Address Registration
The address registration (aka Anmeldung) is one of the most important - and urgent - things that you must do after you arrive in Germany. Any person who moves into long-term accomodation in Berlin (i.e. renting a room or a flat) is required by law to register with the Resident's Registration Office (Bürgeramt) within 2 weeks of the arrival date in Germany. Despite of that, Berlin's registration offices are extremely busy, so it's normally not a problem if you register a little late.
The document received immediately after your registration is really important, and without it, you won't be able to receive your salary, open a bank account, sign contracts or even apply for a Blue card/residence permit.
What you need for the registration
- Passport (or Passports, in case more than one person are being registered in the same address)
- Move-in confirmation from the landlord (Einzugsbestätigung des Wohnungsgebers) or Rental agreement (Mietvertrag), ideally the former
- Registration form filled out (Anmeldungsformular).
- If you are married, bring your marriage certificate (written in English or German)
- If you have children, bring their birth certificates
- Patience
How to fill out the form
Below you will find an example, followed by some explanations.
- Indicates the date (format
dd.mm.yy) when you started living in this address. Street name, house number, floor and (optionally) the "location" in the floor (right (Re), left (Li), center (Mi))
- Example 1 (house): Blabla Straße 10
Example 2 (apartment): Foobar Straße 20, 3.0G - Re
3.0G is the floor.
Re is the location (Rechts means "right" in German. Ask your landlord if you don't know about yours)
- Postal code
- Previous address (please specify even if you were living outside of Germany)
- In case your last name is not in the mailbox, please specify the correct one here.
- (no idea - I left this field blank both times I filled out this form)
- Self explanatory.
- Each row contains information about one of the persons being registered. Please pay attention to the row "id" (Lfd. Nr). and keep the same order in the adjacent tables.
- Each form allows you to register up to 4 people at the same time. Print more copies if you need to register more than this. In this example, I am registering a couple ("Pedro Alvares Cabral" and "Fulana Ciclana Beltrana") living in the same address.
- Only used if one of the persons being registered changed their name (e.g: after marriage)
- Important If you specify a religion you will have to pay the church tax (something between 8% and 9% of your income tax). As an example, if you pay 1000 euros of income tax every month, then you will be charged (automatically) an extra tax of 80-90 euros per month. If you don't want to pay the Church tax leave it blank.
- Leave it blank if you don't have this information (tip: if this is your first time registering then you don't have it yet :-) )
- If you moved to Germany but your your wife/husband is living in a different address, please specify it here.
- Passport information - self explanatory.
- Date when you filled out this form (
dd.mm.yy) and your signature.
How the registration works
- Gather all the required documentation (passport(s), filled out registration form, confirmation of residence from your landlord (Template can be found here), rental contract, marriage/birth certificate (if you are married/have children)
Take your paperwork to a local registration office (Bürgeramt), but before that decide your strategy:
1) Make an online appointment (via https://service.berlin.de/) The problem with this approach is that usually there aren't a lot of appointments available in the near future (some people claim they can only get appointments for one or two months in the future). Fortunately, the situation improved a lot, and it's usually possible to get an appointment in the next week.
2) Go to the Bürgeramt without an appointment Simply show up early and let them know you are there for your "Anmeldung". Be prepared to wait, though.
Despite of your strategy, you will receive an appointment number and then you will just have to go to the Bürgeramt (in case you are not there) and wait for your number to be displayed on the screen.
After that, just handover all the documents to the employee and wait for your registration to be complete. This step should take less than 10 minutes. The document you will receive after your registration is really important, so make sure you don't lose it.
Tips
- There is a chance that the people that will take care of your registration do not speak English, so if you don't speak German make sure you have all the required documents with you (in order to minimize human interactions :P)
- If you don't have an appointment and they don't have free slots for you, don't panic. Try again in a different day or in a different Bürgeramt.
- Be patient! :)