Category Archives: International students

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

Another kind of integration: participating in Carnival

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Its coming closer again – every year between early-February and mid-March there is no other topic as highly discussed and dividing as Karneval or Fasching or Fasnet.

First, it divides German society in those going jeck (mad, crazy) during Karneval and those fleeing from the country to either go skiing or enjoying sun in a far-away Karneval-escape. Next, this season divides those who love Karneval into different groups, calling it Karneval, Fasching or Fasnet, depending on where they live.
While North-Rhine-Westphalia is a carnivals stronghold where it draws serious consequences to call this week of drinking alcohol and running around in crazy outfits Fasching. In the south however, it is opposite: do not say Karneval in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg! It is at least Fasching, however a true Swabian would never say Fasching but Fasnet!

And of course every carnival stronghold is the best, in their eyes. The title of being THE carnival stronghold is highly contested, especially Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz are competing against each other and make fun of the others’ attempts of celebrating.
A quick tip:
When you participate in Cologne’s Karneval: Never say HELAU, shout ALAAF whenever possible 😉
When participating in Düsseldorf’s or Mainz’s celebrations use HELAU and do not try out what happens if you shout ALAAF.

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.

ICH-Will-Deutsch-Lernen

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 “ich-will-deutsch-lernen” new onlineplatform for refugees and migrants

The German „Deutsche Volkshochschul – Verband”  provides a tool to support migrants and refugees in learning German. Name of the webportal is “ich-will-deutsch-lernen”. The available platform implied a German language course which helps to learn and improve German language skills, starting from level A1 to level B1. The Volkshochschul – Verband want to support the integration of refugees and migrants in culture and social living.
The content of the digital courses is according to the rules of integration courses in Germany.
Furthermore the portal offers an extensive range of material for alphabetisation. And last but not least the portal provides also one tool to improve German professional jargon. The user can choose out of 30 cross-sectoral scenarios and 11 professional communication activities.
Everybody may use the tool: do-it-yourself-learner, teachers and professional learning classes.
Teacher of integration courses and German courses have to register and build up their own class online. Then they are able to supervise their participants. Learners who start on their own will be supervised by tutors of DVV.
ich-will-deutsch-lernen.de

update: there are new features available

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.