends, family, whatever. It doesn't need to be where you actually live. Similarly for the Finanzamt.


Yup that’s another small problem… if I already have friends there. I wonder if my future employer could let me use their office address. maybe a p.o.box..


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## leryval

Thanks for your reply.



Bevdeforges said:


> Honestly, the real tricky one is "properly" giving notice on subscriptions, memberships, insurance policies and all that other good stuff. Many contracts that are automatically renewed every year require that you give notice 3 months before the annual renewal date. Miss that deadline and you're renewed for another year.


Fortunately I don’t have these annual contracts/memberships, some of my contracts just require 3 months notice whenever I want to get out. But yes that’s definitely good to remember, thanks.



Bevdeforges said:


> In a really drastic situation, you can always move and just close the bank account. They'll send you nasty notes saying that if you don't pay up they'll cancel your contract (which is what you wanted in the first place). But that approach is best reserved to those situations where you KNOW you won't be moving back to Germany in the foreseeable future.
> Cheers,
> Bev


Yeah I know I won’t get back to Germany once I leave (short trip can still be possible though), but I’ll still need my bank accounts for the finanzamt and for my landlord. But it's still good to consider as a last resort.


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## leryval

ALKB said:


> Health insurance laws have been changed about three years ago. They will now invoice at maximum rate up to the date on the Abmeldebescheinigung and will want to have a copy of it to actually terminate the health insurance.


Luckily enough, I applied for my current visa just before the law change, so I’m now using some sort of travelers insurance which can be cancelled more easily. I’ll have to switch to a designated one when renewing my visa though. Then, I’d need the Abmeldebescheinigung to terminate it, okay…
Thank you, that’s good to know.


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## leryval

This is a bit old thread but this time I’m actually leaving. So please let me ask some more questions about abmeldung as I’m getting confused.

I read the official page here: https://service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/120335/
It says you can submit the abmeldung form from 7 days before leaving or within 14 days after leaving. Am I reading it correctly?
So, for example if you’re leaving on the 23rd of December, the earliest date you can submit this form is the 16th.. oops it’s sunday so in this case it would be 14th the Friday. (or is it 7 WORKING days? then the 12th might be the earliest possible date?)
Anyway then the rathaus will send the confirmation (Abmeldebescheinigung) back to you in a few days, in this case maybe around 18-19th, but you’re leaving on the 23rd, how would you send copies of the Abmeldebescheinigung to all the companies you have contracts with? You then only have a few days before leaving.
Or am I misunderstanding?

I was guessing I could send the abmeldung form like a month before my departure and get the Abmeldebescheinigung well before the actual leaving date, but now it turns out I’ll only have a few days???
Or is it possible to retrospectively cancel these contracts after leaving? Is it the normal process?

I just sent a cancel letter to my internet provider, but its notice period is 3 months so I’ll have to pay until the end of January when I actually leave in mid December.
It’s just one month and the amount isn’t huge, but if I can get out earlier that would definitely be nicer.

My health insurance has no actual “notice period”, but they may still need a copy of the “Abmeldebescheinigung” too.
In many other cases the notice period is 3 months but you can only get the Abmeldebescheinigung just a few days before leaving, isn't this annoying?

Thanks for reading.
Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.


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## ALKB

leryval said:


> This is a bit old thread but this time I’m actually leaving. So please let me ask some more questions about abmeldung as I’m getting confused.
> 
> I read the official page here: https://service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/120335/
> It says you can submit the abmeldung form from 7 days before leaving or within 14 days after leaving. Am I reading it correctly?
> So, for example if you’re leaving on the 23rd of December, the earliest date you can submit this form is the 16th.. oops it’s sunday so in this case it would be 14th the Friday. (or is it 7 WORKING days? then the 12th might be the earliest possible date?)


Any 7-day period will have a maximum of 5 working days. Weekends or public holidays do not extend this in any direction. I'd think the first possible date would be the 17th December.



leryval said:


> Anyway then the rathaus will send the confirmation (Abmeldebescheinigung) back to you in a few days, in this case maybe around 18-19th, but you’re leaving on the 23rd, how would you send copies of the Abmeldebescheinigung to all the companies you have contracts with? You then only have a few days before leaving.
> Or am I misunderstanding?


If you go to the Bürgeramt (any in Berlin will do) personally, you will be able to take the Bescheinigung home with you right away. Otherwise you can also scan the form and email it to the Bürgeramt, asking for Abmeldebescheinigung by email rather than post. We did that once and it was very quick.



leryval said:


> I was guessing I could send the abmeldung form like a month before my departure and get the Abmeldebescheinigung well before the actual leaving date, but now it turns out I’ll only have a few days???
> Or is it possible to retrospectively cancel these contracts after leaving? Is it the normal process?
> 
> I just sent a cancel letter to my internet provider, but its notice period is 3 months so I’ll have to pay until the end of January when I actually leave in mid December.
> It’s just one month and the amount isn’t huge, but if I can get out earlier that would definitely be nicer.
> 
> My health insurance has no actual “notice period”, but they may still need a copy of the “Abmeldebescheinigung” too.
> In many other cases the notice period is 3 months but you can only get the Abmeldebescheinigung just a few days before leaving, isn't this annoying?
> 
> Thanks for reading.
> Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.


Health insurance will invoice you only up to the date stated on the Abmeldebescheinigung.

When provided with the Abmeldung, some service providers waive the notice period and some will still require you to pay for x number of months.


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## leryval

Thanks so much for your prompt answer, ALKB!



ALKB said:


> Any 7-day period will have a maximum of 5 working days. Weekends or public holidays do not extend this in any direction. I'd think the first possible date would be the 17th December.


Then you’d be super busy before leaving :O



ALKB said:


> If you go to the Bürgeramt (any in Berlin will do) personally, you will be able to take the Bescheinigung home with you right away. Otherwise you can also scan the form and email it to the Bürgeramt, asking for Abmeldebescheinigung by email rather than post. We did that once and it was very quick.


My friend tried doing that by email and got a reply saying something like “we don’t accept this by email. please send it by post or visit us” 
It may depend on the person in charge..



ALKB said:


> Health insurance will invoice you only up to the date stated on the Abmeldebescheinigung.


I’m using a sort of travelers insurance for foreigners, and I already paid for the next year in full. So in my case the cancellation system works a little bit differently. But anyway this information should be worth to remember! Thank you 



ALKB said:


> When provided with the Abmeldung, some service providers waive the notice period and some will still require you to pay for x number of months.


Oooh okay then, for now I’ll sign the cancellation form with my internet provider which says I have to pay until January, but as soon as I get the Abmeldebescheinigung in December I can try to get off earlier (but there’s no guarantee). Am I understanding it right?


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