Working and living in Germany, in 2025 |

Part 1 – Arrival and first experiences

Preparing

After establishing a permanent residency in the UK and later in Paraguay, now we are attempting to stay in Germany. I used to work in Germany before as a digital nomad but this time we relocated to Germany as an Expat. As always, I document the steps of this process also sharing our experiences from first hand.

On the last week of 2024 I saw a job advertised in Germany that made me interested. It is for a company I used to work before as an external consultant and where I started my nomad lifestyle. This is now a slightly different position but in the same team and it is a full time employment with the requirement to relocate to Germany. After some consideration I applied – even, my location independency was top priority…I needed to consider (after 6 months without income), what is more important: losing my independency from countries or risking I may never get back to my profession I do for 16 years. The latter won.

Before you ask, I do not speak much German, only A1 or maybe A2 level. Level B1-B2 is required at most jobs in Germany, in my position too. I got hired because I worked at this company before and because I promised, I am going to make an effort to learn German. Despite I worked at the company before, I needed to complete 3 rounds of interviews. The whole hiring process itself took 4 months until I finally could start working at my new job in May.

In advance, I did some research about what are the requirements of renting an apartment. I also read about the requirement of registering for an address within 10 days from the arrival date. It is still unclear for me whether this 10-days requirement for those who have just arrived to the country or only for residents who moved home within the country. I learned that without landlord reference of living in Germany, without credit history and a few months of payslip from the country, our options are very limited. We cannot rent a property from the largest websites like ImmoScout24.

There are specific websites which are focused on expats coming to the country to work or study. These sites offer short term rental with landlords allowing to register for an address from day 1. One of these websites are called Wunderflats and the other one is called HousingAnywhere. The main difference between the two sites that the latter is more similar to Air B&B and gives some protection in the first 48 hours after moving in. For both sites you have to pay an agency fee when making a booking. A good comparison site and more info is here. I also recommend the Youtube channel of SimpleGermany. They give detailed answers to most questions you may have as an expat moving to Germany.

Because the viewing is rarely available at Wunderflats and we were short of time, we chose the more expensive option and booked an apartment at HousingAnywhere. This site gives a more safe feeling when booking an apart from abroad. We wanted to have a peace of mind at our arrival, in case the apartment does not match the description or the advertisement is a scam. The booking went smoothly, paid the first month rent and deposed through the site. The deposit can be made directly to the Landlord but we wanted to be safe and asked her to send us a Payment request through the website. We paid an extra 44 euros paying via the site as a transaction fee. It was a scary experience to book an apartment for longer period than just 2 weeks and we could only see pictures and the description.

The landlord not allowed us to view the property before moving in, referred to a condition on the HousingAnywhere site, that viewing is not allowed. Later we understood why…there is a small letter wording in the Terms&Conditions about no cancellation and refund due to noisy environment and disturbing neighbourhood. The initial contract would have been 3 months but because of our dog we were allowed to stay for 6 months. Strange, isn’t it? If someone does not want to allow a dog for 3 months why does she do it for 6 months? Despite this strange requirement and our disturbing gut feelings, due to limited options, we decided to go ahead with the with the 6 months contract. We talked into ourselves, at least we can settle a bit in Germany and have time to arrange everything else we must do. Later, this decision became our biggest regret.

Arrival

When we arrived to the building, we felt, something is not right. A sudden feeling arose, this is much worse than we imaged. Entering to the apartment, we heard shouting, screaming, kids making noise above us. Not a good sign on a Saturday evening. My wife got a little panic attack, she needed to go out for a walk. All we wanted a quiet place and this was our worst nightmare to have such neighbours! But payment was already made, contract in hand and I could not say at this stage, the apartment does not fit to the pictures and description. We were under shock for hours, especially that the family above us was one of their noisiest that evening and still they are. For days we were thinking about what to do, how we can escape here sooner.

We got a promise from the landlord, we can leave after 3 months, instead of the 6, but soon she changed her mind. We started counting back the days from the 6 months here. When writing this Blog, one month just gone, yay!

On top of the noisy neighbours, our landlord “forgot” to tell us, in the first 2 months there will be a full roof refurbishment on the building. The neighbours above also started their refurbishment. We get the noise in a concentrated form for sure…This situation challenges us mentally and emotionally. We can only blame on ourselves because of ignoring our gut feeling and because we wanted to get over with.

I started commuting more to the office, in the beginning 3-4 days a week, nowadays 2 days a week. The U-Bahn is nearby and it takes for me only 30 mins to reach the office. The Office if very modern and relaxing, I like working from there. Working from Home Office is a mixed experience so far, if there is quiet, it is good too.

The Saturdays are dedicated to a sightseeing and weekly shopping. This is the day when we are brave to use the car other days we may not find a car park again. We visited the Xanten Archaeological site, Schloss Drachenburg and had a nice day out in Wuppertal. We intend to make a habit of making at least one day away from the place we live. On Sundays we usually have a more relaxing time (if the neighbours are letting us), we walk in the nearby forest.

It was a positive experience that because we had an address from day 1 of our arrival, we managed to arrange most necessity that allows us to settle in Germany. Every formality went smoothly, better than expected.

The timeline

15th of March: started browsing for apartments on wunderflats.com and housinganywhere.com

18th of April: booked the apartment on housinganywhere.com and paid first month rent + agency fee (480 euro).

25th of April: paid the deposit for the apartment (one month rent).

3rd of May: arrived to Germany and checked in to our flat.

5th of May: registered online for the Anmeldung appointment (address registration)

7th of May: the date of our Anmeldung appointment.

11th of May: opened a German bank account at N26 (all online, in the phone application).

17th of May: received our TAX IDs on post.

20th of May: signed up online for a Legal Insurance cover.

23rd of May: with our EU passport, Anmeldung registration document (what we got at our appointment), N26 bank account we managed to sign up for a pay-as-you-go monthly rolling contract at Telekom. We went to a store in Düsseldorf and we got an English speaking representative. It costs 70 euros a month for two, with unlimited data in whole Europe (including the UK!). Having only 1 month notice in case we want to switch provider later. There are much cheaper providers, but heard Telekom has the best signal in Germany, even in the countryside. Vodafone is not so good and cheaper providers rent Vodafone’s network.

26th of May: received the Legal insurance documents on post.

28th of May: received the TV-licence registration form on post.

Something what we would do differently: rather come here first for 1-2 weeks to an Air B&B, make the booking enquires of Wunderflats and ask Landlords to allow us to view the property in advance. On Wunderflats you must pay their fee only once and then you can have multiple enquires for different apartments. Our fear of keeping the 10-days Anmeldung registration was more than signing a contract for something that makes us unhappy.

Comparing living in Germany to Hungary and to the UK

A summary of first impressions after being one month in one row in Germany.

UK seems more advanced in their websites, online systems, smartphone apps. Somehow the German websites and sign ups feel more complicated and outdated. Often you start an application form online, the registration sent in post. I was surprised the Anmeldung can be done online but only with an EU ID-card, not with a Passport.
In the UK, when you have to complete a Know Your Customer registration, enough to send a copy of your passport scanned, or have a photo of you with the passport. In other cases a sophisticated application uses the NFC feature of your smart phone and you can scan your own passport with. In Germany, it is a nightmare that many service providers have live agents online who require you to show your passport in the camera (met with few very rude ones!), have to turn your head and passport in angles. These agents reject if the video quality is not sufficient, your room is lack of natural light or if they are not in the mood. Even a pay as you go SIM card from Aldi requires you to have a verification call with an agent.
Germany WANTS to know everything about your money, about your investments etc. Soon after we arrived and I logged in to Kraken to check my crypto balance, I got a mail, I must verify my address in Germany as they noticed I am here for a longer time. The process was a nightmare! Needed to provide Tax ID, proof of address, answers to various questions about the source of my investments (I hold for 7 years) but the most hardest was the live verification with an online agent. It took me 6 calls until I found an agent who was satisfied with the quality of the video call and who was helpful + spoke in English. Installing “My WebID” app solved the problem, where they could use the camera of my phone to verify my passport. After this I decided I am not going to login to any of my other Crypto Exchange platform I am registered at… simply not using those while in Germany. Not because I have something to hide but I do not want to go through the same nightmare with every of my account I hold for years.
Parcel automats are so common now in Hungary and these are easy to use. Here I could see so far parcel lockers operated by DHL and Amazon. The Amazon one was easy to use, no additional registration was required. DHL required me to create an account, download their app, also they required my passport (!) But their app was doing the same check on my passport what others do with live agents – so it is a plus. But it was funny, I ordered dog food online for 20 euros, paid in advance and in order to receive it to a DHL locker, I needed a registration with my passport (!). I cannot remember how many times I needed to show my passport in the last few weeks…
DrogerieMarkt (DM) and Rossmann seem to have wider selection in Hungary and with more natural products. Boots in the UK has a MUCH wider selection of different brands. Here, you can find so many of cheap brands like Nivea, Old Spice, FA, Palmolive etc. I wanted to buy a natural deo for men, which has no Alcohol and no Alumium but found none…
Streets in cities give the feeling of “filthy”. Those cigarette butts and thrown away beer bottles and cans are the most disturbing.
You cannot walk or drive through a street without seeing a Kiosk or Trinkhalle open and seeing men standing with a beer bottle drunk, in any time of the day.
I thought in a developed country like Germany, people are educated enough to smoke less cigarettes, restricted where they can smoke. You can forget to have a chilled time without smoking someone else’s smoke on a terrace of a coffee shop, at an ice cream shop or at a restaurant. Even at bus stops people smoke and generally they ignore if you don’t want to join to their habit.
Dogs and their owners are not so friendly, often dogs are angry and owners are unfriendly.
Vegetables and fruits look and feel more healthy than in Hungary. Wide range of selection of vegan and vegetarian ingredients. Food and general groceries are cheaper than in Hungary.
Clothes, parfumes, shoes, books, watches look more expensive than in the UK. SALEs are not very common here.
Services are expensive. A haircut for a man at a small hairdresser salon costs 30 euros. Cutting off a pair of trousers and dry cleaning of the suit costs 35 euros. Public transport is rather expensive too: a single ticket in Düsseldorf costs 3.40 euros while a 24-hour ticket costs 8.80 euros.
Bakery products are nice, you can find some really special breads here. My all-time favourite is the Pretzel.
On Sundays you can forget going to visit a castle or museums. The only day is Saturday when you can have such activities at the weekend. On Sundays most places are closed, including groceries. Some restaurants and coffee shops are open. Sunday is a day here when you can stay at home or you can go out to the nature.
People’s unfriendliness is a big problem for us. Rarely met here so far with any nice people. IT does not make a difference if you try to use German, often you just get an ugly look. No welcoming when you go to a cashier, to a barista or to a person who gives you some kind of service. No smile when you pass people who walk along the same route like you. The experience is about the same like in Hungary. Missing the British friendliness and welcoming!
Car parking is a BIG problem at many cities. We use our car only once in a week, on a Saturday usually. Forget using your car on a Sunday or you will not find a parking space at all in a 1 km radius.
Books and bookshops look fantastic. There are so many edge coloured books, beautiful editions. However they cost more than in the UK.

The list is not yet complete! I know, most of the post sounds negative. UK put the “bar” high and difficult to compare this country or Hungary to it.

Soon coming with Part 2 about more hands-on experiences in Germany. Thank you for reading and please comment if you liked this post, it would mean a lot to me. Do you live in Germany as an expat? What is your experience? Please share.