Category Archives: Immigration

What you should consider before planning your move

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You might have the  idea to work abroad, before planning your move you should make several important considerations:
Assess your chances for getting your “dreamjob”

  • Do you have the required qualification
  • Are the job offers in the new country matching with your wishes and skills
  • Are you able to make compromises regarding the new job in question of company size, company culture etc.

Are you ready to integrate

  • Do you have the required language skills to integrate already? – You will have to improve your skills!
  • Do you have any experiences about culture and social life in the new country or city? – You have to find out about cultural and social specalties!
  • Make a list of your major questions regarding social life and culture!

Find out what to expect  in your new “home”

  • Try to get as most information as possible about the new country!
  • Use all web portals which content information of the country,
  • Try to find out the specific characteristics of the cities you are interested in
  • Try to find out about the specific culture issues in the region of the new city

Top 10 Fun facts – Hamburg

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This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series TOP TEN
  1. John Lennon said: “I was born in Liverpool but raised in Hamburg
  2. When Hamburgers refer to the DOM they do not mean a church or cathedrale but a huge fair, taking place three times a year in Hamburg
  3. Hamburg has approximately 2500 bridges and hence not only more than Venice, Amsterdam and London combined, but it has more bridges than any other city of the world
  4. There are more millionaires living in Hamburg than in any other German city
  5. Hamburg is 7 times bigger than Paris and 14% of Hamburg is green space
  6. In Wedel is the ‘Willkomm-Höft’ situated. The only ship greeting dock of the world. It welcomes every ship entering the harbour of Hamburg with the national anthem and flag of the originating country
  7. The VIP-seats of the FC St.Pauli Stadium offer each an own Astra Pils tap as well as a small ice-rink where fresh Currywurst is served
  8. The Miniature Wonderland Hamburg is the largest railway museum as well as the largest model railway in the world. It inherits more the 12km of railway lines
  9. Only men as well as those women working there are allowed to enter the ‘Herbertstraße’ in Hamburg
  10. “Hummel, Hummel” “Mors, Mors” is a very common salutation in Hamburg. However, it is mere used as a distinctive mark and a battle cry among Hamburgers

Top 10 Fun facts – Munich

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This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series TOP TEN
  1. Beer is considered food and not an alcoholic beverage in Bavaria
  2. The Biergartenverordnung allows you to bring and eat your own food in a Bavarian beergarden
  3. Oktoberfest is held in September mainly and ends the first weekend in October
  4. The Bavarian dialect is difficult, even for other Germans: Brötchen (Buns) are called Semmeln and the city’s name ‘München’ becomes ‘Minga’
  5. Munich’s specialty the ‘Weisswürste’ (white sausages) is served with sweet mustard and freshly baked pretzels and ONLY until 12:00 noon
  6. not counting the cities in Alaska, Munich is located more north than any larger city in the US
  7. The city’s name ‘München’ was derived from the old High German ‘Munichen’ and means ‘by the monks the place’
  8. According to legend the architect of the well-known Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Lady) tricked the devil into thinking the church having no windows. However, when the devil realised he had been duped he stamped his foot near the entrance. You can view the footprint called the devil’s step even today.
  9. Munich’s English Garden is heavily influenced by Asian architecture, comprising Chinese pagodas, a Japanese teahouse as well as temples
  10. the oldest building in Munich known today is neither a church nor a Bavarian pub or tavern – it’s a toilet of the year 1260

New year – Berlin’s registration offices

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This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Authorities

New year – good news concerning registration offices

Back to business as usual at Berlin’s registration offices

In order to get an appointment at the municipal registration office you had to wait up to two months last year. The new year started with good news concerning appointments at the registration office. Now your get an appointment on a short term notice which means  you will get your appointment within TWO WEEKS instead of waiting two months!! You should keep that in mind when making an appointment with the foreign department to apply for residence permit or work permit.

Our tip: If you know when you will move to Berlin exactly, ask for an appointment. You can make it online.

EU BLUE CARD

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This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series EU BLUE CARD

Is it a great chance for highly skilled workers from third countries to work in the EU?

But is the current EU BLUE CARD that attractive?  Will highly skilled workers from third countries join the EU to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness?

The EU’s current Blue CARD for immigration of highly skilled workers is not well-equipped for these challenges. There are too many parallel – national Member states’ rules and different condition and procedures across the EU. The BLUE CARD was launched “as an EU flagship initiative” in 2009. Between 2012 and 2014 have been issued only 30.000 BLUE CARDs only EU wide. This is the main reason for the European Commission to revise the Directive.

EU Commission will recast the BLUE CARD. The proposal for the new BLUE CARD shall attract more highly skilled worker.

Which are the main proposed changes?

  • Harmonization, simplification and efficiency
  • More inclusive and flexible admission conditions
  • Enhanced Intra-EU mobility
  • Faster and more flexible procedures
  • Improved rights

For the EU faces significant labor and skill shortages in certain sectors, it will be important to attract these highly skilled workers from third countries to enhance the competitiveness of its economy.

Relocation: to move or not move

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If you have ever been offered a great job in another city or country, you know the feeling. On the one hand, there’s the excitement of a new place and a new culture. On the other hand, you feel sad about leaving friends behind. You worry that your family will be unhappy in a new city.
How can you decide if a move is the right thing or not?
First of all you should gather as much information as possible about the new location, city and country. Try to find out the big differences between your home country and your new destination.

Before you make a decision, you should also look at what other job opportunities are available in the new location, if this company is the only company there in your industry and the job doesn’t work out, it may be difficult to find something else.

What is about your family?
Give them a chance to visit the new city to find out what it can offer them. Still, it might be better for everyone if your family stays in your current location while you get used to your new position, gohelpy specialists say. “The initial period in the new job is about making connections, meeting people and working many hours to get up to speed”.
Sometimes, a decision to go out before the rest of your family can be a great one. It gives you time to focus on the transition and pave the way for the rest of them to join you.

Gohelpy and XpatVisor paved me the way to Berlin!

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I got a job offer as an IT consultant in Berlin. But I had no idea, how to get a work permit for Berlin. Then I found gohelpy online. It was unbelievable, gohelpy provided me with all necessary information.  The XpatVisor created a tailor made relocation path regarding to my profile. So I got all information of the procedure to get my work permit.

It is hard to find an apartment in Berlin these days, but I was lucky, I found a room in a (WG) shared flat.  I ask the relocation specialists of gohelpy for some support to handle the administrative matters. They coordinated  and applied for the appointments at the municipal registration and the Department of Foreign request in Berlin (LABO).

Just to let you know, with gohelpy everything worked out perfectly..

Andrei  from Russia

Online-Relocation and the XpatVisor

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gohelp.y is a Relocation portal. You find your way to us as you are interested in moving to Germany – to Berlin, Munich or Stuttgart. Additionally, to more general information gohelp.y provides a completely free of charge XpatVisor, an online tool, providing services of a relocation-expert. This makes your move to Berlin/Munich/Stuttgart as smooth and easy as with a service provider directly by your side.
Until now online-relocation was not really online relocation. This is different now, with gohelp.y. Here online is indeed online and free of charge is free of charge, there are no hidden costs. How? The XpatVisor makes it possible.

Real and free of charge online-relocation services: The XpatVisor

The XpatVisor is the centrepiece of gohelp.y. Equipped with the experiences of professional relocation service providers, XpatVisor creates automatically, based on your profile details, an individual relocation-concept designed specifically for you and your needs. Now you can handle each of the steps one by one and whenever you want, following the relocation timeline.

FIVE handy hints for a successful Relocation

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This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Relocation

Getting started in Germany to work, to study or to live here, you should think about important five things to do on your way to an immigration and successful integration to Germany

  1. Very important: paperwork, make sure you have all needed documents, starting with a valid passport and certifies copies of all certificates and diplomas…
  2. Flat hunt: make sure your new surrounding will fit with your interests.
  3. Make sure, which steps you will have to do, after moving to your new home: starting with registration, applying for residence and working permit, open a bank account etc…, it will definitely bother you to do all required administrative things.
  4. Get familiar with “DO’s and DON’Ts”
  5. Learning the language: this is the most effective way to become really integrated!!

Housing market in Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich

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At most German Universities the winter term (Wintersemester) will start in October.

This means, thousands of students are moving from their home town to their university town. They all are looking after flats or rooms in shared flats. The situation becomes critical in the housing property market in the main towns of Germany. Thousands of flats are missing in cities like Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich.
It’s a very hard procedure. If you identify a flat online, you have to arrange an appointment for flat viewing. You must have all your paperwork with, otherwise you will not have any chance. Then you stand in line with more 50 interested persons, waiting to get a view on flat.

The housing market in Berlin, Stuttgart and Munich is really becoming worse.