​

​Hi everyone,

​Has anyone transitioned from a standard Work Visa (or Blue Card) to the new Opportunity Card while actively receiving Arbeitslosengeld 1 (ALG 1)

​My work visa is coming up for expiration while I'm on ALG 1. My main questions are:

​Does the Agentur für Arbeit continue paying full ALG 1 once you switch to the Opportunity Card?

​Does the Chancenkarte satisfy the "availability to the labor market" (Verfügbarkeit) requirement for ALG 1, or does the Agentur für Arbeit treat it differently than a job seeker visa ?

​If anyone has gone through this exact transition recently or spoken with the Agentur für Arbeit / an immigration lawyer about this, I’d really appreciate your experience!

Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone, I would like to know if you have to take the job when you apply as a job seeker with Agentur für Arbeit as a job seeker ?

Hey everyone! :)
I’m moving to a new apartment in Bonn, around 4–5 km from my current place, and I’m trying to figure out the easiest/cheapest way to move everything.
I don’t have much large furniture to move, so the only thing I’m really worried about is my washing machine. 😅
The situation is:
Current apartment: 2nd floor, no elevator
New apartment: 3rd floor, but there is an elevator
Distance: around 4–5 km
I’ll have a couple of friends helping me, so we mainly need to figure out how to safely get the washing machine down the stairs and transport it.
Does anyone have experience moving a washing machine themselves? Any tips for getting it down two floors without damaging the machine (or ourselves 😂)?
Also, if anyone knows of cheap transporters/van rental services in Bonn, I’d really appreciate recommendations. Since it’s basically just the washing machine, I don’t want to spend a fortune on a professional moving company.
Thanks in advance!!

Hey everyone, need some advice on the Blue Card situation. I'm currently living in Darmstadt and just signed my contract for a remote job starting February 2027. I'm still a student and enrolled at the uni here until January. Since my job is remote, I can move to another city before I get stuck in Darmstadt forever (even for blue card application one waits 6-7 months and even more). What's the smarter move ; apply for the Blue Card here and then relocate, or wait until I move to the new city (Bonn for example i heard it has faster application processes )and apply there? Also, is there any way to speed this up by telling the Ausländerbehörde in advance that I already have a contract? Like, can I somehow get the Blue Card ready to go as soon as I start the job in February? Anyone been through something similar? Thanks!

I’m an international student in Germany. I was stuck in my home country for the past year due to visa processing delays, but my health insurance (Krankenkasse) kept charging monthly fees and is now demanding full back-payment for the entire 12 months.

​I wasn't in Germany and used zero medical services during this time.

​

->​Has anyone successfully cleared back-payments with their provider in a similar situation?

->​What is the best way to handle/negotiate this with them?

​Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hello all! I started my driving lessons recently. I already passed my theory test and now attending driving classes. And my school sets appointments quite far from each other - not frequently. For example, 2 times a week, couple times there were 2 week gaps.
Is that a normal practice? Or should I change schools?
Also if I should change schools, would it be theoretically easy now that I have passed my theory, just to start with practice lessons in another school?

Please share your experience:)

Hey everyone,

I am a musician planning a move to Berlin after highschool. I am a US-Swiss dual citizen, so I have full EU working rights sorted, and I should be at a b1-b2 german level by the time I land.

My goal isn't to get rich—I just want to live the independent young artist/musician lifestyle for a few years. I play bass and want to get involved in a large artsy scene. I want a reality check on my financial blueprint to see if I’m being delusional about modern Berlin costs.

My planned monthly baseline: A stable 20-hour-a-week part-time job at minimum wage , which should bring in around €1,100–€1,200/month gross.

• Side Hustle: Teaching 3–4 private music students a week, plus whatever small cash comes from jazz/blues/rock gigs.
• Estimated Total Take-Home: Aiming for roughly €1,400 to €1,600 net cash per month after taxes and health insurance.

My lifestyle expectations:

• I plan to live in a shared flat (WG) room budget of €500–€650. Maybe a studio if its under 900. I don't care if it's a bit gritty (Wedding, Neukölln, Lichtenberg, etc.) as long as it's safe.
• Mostly cook at home or eat at cheap doner stands, go to bars and club a few nights a week, drink coffee at cafe's a few times a week.

To the locals: Is a net budget of €1,400–€1,600/month enough to cover a WG room, basic food, a phone plan, and a modest social/gigging life today? Or has the current rental market made this impossible for a 19-year-old working 20-ish hours?

Appreciate any honest feedback or pitfalls I should watch out for!

Are there any so called posh cities in Germany, where you see a lot of people with very high standards of living, big houses, stylish cars etc.. I don't mean something on the level of Monaco or Dubai but maybe like Singapore, LA, London etc... ofc some shady or bad areas are in every city but instead those cities are known for being posh. I immediately thought of Munich but I'm not sure.

Edit - Many have said düsseldorf, now I am curious what puts düsseldorf there? As I googled online it's 6th-7th largest city of germany

Hi everyone,
I’m curious whether anyone in Germany has experienced something similar.
During my Master’s, I received a university letter stating that I had to complete 900 hours of mandatory internship to compensate for missing credits from my three-year Bachelor’s degree, plus another 500-hour mandatory internship related to my thesis.
I always had the 900-hour requirement in mind, and some of my batchmates had also completed around that amount. Based on this letter, I later completed a 5-month internship, around 800 hours, which my employer treated as a mandatory internship.
Only afterwards did I realize that the 900-hour requirement had already been fulfilled through previous practical experience from my home country, meaning that for this particular internship I technically only needed the 500 hours.
So I completed the required hours but stayed around two months longer under the same internship contract.
Has anyone had a similar experience where they completed more hours than were actually required for a mandatory internship? How was the extra period treated by the employer or university afterwards?
I’m mainly interested in personal experiences, especially from international students who have already completed the internship.

I have been soo frustrated by the process the Deutsche Bahn requires of you just to get a monthly ticket subscription set up. Endless verification with email codes, sms codes, ID scanning, a separate ID verification app etc.

Today, through another reddit thread I found mopla.
Didn't even take me 3min including account setup from 0 to book my subscriptions for me and gf.

Highly recommended, I will hopefully never have to use the official Deutsche Bahn websites again.

I have been working as a software developer in a company for 5 years. My contract has always been permanent and full-time (40 hrs/week).

I'm embarrassed to say my language skill is still very basic. I have tried many times to properly start studying German language, but soon after, I lose motivation. On top of that, all the full-time courses in my city are either in the morning or in the afternoon. There are none in the evenings.

If I reduce my working hours for a year to properly study the language, how will it affect my health insurance contributions? Will it affect my permanent residency?

Total Spent: $4,454 Sankey Chart Link

Dates: Aug 25th - Sept 2nd 2026

Demo: Two early 30s couple, USA.

Itinerary: Munich (4 nights)(Salzburg Day Trip) -> Garmish (3) -> Munich (1)

General Notes:

• Flights: Fairly priced flights, non-stop on United from Newark to Munich. This was a last minute trip so we weren't hunting for a super great deal. Our flights to Milan 2 years ago were half the price but alas.
• Food: Our food experience was almost on par with an Italy trip we did a few years ago. We thoroughly enjoyed a few Doner Kebabs - the best one was right outside the Dachau Train station. Bavarian food/biergarten food was all really good. Our best 'meal' was at the top of the Kerwendel in Mittenwald - Berggaststätte. I enjoyed the coffee culture and train station pretzels/sandwiches weren't bad at all!
• Lodging: Airbnb in Munich, Hotel in Garmish, business Hotel in Munich for the last day. I swore to myself I wasn't doing another Airbnb for the first day we arrive in an international city but this one was perfect. They sent super clear instructions on how to access the building; it was also a great location, super clean and inviting. The location in Garmish was also perfect, although I'm not sure I'd stay at the hotel again. Our host was friendly but she seemed utterly exhausted. The hotel was charming but not as charming and welcoming as we experienced in the Dolomites. The last night hotel was exceptional, affordable business hotel, room was very clean, free minibar, two free drinks at the bar which was a surprise; we made friends with our server who was delightful - easy to get to the train early in the AM for our flight back to the states.
  • Lodging Locations: (✔️ - would stay at location again)
    • Munich: Goethplatz ✔️
    • Garmish: Train Station ✔️
    • Munich: Leuchtenbergring ✔️

Itinerary Sparknotes:

Pictures

Munich:

• Marienplatz/Market
• Munich Residence
• English Garden (surfers, biergartens)
• Nympenburg grounds
• Dachau Concentration Camp

Salzburg

• Mirabell Gardens
• Hohensalzburg Fortress
• St. Peter grounds (crypts, cemetery)
• Mozart birth home
• Augustiner Brau Mulln

Garmish:

• Mittenwald Day Trip (Kerwendal)
• Bike ride to Eibsee Lake/through town
• Partnach Gorge

Highlights:

Munich was a very enjoyable city. Transportation was super easy, even with our U-bahn station closed, the temporary buses were easy. People were friendly, I never felt unsafe, food was great and affordable in spots. The access to the Alps is crazy .. in a good way. The English Garden was awesome, it's fantastic to have great public transportation, nature and culture in a city. I'm glad we went to Salzburg, I could have spent all day at the Fortress. However, I don't have a reason to ever go back.

Garmish was really cool but I think I'd choose to go back to the Dolomites over Garmish. It could have been the time of year we hit Garmish but it was incredibly busy. The Gorge was fantastic but packed with families in flip flops. The buses ran very infrequently which caused some headaches and extremely crowded trips. I do however regret we didn't have more time in Garmish, we were really looking forward to doing a via ferreta but we couldn't fit it in.

Misc:

• We walked an average of ~17k steps a day

Random things I noticed as a first time visitor to Germany:

• Almost everyone spoke very good English - language barrier never existed.
• German dogs are very well behaved, pet owners rarely had a leash on their dogs and walked with them in the streets, at biergartens, everywhere.
• Bikes..everywhere. Did not realize it was such a bike friendly city. I enjoyed watching the commuters from our Munich window, at stop lights, all bikers formed a single file line, awaiting the light to turn green.
• The escalators in the S/Ubahn change direction and pause if no one is approaching in the opposite direction.
• The re-usable hand towel machines in the bathrooms, particularly in the Munich airport were interesting.
• Our train platforms flip flopped and changed a few times for our longer rides, that was nerve racking!

Any foreigners in Germany who got Erwerbsminderungsrente because of a psychiatric illness?

Hi, I’m an EU citizen living in Germany. I finished my studies here and worked afterwards, but unfortunately developed a serious psychiatric condition relatively early in my working life.

I’m now wondering whether Erwerbsminderungsrente could be an option.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation, especially as a foreigner with only a few years of work/contributions?

Did you apply directly to DRV and they contacted your psychiatrist/Hausarzt, or did your doctors need to support the application first?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually gone through this.

Hello fellow Europeans. I'm going to bike to Oberhausen at the end of September. Is there anything nice to do while I'm there. I like anything. Expos, musea, tour guides, history ect.

Hi everyone, I work at a fast-food chain in Germany (I’d rather not name the company), and something happened today that left me feeling pretty awkward. I’d especially like to hear from Germans about how you would interpret this situation.
A woman came in with her son. She ordered a menu for her son, but for herself she ordered a burger and fries separately. She was asking me about the prices and seemed surprised by how expensive everything was. She said something along the lines of “Oh my God, that’s expensive” and asked how much a menu would cost etc.
I actually agreed with her in my head because a small burger and fries is quite expensive in the place where I work.
Then, somewhat impulsively, I offered her a free drink. At work, employees can have drinks and I don’t really drink Coke/Sprite anymore, so in my mind it was just a small friendly gesture. I wasn’t trying to imply that she couldn’t afford her food or anything like that.
My German isn’t very good yet, so I couldn’t explain myself properly. I basically managed to ask if she wanted a free drink.
She said, “No, thank you, I don’t need it,” which was completely fine. But then she looked at her son and made what seemed to me like a cringing/awkward facial expression. The whole interaction suddenly felt uncomfortable, and now I’m wondering whether my offer could have come across as insulting, like I was pitying her because she had complained about the prices.
So, especially to Germans: How would you interpret this if you were the customer? Is offering something for free in this situation considered strange or potentially offensive in Germany? Or was it probably just an awkward misunderstanding?
I genuinely meant it as a friendly gesture, but I’d like to understand how it might have sounded from her perspective. I am a girl by the way.

What app, book, or video resources helped you the most when preparing for the KP (Kenntnisprüfung) in Radiology? I’d really appreciate any recommendations from those who have already taken the exam.

So I was thinking about moving into a completely free bank from Sparkasse. (Why pay account management fees for the money I put in their bank.)

I found C24 as a solid option. I would like to know of your opinions on it and experiences good/bad about it. Thank you all. :)

PS: ffs, I am not an advertisment or an agent but a person with a genuine doubt. Just asking your opinions on C24 before I put my head into it. :(

I recently bought for my parents a couple of prepaid Telekom SIM cards, which were initially on the Prepaid Basic tariff that has no monthly charge. For their visit I activated for each of them the MagentaMobil Prepaid M tariff.

1. Now I want to switch back to the Prepaid Basic tariff with no monthly charge, but it does not seem to be possible (one can easily do this with other operators, like AldiTalk or PennyMobil for example), only switching to paid options seems to be available. Have I missed some sort of trick that helps me do that?
2. What happens in case that the cash amount available on the SIM is too low for the monthly tariff? Does the tariff get cancelled automatically? Can I keep the SIM this way for some longer without having to pay monthly for it?

Imagine having this right outside your window or balcony every day. I honestly don’t think I’d ever get tired of it.

Who are the lucky people living here? 😭

Hi! I'm 21M, just graduated with my bachelors in CS from a reputed private university in India (my degree and university are recognised in Germany), and work an IT job in a major services company. After researching, I've decided on a masters degree in Germany for the following reasons: It's the biggest economy in the EU (current economic performance notwithstanding), big industries, reputable and cheap public universities for higher education, and favourable work visa and citizenship policies for skilled immigrants who speak German (this is huge as I don't wanna depend on an expirable visa long term). I've also looked up German culture and from what I've read, I should be able to integrate into society.

I plan to work for a few years in India (while upskilling myself and pivoting to software development) to gain good work experience, while also learning German (I'm at A1 right now) simultaneously. I'll then apply for a masters programme (based on my grades, I should be able to get into a public university, albeit not a TU9). By the time I board the plane, I'd at least be at B2. Learning German (and exposure in general) during my masters should put me at C1 by the time I graduate. I'd also work / intern (werkstudent) in tech during my studies, so that I can get local work experience and connections.

Between my savings and some help from my parents, finances should not be an issue and I would not get stuck working delivery jobs in Germany.

I've come up with this after doing a lot of research, and reading accounts of people who tried to move there but could not make it. It seems that the primary issue while finding jobs is a lack of German, no relevant / local work experience, and falling for bad, private universities. I hope that since I have time before I fly out, I can mitigate these factors by learning German and upskilling hard. And hopefully, by the time I graduate (around 2029/2030), the economy and the job market are better.

The plan does seem decent from my research, avoiding the major pitfalls people like me (masters students from 3rd world countries) fall into, but I might have conformation bias so I'd appreciate if anyone can critique this, and point out whether I'm missing something.

Our property management company suddenly wants to get rid of the small cycle stand in front of the building citing 'fire hazard'. That is understandable, but they do not give us an alternate arrangements for the cycle stand and just gave us with a deadline to get rid of the cycles. How can I, as a tenant push back on this? For context, there's plenty of space in the property to accomodate a cycle stand.

Can anyone identify this church or know its history?