# UK to Germany help



## DrJNA

Hi All, 

First post so nice to meet you all and I hope I can learn from some of your experiences.

I am a UK citizen, my partner is a German citizen. We are planning to move to Germany in the next few months with our UK work contracts coming to an end.
We are not married, but we both hold PhD's in chemistry, so that should be my ticket into Germany. It looks like I will probably move without a job at the moment though but we have somewhere we can live in NRW and enough money to survive for a year or two. I am fairly happy that I understand that I can travel to Germany and within the first 90 days sort the anmeldung process. Nonetheless I have a few questions.

I understand I will need to get private health insurance - does anyone have a recommendation on who is a good provider and also give me an idea of what ballpark we are looking at for costs?

Additionally we don't have a huge amount of stuff to bring with us, so we are considering hiring a van and driving over, does anyone have any ideas about the customs procedure at Dover for example - I know this might be very tricky to answer with the brexit changes. I maybe naively presume because they're personal items we don't have to declare anything?

If you have any advice for me at all, I would appreciate this!

James


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## ALKB

DrJNA said:


> Hi All,
> 
> First post so nice to meet you all and I hope I can learn from some of your experiences.
> 
> I am a UK citizen, my partner is a German citizen. We are planning to move to Germany in the next few months with our UK work contracts coming to an end.
> We are not married, but we both hold PhD's in chemistry, so that should be my ticket into Germany. It looks like I will probably move without a job at the moment though but we have somewhere we can live in NRW and enough money to survive for a year or two. I am fairly happy that I understand that I can travel to Germany and within the first 90 days sort the anmeldung process. Nonetheless I have a few questions.
> 
> I understand I will need to get private health insurance - does anyone have a recommendation on who is a good provider and also give me an idea of what ballpark we are looking at for costs?
> 
> Additionally we don't have a huge amount of stuff to bring with us, so we are considering hiring a van and driving over, does anyone have any ideas about the customs procedure at Dover for example - I know this might be very tricky to answer with the brexit changes. I maybe naively presume because they're personal items we don't have to declare anything?
> 
> If you have any advice for me at all, I would appreciate this!
> 
> James


I am afraid it's not quite that easy anymore. It's a pity that you didn't make the move last year.

Anmeldung does not equal residence permit. Anyone can register their residence but that does not make it legal to stay longer than 90 days.

Also, 90 days are highly ambitious for moving, finding a job that is willing and able to provide sponsorship and getting all that sorted.

To be blunt, have you considered marriage? That would make you eligible for a spouse visa and free family health insurance.

Otherwise, I would not touch private insurance with a ten foot pole! It's okay if you are young, healthy and don't intend to stay very long in Germany, if that doesn't apply, I would always opt for voluntary insurance with a statutory insurance provider. I have very good personal experience with SBK and TK. I also heard that BKK is excellent for voluntary insurance.


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## DrJNA

Thanks for your reply, it’s a pity indeed, it it simply wasn’t possible last year. I also agree 90 days is ambitious but I can get a job seeker visa which will allow me to stay up to six months. The German embassy has basically told me that with a PhD it will be straight forwards to get that. Additionally it will be more than likely possible to extend if I don’t find a job in six months - which I’m sure I will be able to do.

Marriage is definitely a possible. Do I need to have been married to my partner for a certain amount of time before I can get the necessary Visa?


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## ALKB

DrJNA said:


> Thanks for your reply, it’s a pity indeed, it it simply wasn’t possible last year. I also agree 90 days is ambitious but I can get a job seeker visa which will allow me to stay up to six months. The German embassy has basically told me that with a PhD it will be straight forwards to get that. Additionally it will be more than likely possible to extend if I don’t find a job in six months - which I’m sure I will be able to do.
> 
> Marriage is definitely a possible. Do I need to have been married to my partner for a certain amount of time before I can get the necessary Visa?


Jobseeker visa is definitely possible and can be applied for in country, as per anecdotal evidence on this forum. I thought a jobseeker visa has a non-extendable validity of 6 months but I may be mistaken.

You can apply for a spouse residence permit (from within Germany) or a family reunion visa (from abroad) as soon as you are married. The spouse residence permit is free of charge and gives unrestricted access to the job market. With a PhD it's very likely that your obligation to attend an integration course will be waived - unless you would prefer to get 660 hours of highly subsidised language and culture classes (also makes naturalisation easier if you ever want to go down that route).


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## DrJNA

Thanks again, I think for us moving over and then sorting the job seeker visa within 90 days would be Ideal.
Integration course sounds interesting actually. Especially if they pay towards it. My German is actually quite ok and i have studied several years alongside my PhD and spent lots of time in Germany with my partner. Seems a no brainer to attend something like that though if it’s heavily subsidised. Overall the best scenario would be to get a job that I can get an EU blue card with. But let’s see - Brexit hasn’t helped my ease of employment but I hope once I’m in the country things will be easier.


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## Tellus

Hi, as long as you are "Traveller" could be a travel insurance a solution..
friend of mine did it for years at sea.. cheapest way


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