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, rather than spread across thirteen hand-offs you would have to open one by one.
Paperwork an office owns
These are on your plan, and they are real steps — but someone official decides them, not us. For each one we tell you how the process runs and take you to the door.
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: This is case-by-case immigration law with legal consequences — class C, and outside our paperwork-only scope. A wrong steer here can cost someone their right to stay, so we never touch it.
See the door →Income tax return (Steuererklärung)
Filing your annual tax return and answering personal tax questions.
Why we hand it over: We decode the payslip, but filing is tax advice with financial and legal consequences — class C. It needs the official portal or a professional, not us.
See the door →Kindergeld & Elterngeld
Child benefit (Kindergeld) and parental allowance (Elterngeld).
Why we hand it over: Eligibility hinges on your residence status and the exact amounts change yearly — an official-only call we don't make. The application goes to the authority 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 it, and it is posted to you — there is no document for us to prepare. What we can do is tell you where the counter is 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 — that is the Volkshochschule's and the Goethe-Institut's work, not paperwork. The entitlement, though, runs on a clock most people never hear 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, and importing a car from outside the EU brings customs and emissions checks we are not equipped to judge.
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 is class C and case-by-case; getting it wrong is expensive. The registration itself is a form, and we 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 carries legal effect; interpreting or disputing yours is legal advice — class-C-adjacent. We point you to people who can actually advise, several of them free.
See the door →Official recognition of your qualification
Getting your foreign degree or professional qualification officially recognised (Anerkennung) — required for regulated professions (doctor, nurse, teacher, lawyer, some engineers) and often useful otherwise.
Why we hand it over: The binding recognition is a legal assessment issued by ZAB / the responsible authority. Our CV tool estimates the grade and level, but only the official route can recognise you — and regulated professions must 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: It's an official process — your local Führerscheinstelle (Fahrerlaubnisbehörde) decides the requirements and whether a test applies. We can't do it for you.
See the door →Kita & daycare place
Finding a daycare (Kita) place — since 2013 every child over one has a legal right to one, but demand outstrips supply in most cities, so you start early and apply widely.
Why we hand it over: Placement runs through the local Jugendamt and each city's own system (often a Kita-Gutschein voucher or an online portal) — an official, city-by-city process we can't stand in for. The emails to Kitas, though, our correspondence tool writes for you.
See the door →A school place for your children
Enrolling a school-age child. School is compulsory in Germany from about age six, for every child living here regardless of nationality — so 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 16 federal states, and the place itself is assigned by your local school authority (Schulamt) once you have an address. There is no national form for us to prepare — the door is your Schulamt, and it opens after the Anmeldung.
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 issued the document — a step that happens abroad, before anything in Germany, so it isn't ours to perform.
See the door →Things we have decided never to build
Not gaps waiting to be filled. Each of these is a line, and each has a reason worth reading — if you disagree with the reason, 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 not starting. It is simply not what this is for — someone else does it properly.
Contact an office on your behalf
Every office here wants the person themselves, and several are required to. We write the letter, tell you what to say and what to bring — and you are the one who sends it, which is also the only way you keep 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, and naming the deadline before it passes. Everything here is checked against an official source and dated, so you can see when we last looked.