# USA to Germany



## Jessiejames (Aug 24, 2011)

My Husband and I (with our family) are looking to relocate to Germany. We have done a bunch of research, but I would love to hear from people who have made the jump with a family/spouse. Everything seems pretty cut and dry and we have friends over there to help us get started. How is it looking for work? Germany’s economy is doing well, but I have heard from numerous people that German jobs are for Germans.


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## Hessi (Mar 17, 2009)

Hi Jessiejames, 

what is your/your husbands line of work? What sort of experience and educations do you have?... Please elaborate a little bit to get an idea of what you are looking for.
Thx


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## Jessiejames (Aug 24, 2011)

Hessi said:


> Hi Jessiejames,
> 
> what is your/your husbands line of work? What sort of experience and educations do you have?... Please elaborate a little bit to get an idea of what you are looking for.
> Thx


My husband has his MFA in film and I have my BA in Art Education. I have been a child care provider/tutor/personal and family assistant for 10+ years. My husband has worked for a company doing special event videography and editing. He also has independently done several music video’s, some of which he has gotten into international film festivals. He is currently writing a short film and feature length documentary film. Thank you for getting back to us.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It was a long time ago, and I didn't have a family with me (well, other than the cats, who I consider "family") but I'd strongly advise launching a job hunt while you're still in the US and planning one or more trips to make yourself available for interviews before you take the big plunge.

In my case, my big advantage seemed to be that I was selling myself as bi-lingual and apparently that was a strong appeal in finding work in a large, international company with a US or British parent. The advantage of making some sort of preliminary job-hunting run is that you can assess the job market before you burn any bridges. Speaking German reasonably well is pretty much crucial to getting a toe into the job market.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Jessiejames (Aug 24, 2011)

Bevdeforges said:


> It was a long time ago, and I didn't have a family with me (well, other than the cats, who I consider "family") but I'd strongly advise launching a job hunt while you're still in the US and planning one or more trips to make yourself available for interviews before you take the big plunge.
> 
> In my case, my big advantage seemed to be that I was selling myself as bi-lingual and apparently that was a strong appeal in finding work in a large, international company with a US or British parent. The advantage of making some sort of preliminary job-hunting run is that you can assess the job market before you burn any bridges. Speaking German reasonably well is pretty much crucial to getting a toe into the job market.
> Cheers,
> Bev


Thank you. We have been doing job searches, but it seems in the film industry they are mostly looking for people who can work freelance jobs and this can be hard to get a visa to do this. We are looking into an artist visa right now, but we’d have to be in Germany to get one. We have friends with family in the industry, but they have basically told us that it’s all about networking and getting to know people and we have to be there to do that too. We will probably apply for a residency visa and stay with a friend for starters and then apply for an artist visa in person. Depending on our residency terms we’ll (our family) will try to extend our visa’s to match his artist visa… I think? I’m going to call the consulate and see if I can get more information about it. We aren’t bilingual, but we do have some basic German. We are studying like crazy. We have native speakers to talk to so that helps. Oh and kitty’s are definitely family and very much child status haha.


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