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How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

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Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#681

Post by slowmotiony »

nixass wrote: post #463
nicbou wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mine too! My residence permit expired in February, and my appointment is in July. I expect to have a valid residence title again by end of August. Mind you, I applied in December. I will not be able to travel out of the country for most of the summer as I wouldn't be allowed to reenter. They refused multiple times to issue the temporary permit that I'm legally entitled to. I'm having a lawyer ask again, this time wit…

Folks, you can travel outside of Germany for sure, as long as you stay inside Schengen.

"Folks, you can travel outside of Germany for sure, just avoid the police, the border authorities and don't get caught."

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#682

Post by artirdx »

nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

Your website is very informative. Please build something equivalent for Munich.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#683

Post by treprinum »

GrumpySloth wrote: post #594
treprinum wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect the degradation came from Eastern Europe, what you wrote is what I was told EE looked like in the 80-90s.

What do you mean by that? Did Finland change location over time? Also, two Eastern European countries that I have first-hand knowledge of: Poland and Estonia are much more digitised and efficient at those things than Germany (and, from what GP wrote, it seems Finland as well?).

The same processes that led to Eastern Europe in 80-90s ending up as a nightmare where everything took ages to be handled happened to Finland with the same outcome. Bad algorithms basically. Maybe PL/EST still remember how bad it was back then and make sure they are running better algorithms, whereas Finland has no clue how bad it can get due to a lack of experience?

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#684

Post by nicbou »

rkachowski wrote: post #578
bradhe wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wanted to say thanks for your awesome work! allaboutberlin.com was a massive help when I moved here—and continues to be, whenever a new paperwork hurdle presents itself :). You’re doing great work!

Truly, it's one of the best and clearly laid out resources out there. I've found a lot of online resources around Berlin life to be frankly hostile (e.g. r/berlin ) to people seeking information on how to approach things like appointments and complying with state regulations. allaboutberlin.com seems to be comparatively devoid of frustration and objectively lays out the situation + steps to be taken in each situation…

Thank you!

I often think about starting a community that functions like /r/berlin, but with a professional moderator like dang to maintain decorum, deduplicate threads, and generally keep the place tidy.

With Toytown Germany simply vanishing, there's both a need and a market for it. I just never want to be a moderator again.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#685

Post by makeitdouble »

shiroiushi wrote: post #617
makeitdouble wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the country needs to be both competent and strongly willing to court new comers and permanent residents in the first place. On your experience, it really feels like a PITA. It won't help, but Japan and France are basically the same. You'll see procedures listed as typically taking 2~3 months, check back every now and then, and low and behold a year and half later you have absolutely no idea of what's going on, i…

> When did you have this experience in Japan? In my experience, immigrating to Japan is a breeze. Even during Covid, it took about 2 months to process my work visa, and from there everything was fast and easy. PR is pretty slow, though: my coworkers who have applied are reporting wait times of about 9 months.

That might be the difference between the types of visa.

The standard spouse visa was around 4 months (during covid as well) when it should have been pretty quick according to the clerk receiving it. Tried PR at two different times, first time I moved abroad after half a year, before it finished, second time was a year and half from now and it's still pending with no update.

On any of the visa I applied for I'm meeting the criteria on multiple standards (e.g. I'm both a spouse and father of a national, and employed locally) and never got a rejection, so it's just plainly taking a huge amount of time. I got used to it though.

PS: also it's hilarious to write about your romance with your partner, detailing your dates, attach Disneyland photos etc. and imagine officers in their suits reading all of that with straight faces.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#686

Post by dpeckett »

lispm wrote: post #666
dpeckett wrote: post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lets combat marriage fraud by making it a kafkaesque ordeal to get married in the first place. Big brain move, how many innocent couples get caught in the net, versus how many fraudsters can you realistically catch (organized crime has figured out how to game the bureaucracy, no doubt).

Germany has laws and traditions around marriage. If one doesn't respect German laws, best to go to a country which works differently and stay there.

That's the beauty of it, people will leave, and it won't be the people desperate enough to commit marriage fraud.

Anyway none of this is about respecting German law.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#687

Post by usr1106 »

jltsiren wrote: post #611
somenameforme wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know basically nothing about Finland, and was curious about your comment as I find government spending an interesting topic. So the first thing I did was look up the government budget trends in Finland. [1] As an outsider it just seems that the Finnish budget is growing at an exponential pace? From 2010 to 2019 the budget went from ~50bn to 55bn per year, nearly managing to even create a balanced budget in 2018. Fr…

The central government took full responsibility of funding healthcare, social services, and some other government functions in 2023. Before that, large part of the funding came from municipal governments. Then there is the war in Ukraine. Normally, Russia is one of the most important trading partners of Finland. But when it doesn't know how to behave, a large part of foreign trade is missing, and the economy suffers.

> Normally, Russia is one of the most important trading partners of Finland.

Partially explains why there is no light in the tunnel of the state budget.

But it does not explain why many authorities are struggling with services for residents which worked better a decade ago. It is not so that authorities would have experienced severe cuts in budgets or headcount during the last 2 years.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#688

Post by mharig »

usr1106 wrote: post #420
nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

I am familiar with both German and Finnish bureaucracy. German bureaucracy is (in)famous for paperwork and using faxes. Citizens/residents have no unique identifier (more and more weakened recently) and need to present documentation for everything. If you have no paper birth certificate you are not born... Finland has had much higher digitalization for decades. You have a person number and authorities store everythin…

> You have a person number and authorities store everything centrally. A big brother nightmare for Germans.

Should be a big brother nightmare for all humans.

Your number is 666.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#689

Post by seb1204 »

artirdx wrote: post #682
nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

Your website is very informative. Please build something equivalent for Munich.

Feel free to start this yourself if you have first hand pain.

Re: How to found a company in Germany: 14 "easy" steps and lots of pain

#690

Post by [deleted] »

usr1106 wrote: post #420
nicbou wrote: post #114

I document German bureaucracy for a living,[0] and everything is like that. Every life event - immigrating, getting a job, getting married, having a child, buying a car - is mired in slow, paper-based bureaucracy. It is a constant, significant impediment to life in the country. Just last week, I was telling people that the best way to get married in Germany is to get married in Denmark. I cannot overstate how terribl…

I am familiar with both German and Finnish bureaucracy. German bureaucracy is (in)famous for paperwork and using faxes. Citizens/residents have no unique identifier (more and more weakened recently) and need to present documentation for everything. If you have no paper birth certificate you are not born... Finland has had much higher digitalization for decades. You have a person number and authorities store everythin…

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