GERMANY · OUR LIMITS
What Papertame doesn't do
Your plan is only worth trusting if you know what it is not counting. So here is the whole boundary in one place, instead of 14 hand-offs you would have to open one by one.
Paperwork an office owns
These are on your plan and they are real steps. Someone official decides them, though, not us. For each one, here is how the process actually runs and where the door is.
Visas & residence permits
Whether you may live and work in Germany: the visa, the residence permit, the Blue Card, and everything that hangs on your residence status.
Why we hand it over: Immigration law turns on the details of one person's case, and a wrong steer can cost somebody their right to stay. That is not a risk worth taking to save you a click, so this one is never ours.
See the door →Income tax return (Steuererklärung)
Filing your annual tax return and answering personal tax questions.
Why we hand it over: Reading your payslip is explaining a document. Filing a return is advice about your money, with your money at stake if it is wrong. That belongs to the official portal or to a professional.
See the door →Kindergeld & Elterngeld
Child benefit (Kindergeld) and parental allowance (Elterngeld).
Why we hand it over: Whether you qualify depends on your residence status, and the amounts change every year. Only the authority can tell you where you stand, and the application goes to it on its own forms.
See the door →Certificate of good conduct (Führungszeugnis)
An extract from the federal criminal register, asked for by most jobs in childcare, teaching, health and public service, and by some landlords and licensing bodies.
Why we hand it over: Only the Bundesamt für Justiz can issue one, and it comes to you by post. There is no document here for anybody to prepare. What this page can do is show you the counter before an employer springs it on you.
See the door →Integration course (Integrationskurs)
The state-run German language course plus an orientation course on how the country works. Many non-EU newcomers are entitled to a place; some are required to take one.
Why we hand it over: We do not teach German, and never will. That is what the Volkshochschule and the Goethe-Institut are for. What belongs here is the paperwork attached to it, and the clock on the entitlement that almost nobody is told about.
See the door →Registering a car (Zulassung)
Putting a car on German plates, whether you shipped your own or bought one here.
Why we hand it over: Registration happens at your local Zulassungsstelle, on their forms. Bringing a car in from outside the EU adds customs and emissions checks that need somebody qualified to judge them.
See the door →Registering as self-employed (Gewerbeanmeldung)
Telling the authorities you have started working for yourself: a trade registration, and the tax office questionnaire that follows it.
Why we hand it over: What you owe and how you are taxed depends entirely on your own situation, and getting it wrong is expensive. The registration itself is just a form, and this page can at least tell you it exists and when it is due.
See the door →Contracts & disputes
Interpreting or contesting an employment or rental contract, a cancellation, or a formal objection (Widerspruch).
Why we hand it over: A contract has legal effect, and interpreting or contesting yours is legal advice. This page points you at the people who can actually give it, several of them free.
See the door →Official recognition of your qualification
Getting your foreign degree or professional qualification officially recognised (Anerkennung). Regulated professions (doctor, nurse, teacher, lawyer, some engineers) cannot work without it, and it often helps in the rest.
Why we hand it over: The binding recognition is a legal decision, made by ZAB or the authority responsible for your profession. Our converter estimates the grade and the level; only the official route can actually recognise you, and a regulated profession has to go there.
See the door →Converting your driving licence (Umschreibung)
Exchanging a foreign driving licence for a German one. If it's from outside the EU/EEA you must convert within six months of registering, and whether you sit a test depends on the issuing country.
Why we hand it over: Your local Führerscheinstelle decides what is required of you and whether you sit a test. Nobody else can make that call for you.
See the door →Kita & daycare place
Finding a daycare (Kita) place. Every child over one has had a legal right to one since 2013, but demand outstrips supply in most cities. Start early and apply widely.
Why we hand it over: Places are handed out by the local Jugendamt, and every city runs its own system, often a voucher or its own portal. There is no single process to stand in for. The emails to the Kitas, though, our letter tool writes for you.
See the door →A school place for your children
Enrolling a school-age child. School is compulsory from about age six, for every child living here whatever their nationality. This is not optional paperwork. It is the one family step with a legal duty behind it.
Why we hand it over: Education is run by each of the sixteen federal states, and your local school authority assigns the place once you have an address. There is no national form to prepare. The door is your Schulamt, and it opens after you register.
See the door →Health cover from the day you arrive
Insurance that pays for illness, in place from the day you live in Germany, including the stretch before anyone employs you.
Why we hand it over: Whether you join a statutory fund, join one voluntarily or buy private cover depends on your own circumstances, and the fund itself decides. That call belongs to the Krankenkasse. What this page can do is tell you the duty starts on day one, so it is not a surprise in week three.
See the door →Apostille & document legalisation
Proving a document from your home country is real, so a German office will accept it. Usually a stamp called an apostille; a few countries need a longer route instead.
Why we hand it over: An apostille is issued only by a designated authority in the country that produced the document. It happens abroad, before anything in Germany does, so it was never ours to perform.
See the door →Things we have decided never to build
These are not gaps waiting to be filled. Each one is a line we drew, and each has a reason worth reading. If you disagree with a reason, at least you know exactly where we stand.
Teach you German
It is not paperwork, it is a skill, and the Volkshochschule and the Goethe-Institut have spent decades on it. What we do carry is the paperwork attached: who is entitled to a state integration course, and the one-year deadline on that entitlement.
Where it actually lives: BAMF — integration courses (official) ↗
Tell you which bank, insurer or provider to pick
Nobody pays us to send you anywhere, and the day we recommend a provider is the day you have to wonder whether they paid for it. We would rather stay boring and keep the promise: we explain how the choice works, and you make it.
Work out what you owe
Tax, benefits and what a contract costs you are case-by-case, and a confident wrong answer is expensive. We explain what a document says and what an office expects. What follows from your own numbers is a question for someone licensed to answer it.
Write an official German document for you
Some documents carry legal effect the moment they are signed or sent: a cancellation, a formal objection, an Arbeitszeugnis. Producing one for you would be practising law with your name on it. We prepare the ones that are yours to write, and hand over the ones that are not.
Help you leave Germany
Deregistering, closing things down and the tax that follows is a whole second journey, and doing it badly is worse than never starting. It is not what this was built for, and somebody else does it properly.
Contact an office on your behalf
Every office here wants the person themselves, and several are required to. So we write the letter and tell you what to say and what to bring. You are the one who sends it, which is also the only way you stay in control of your own case.
What that leaves us doing
Getting your documents into the shape a German office expects. Telling you what each one means and what it wants from you. Naming the deadline before it passes. Every fact here is checked against an official source and dated, so you can see for yourself when we last looked.