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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

#931

Post by pezezin »

shiroiushi wrote: post #604
usr1106 wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Japan the industrialized nation with the lowest fraction of foreigners?

AFAICT, Japan has the easiest immigration for skilled professionals, by far. However, this has been the case for less than 10 years, as they totally revamped their immigration laws in the 2010s sometime to try to attract more such people, so of course it's going to take time to see the difference. Japan is also somewhat difficult for foreigners to live in because of the language barrier, but Germany isn't that differ…

> Japan is also somewhat difficult for foreigners to live in because of the language barrier, but Germany isn't that different here

In the case of Japan, you also have the insanely difficult writing system, probably the most difficult writing system in current usage. The German language might be difficult, but at least it uses an alphabet with a somewhat consistent spelling.

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

#932

Post by vinay427 »

imajoredinecon wrote: post #325
ab_testing wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not saying Germany is slow, but that is one area where US is far behind. 21 Months - This is the current processing time for a green card after you have sent in all the paperwork to the USCIS for processing. During that time, you get no updates and of-course if you leave the country without AP, your application is considered to be abandoned. https://imgur.com/a/t8rYOjv

Some of the US citizen-facing services are very backlogged too. For example, it's around 18 months to get a response when you apply for the US-Canada travel fast lane ("NEXUS").

It is at least valid in the meantime, and doesn’t affect travel rights like the immigration examples mentioned in various countries, but I agree that this is mildly annoying.

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

#933

Post by nicbou »

fullspectrumdev wrote: post #858
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 site was a complete godsend when I lived in Berlin, though eventually the excessive paperwork was a major contributor towards my decision to move elsewhere. A few other people I know who left after a couple of years say the same - endless bureaucracy and extremely dysfunctional local governance (eg: the clusterfuck with rent control where some people had to pay backrent) made the decision to leave easy.

Where did you end up? What made you choose?

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

#934

Post by nicbou »

histories wrote: post #475
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 amazing and has helped me personally thousands of time. It became the first quick english reference for everything when I first moved here. Thank you!

This is exactly what I'm aiming for since 6+ years. It's really happy to hear that it's working.

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

#935

Post by nicbou »

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.

To do a good job I need to be there and experience the pain firsthand. There are many subtle nuances that are really hard to spot from a distance.

This is why I never really covered studying or raising children.

German bureaucracy is hyperlocal. I rely on more and more on a local network of experts to do a good job. In Munich I'd be mostly starting from scratch.

However most of the website covers all of Germany. A smarter person would have started All About Germany, if only for SEO purposes.

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

#936

Post by nicbou »

bacteria wrote: post #793
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…

Hey nicbou, a fantastic website thanks for your efforts. While reading your Bank article I noticed a potentially outdated information concerning ING as I am also an expat and was able open a bank account there. "ING: You need German permanent residence or citizenship to open an account. Some students could open an account with a residence permit. Their customer support speaks English."

I'm rewriting it as we speak. It's my main focus this month.

Can you tell me more? When and where did you open an account? What residence title do you have and what is your nationality? Feel free to email me the answer if you prefer privacy.

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

#937

Post by nicbou »

hnbad wrote: post #766
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…

Another fun example: if you have a child, you won't automatically get Kindergeld (child benefits) even though you have to sign paperwork for the birth certificate. You have to apply for child benefits and parental leave and maternity compensation and you have to notify each relevant institution individually yourself. There are good and important reasons certain public institutions aren't allowed to share data by defa…

Sometimes Kindergeld makes less sense than the income tax reduction. The best option can be calculated automatically, but the state still won't do it.

Kindergeld is a fantastic example of bureaucracy that could be abgeschafft.

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

#938

Post by rjzzleep »

avar wrote: post #791
rjzzleep wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of notaries in Germany is very limited. . You can’t just study that and open a notary in Germany. They are cash cows that obviously don’t want competition. During Covid Germany was the only country of its neighbors that did not do remote attestations. From 2000 to 2020 the number of notaries in Germany had almost halved. How is that normal for any country ? Unless they replaced notaries with automation whi…

> During Covid Germany was the > only country of its neighbors > that did not do remote attestations. Same in the Netherlands.

No, even the Netherlands had a temporary act to allow attestation using digital means.

https://www.osborneclarke.com/insights/dutch-covid-19-tempor...

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

#939

Post by shiroiushi »

nicbou wrote: post #684
rkachowski wrote: post #578

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>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.

If /r/berlin is anything like /r/japanlife, the problem IS the moderator.

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

#940

Post by shiroiushi »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #327
gentleman11 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a full time software developer, the lead programmer actually, but I don’t have health care. I have important unfilled prescriptions because of lack of money. So how exactly does a lack of health care not affect people?

> I don’t have health care Are you based in the US? How is this possible? I thought it is a requirement to have healthcare now.

No, it's not. For a while, it was mandatory or else the IRS would fine you (so, it wasn't really mandatory, you could just pay the fine). Now they've dropped the fine. But that's at the federal level; some states still have an individual mandate and will fine you.

You can try to argue that the fine is a mandate, but many people found that it was much cheaper to just pay the fine than to buy insurance coverage. Of course, this means they have no health insurance coverage which obviously has big risks, but for many people, the only insurance plans they had access to were literally unaffordable (i.e., higher than their rent, so it was a choice between having a place to live, or having health insurance with a high deductible and copays).

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