So here I am. I am already in Germeny, almost all the things are unpacked and there is some paperwork to sort.

Registration at the Bürgeramt is the first and the most important thing to do. Foreigner cannot open an account, obtain a SIM card from mobile operator etc.

For the Anmeldung process a (sub)lease contract is usually needed, but in my case the friend I am going to stay with for the time being accompanied me. That did the trick – no contract was needed and the whole registration procedure took only about ten minutes, plus 5 minutes of waiting at the office. Well, it was not that easy as the first Bürgeramt we went to was closed (as the opening hours were somehow limited during the summer, which obviously does not end here before the end September).

So with the Anmeldung document I visited the Finanzamt in order to get so-called Steuernummer, aka tax identification number. You have to have one (or I would recommend it at the very least as the people without it pay much higher income taxes than those with it) and it is valid for life. Again the process to get one was pretty straight-forward, I have to answer a couple of questions so the right tax class could be determined for me (there are six overall, five with particular specifications who fits in and the sixth one for the rest – the people who do not pass the tax ID to their employer are taxated as member of this class). On the other hand I did not get the tax ID number right away. Why? Because I have registered myself only one day before so I was not in the system. So the tax ID is going to arrive by post sometime in the future.

One last thing I managed to sort is to get an account. After giving it some thought I chose the Postbank for the time being. Getting the account opened at post office was quite funny actually as I am that used to hearing German yet and thus I do not understand everything (it seems to me like I understand almost nothing :-)). Finally we have managed it – after the clerk spent a few minutes to find out what the abbreviation for Tschechische Republik was (CZE) – and I was free to go. Only that I only got the contract, but no account number or anything. That is again supposed to arrive by post. Hopefully it will be soon.

There is a couple of thing left still, e.g. the health insurance, German phone number and maybe the public transport tickets (monthly or seasonal).

See you next time.