After arrival in Berlin
➜ Full guide for everyone moving to Berlin: Entry and first steps in Berlin for work and study
Do these in order. Each step needs the one before it.
1. Register your address (Anmeldung)
§ 17 BMG: within 2 weeks of moving in. You go to a Bürgeramt with your passport and a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, a confirmation signed by your landlord. Registration itself is free. You get an Anmeldebestätigung, which almost every other office will ask you for.
Berlin Bürgeramt appointments are hard to get. Book as soon as you know your address, and keep checking for cancellations. No official source states that a late Anmeldung caused by a lack of appointments is excused – keep proof that you tried.
2. Tax ID (Steuer-ID)
Sent to you by post automatically a few weeks after your Anmeldung. Your employer needs it. If it does not arrive, ask the Finanzamt.
3. Bank account
For students, the blocked account is already open, see Costs of studying; you still usually want a normal current account too. Most banks want your Anmeldebestätigung and your passport.
4. Health insurance
Compulsory. Employees are insured through their employer from the first day; students take student insurance. Register with a Krankenkasse yourself – they do not come to you.
5. Residence permit at LEA Berlin
Your visa is only the entry document. Before it expires you convert it into a residence permit at the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA). Fees: €100 for an electronic residence card, €93 to extend it; €56 / €49 for a study-permit sticker. Apply well before your visa runs out; an application made in time keeps your stay lawful while it is processed.
6. Then
- Willkommenszentrum Berlin – free orientation for new arrivals, in several languages.
- MBE (Migrationsberatung für erwachsene Zuwanderer) – free personal advice for adults, also in Vietnamese, see Already in Berlin.
- Integration and German courses; see Learning German.
A question this page does not answer? Contact us. Free orientation only, no legal advice for individual cases.