Erste Schritte Zuwanderer
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First steps for immigrants

What do I have to do when I have moved to Germany? Where can I get advice and whom do I have to contact?

1. Immigration office (Ausländerbehörde)

Make an appointment at your nearest immigration office.

You must bring the following with you to this appointment:

1. a completed application for residence and settlement permit

2. a notice from BAMF

3. a biometric passport photo

4. a temporary residence permit (identity card)

5. an interpreter (if your German is not good)

2. Social welfare office (Sozialamt)

You have received a temporary residence permit from the immigration office. With this temporary residence permit you will have to go to the social welfare office. There you will get a suspension of financial assistance notice. This means that you will not receive asylum seeker assistance any longer.

3. Jobcenter

Once you get the suspension of benefits notice, you will not receive asylum seeker assistance any more. If you do not have a job, you have to register with the job center. For this registration, you will need your suspension of financial assistance notice from the social welfare office and your temporary residence permit from the immigrations office. With these documents you will get an appointment at the benefits department. There you will get a lot of forms which you will need to fill out at home and then to bring with you to the next appointment. Now you will have to have a bank account.

4. Health insurance provider

Now you will need to register with a health insurance provider if you do not have an electronic health card yet. It is up to you which health insurance provider you choose. In order to register with the health insurance provider, you need to bring with you a temporary residence title, a suspension notice from the social welfare office as well as proof that you have an appointment at the job center. For the electronic health card, you will also need one passport photo.

5. Integration course

The immigration office or the job center may have required you to take part in an integration course. If so, you need to sign up with a course provider (school) and present there the note requiring you to take part in an immigration course. The immigration office or the job center also must have told you the latest possible date on which you have to sign up for a course. If you were required to take part in an integration course by the immigration office, as a rule you have three months in order to hand in the integration course enrollment to the immigration office.

6. Family reunification

People who have been granted official refugee status are entitled to privileged family reunification. There are different rules for the application for family reunification. 

7. Child benefits (Kindergeld)

Do you have children, or are your parents no longer alive and are you younger than 25? Then you have to apply for child benefits.

8. Parental leave

Do you have a baby or a toddler? If you receive money from the job center, the job center will also request you to apply for parental leave benefits.

9. Liability insurance

As an asylum applicant, you were automatically covered by liability insurance through the administrative district or the municipality where you live. Now your residence status has changed. So now you have to take care of a private liability insurance yourself. In Germany it is important to have this kind of insurance.

alvivi ist das Info-Portal für Flüchtlinge, Migranten und Helfer.

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