Your First 90 Days in Germany: The Deadlines Nobody Hands You a List Of

Nobody hands new arrivals in Germany a checklist. You find out what you were supposed to do, and by when, mostly by talking to other expats, joining a Facebook group, or missing something and finding out the hard way. This is an attempt at the list, focused specifically on the deadlines, not the general advice.

Why the first 90 days are different

In your first few months, you sign, register, and file more paperwork than at almost any other point in your time here. Several of these things have real deadlines attached, and several of them depend on each other, so getting one late can delay the next. None of it is explained in one place, in English, in order. This is an attempt at that, though it is a starting point for your own research, not a substitute for checking the specific rules that apply to your city and your situation.

Anmeldung: register your address

This is usually the first deadline you hit. German law requires you to register your address with the local Bürgeramt within a set window after moving in, and the clock starts on your move-in date, not on when you manage to book an appointment. Because appointments can book out weeks in advance in some cities, try to book yours the moment you have a fixed move-in date, not after you have already moved in and started settling. Everything else on this list tends to depend on having this done, since your Anmeldebestätigung is often required to open a bank account, get a tax ID, or sign a phone contract.

Bank account and tax ID

Once you are registered, opening a German bank account and receiving your tax identification number, your Steuer-ID, tend to follow. The Steuer-ID is usually mailed to your registered address automatically after Anmeldung, so if it has not arrived within a few weeks, that is worth following up on rather than assuming it got lost. You will need both for a salary to be paid, for many contracts, and for filing taxes later.

Health insurance

Health insurance in Germany is mandatory, not optional, and if you are employed it is usually connected to your employer and your registration. If you are not arriving through an employer that handles this for you, sorting out health insurance early avoids being uninsured during a gap you did not intend to have.

The Rundfunkbeitrag

Shortly after your Anmeldung is on record, expect a letter about the Rundfunkbeitrag, the public broadcasting fee charged per household rather than per person. It is not tied to owning a television or watching German broadcasting, and it is not something you sign up for, the letter simply arrives. Take it seriously rather than setting it aside, since it is a real, legally backed obligation and unpaid amounts can build up.

SCHUFA, if you are renting

If you are apartment hunting, a landlord will likely ask for a SCHUFA report before offering you a lease. As a new arrival, your file is usually thin rather than bad, since SCHUFA has no history to draw on yet, but a thin file can still make a landlord hesitate next to an applicant with an established German credit history. Requesting your own report early, so you know what a landlord will see, and being upfront that you are new to Germany can both help.

The contracts that come next

Once the registration steps are behind you, the next wave is contracts, a gym membership, a mobile plan, a DSL or internet connection for your new apartment. All three are commonly signed in your first weeks, in German, and all three tend to carry a notice period and an automatic renewal clause you may not have fully understood at signing. These deadlines land roughly a year later, often right when you have stopped thinking about the paperwork from your first month, which is exactly why they catch new arrivals more than long-term residents.

A rough order, not a strict one

In practice, these steps overlap and depend on your specific situation, your visa type, whether an employer is handling parts of this for you, and the city you land in. Anmeldung tends to come first because so much else depends on it. Beyond that, treat this less as a strict sequence and more as a set of things to have on your radar during your first three months, so none of them arrive as a surprise.

The habit that actually helps

The single habit that helps with all of the above is the same: the moment you learn a real deadline, whether it is an Anmeldung appointment, a Rundfunkbeitrag response, or a contract's notice period, write it down somewhere permanent, not somewhere you will lose. A calendar reminder set two to four weeks ahead of the actual date, not on it, gives you room to act instead of discovering the deadline the day it passes.

For the contracts specifically, gym, mobile, DSL, Contract Guardian, part of Notenz, reads a photo or upload of the contract and pulls out the notice period, the exact cancel-by date, and any auto-renewal clause, translated into plain English, with one reminder before the deadline. It will not help with Anmeldung, the Rundfunkbeitrag, or SCHUFA, but those first three tend to be one-time or occasional events, while contracts are the deadlines that keep quietly resetting every year until someone catches them.