Hooray! I’m going back to school. I’ve managed to get into business school here, and I’m sure it will be challenging and exciting to work on my MBA.

Things will certainly be busy though - I’ll be working full time of course, since I don’t get all of the free money that regular German students get. Wish me luck!

So now I’m hooked up with a great insurance policy (private health from Gothaer), but there was a serious catch: I had to pay a fee for the last two years that I haven’t been insured. It wasn’t much (900 euros), but it was a bit hard to swallow! In the end, I did save some money for not being insured, but to pay that at once was a bit frustrating…

Hey kids

I actually made my trip to the Ausländerbehörde on the second of February, but since I didn’t have my insurance papers, all I got out of the deal was a Fiktionsbescheinigung. What’s a Fiktionsbescheinigung? Well, I’ll tell you: it’s a simple certificate that essentially states that my case is undecided, and that I may continue my current activities until it expires, which in this case is on the day of my next appointment in early March. So basically, I have to go back and show them my insurance papers, and then I’ll be allowed to stay for another two years.  What’s the moral of this story? Make sure you have all of the papers required beforehand, since otherwise things could get a little sticky!

It sounds like a no-brainer, but for a Canadian like me who has never thought about insurance, it came as a shock to find out that I need to get private health insurance. Yeah, yeah, I know…

Anyway, I found an insurance broker and I’ve been to the doctor and the dentist, so now we send my bill of clean health to the insurance people, and then the ripoff gets a green light.

If you employ yourself here as a freelancer like I do, then you are required to insure yourself via one of these private companies. It sucks, but that’s life.

I’m just about to go into my Ausländerbehörde phase again… I’ll likely call LABO on Thursday, so I’ll let you all know how long I have to wait to talk to a Sachbearbeiter, just in case I break any records.

Seems like a happy ending so far:

Hi Matthew!

So we went to the Auslander this morning at 7:30am and went out at 9:00am with a temporary resident permit for me valid until March 10. My 3 months no-visa period was ending by January 1st so we were in a bit of a hurry to get a temporary resident permit and avoid having to go back to Canada for 3 months.

That leaves us some time to breathe until we get married even if it’s a bit short. Then we have an appointment on March 11 to go back there with the marriage certificate and get the regular resident permit.

There was not too many people waiting there this morning surprisingly, maybe due to Holidays. They just grabbed all my stuff and then give back the temporary resident permit so I can’t tell you if something new is required compared to what you required previously.

As we add a lot of troubles reaching someone by phone or mail I would tell you to start early bugging them.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

In Feb 2010, I’m due for another trip to the Ausländeramt to have my Aufenthaltstitel and Arbeitserlaubnis extended. At the moment, everything looks rosey. I’ve been steadily increasing my income since the last time I visited, paying tax, the whole thing, so I shouldn’t have any problems. I’ll let you know what documents I prepare to take along when I go so that you can prepare a similar package.

Hello fellow struggling new Berliners; how goes it? I know I haven’t blogged in ages, but it’s only because I’ve had so much to do. I gave notice at the software company I was working at to work independently full-time, and now it is hectic. When it rains, it pours, and even when it doesn’t rain it’s still wet. At the moment, I’m trying to save capital to form my own company (a meagre translation agency), but I assure you that I’ll keep you informed along the way.

What else is new? Well I pay lot more taxes, and I have a lot more overhead now that I have to pay partners, but I guess that was bound to happen… I shall return with news!

Hello reader! (new Berliner?)

Not only am I interested in how you found this site, but more importantly, I would like to know if it helped you in some way. My immigration experience has hit a plateau since the last couple of months (stable work and living situation), so my posts have been pretty quiet (okay, nonexistent). Anyway, you’ll find my email on the about page under the tab to the right, and since I write this journal to provide people with help by criticising my own examples, I would love to know if you managed to learn from my experiences.