Hi everyone,

my Antrag auf Auflagenerhebung, (made on the third of january), has been denied. It took them five months to make a decision. In the meantime, my life has changed, I'm living in the UK, but my german girlfriend is still there.

I'm really, really disappointed.

I haven't gotten a paper confirmation yet, but I have been asked to register out of the country.

I really don't know if I should just write off everything in Germany, or keep trying.
I don't know if I want to anymore.

cheers,
a.

Hi aalvarez,

I am angry when I read this! Angry about my stupid countrymen, who are causing troubles to you. I wish they would leave Germany, not you ;-)

Anyhow, if you decide to fight against it, I strongly recommend our VPMK Lawyers.

But even if you stay in UK, I hope that you stay here at our forum, as a member of the trust7 community.

I go to UK on a business trip next month, to London and Birmingham, maybe we could meet?

Good luck
Detlef

Hi Aalvarez,

I dont understand why do you even need to make an Antrag der Auflagenerhebung. Just walk in with either 36 monhts of Renteninformation from BfA or your proof of 4 years of legal stay in Germany. You should be able to get BE on the spot, if not then demand to speak with their Gruppenleiter. There is no way in hell that he can refuse to what is yours rightfully.

Akshay

For this "Ablehnung" there must be a reason written down, what is written ?

Hi all,

i'm waiting for the written answer to see what the final decision is. In the end, it is an Ermessungsentscheidung ... although had they acted on time the situation would be diferent, funnily enough, had it been a taxing issue, the outcome would be quite different.

In any case, I will remain in the forum, and will tell about the situation here if I apply for HSMP.

Detlef, it would be an honor to meet you here, i'm writing you an email with my contact info.

i wish you all a good weekend.

regards,
a.

Hi All,

I made my plans to leave germany in july, after 5 years and have not heard from ABH in a long long time. I bought my plane tickets and am really glad to have made that decision. I haven't told my manager yet, but as a freelancer I am not obliged to give him more than a month notice.
Altough I have new job offers, permanent and freelaning, I think staying in germany in the longer term is a mistake. My kids will always be foreigners here and will be openly discriminated against and altough they are going to Gymnasium, I don't think much of the education system here, as also mentioned in PISA findings. My advise to everyone is really to think twice before putting roots down here. There is no doubt Germany is good for germans but I think there are far better places that germany for foreigners, i.e. England, Kanada, Australien, etc.. The german society's experience with foreigners has been mostly with the turk blue collar workers and the government has failed to educate its citizens about the benifits of a multi cultureal society. I think as the economic times gets worse for Germany there will be a back lash at foreigners, more people out of work = more people against foreigners.
Anyway I wanted to give my 2 cents on this subject.

Cheers

Hi JJ,

I am afraid that you are right in many points! But I think, there are still some good reasons for a foreigner to come to Germany. My guess is, that we are still going down, but especially for highly qualified people there is already an improvement visible (in German: spürbar - I do not know the right English expression).

In a couple of years, Germany will be back at the top (I hope).

Nevertheless, I wish you and your family all the best for the future and, as I said to a., I hope you will stay in contact to our forum and let us know, how the things are at your new country or residence.

Good luck
Detlef

After 1+ years i am leaving germany in july. I share the same views as JJ, and i have decided this is not the place for myself and family. Tho, i am eligible for the PR, in terms of salary criteria, but i never had the interest to go for it. Germany is still strong and i am sure it will become even stronger in future. But may not become a multicultural society. Anyway i wish all foreigners here.

Hi!

This is my first posting, though I follow this group very intensively. I am not a GC but a highly qualified foreigner from a so called third world country (which in many ways has overtaken Germany in the mean time, according to me!!)working in a high tech field other than IT.

In my opinion JJ's decision to leave Germany is correct. Detlef, having stayed in Germany for more than sixteen years now, I beg to differ with your opinion (Wunschdenken?) that Germany will be better for foreigners in a couple of years. I have studied here (completed my Diplom), did my PhD and am working for a top German company now. My success (and to a large extent laziness to find a new way) and the will to fight the authorities kept me in Germany. Unfortunately there are very few nice and open people like you, Detlef, here in Germany (for that matter in any other country and society, I know!) I had to fight all my way through the jungle of laws and the authorities (die Behörden) who are ignorant to put it mildly. Of course the people who helped me (Professors, friends) were also Germans. But by and large the German authorities are very short sighted, not well informed, emotional and many times act against the interests of their own country!!

Though I am doing quite well now I certainly think if money is not the only goal, Germany is not an attractive country for highly qualified foreigners anymore. (I really doubt if it ever was!) Well, without the language (and many times even with it!) you can't be a part of the mainstream German society. If one intends to live an intellectual life and plan for the future (family, education of the children etc.) he/she should leave Germany at the right point of time. Although my case is rather different (I am enjoying the fruits of all the hard work I put in for so many years, can speak German almost as if it were my mother tongue, have a big German friend circle etc.) I would advise to invest time and efforts some where else (like JJ suggested USA, Australia, Canada etc.) to succeed and settle down in a shorter period of time. Especially regarding your well educated spouse the other places are a lot better and offer better life perspectives than Germany!!!

This is my humble opinion based on my own experience in all these years in Germany.

Take care

Gentleman

Hi Detlef and Others,

I will defintely follow this forum and I have a very high opinion of you. I think your service to this community is very valuable. I know you will not take it personal when I say Germany is not a good place for foreigners. The thing is that all foreigners are treated the same here, all bad, it doesn't matter highly qualified or not. I don't want a writing on my forehead "Highly Qualified" to be treated differently and all persons should be treated the same, highly qualified or not.

@Gentleman
Other places would take you with a hand kiss and you'll have all the oppertunities. In all my years in Germany I have not seen a single foreign CEO ( well, excluding Ackermann of Deutsche Bank, he is swiss), that should tell you something.

Well, enough said, I wish everyone a nice sunday.

Cheers

Hello all,

With all due respect to Detlef.
I think the other contributors' feelings about working and Living in Germany
is an echo of the concensus of most foreigners living here.Ofcourse there is no
perfect system.Even your Home country has its own problems otherwise the issue of
immigration wouldn't have been a big deal.
In constrast to other developed countries;

- Germany is a beautiful place to live.
- Most of the cities are neat and well organized.
- Its health care and social welfare system is enviable.Though currently some changes has been introduced.

On the otherhand

- Germany is one of the most closed countries in the world.
- The issue of multiculturalism(or pluralism) is quite pungent to the people.
- The people have excess of the feeling of insecurity.
Hence, most perceive foreigners as aleins whose agenda is to annihilate them.

- Work and living in Germany requires :-

- Good knowledge of Deutsch. Its importance cannot be overemphasied.
- Strong personality (You have to be tough with lots of energy to fight your way through).
- You have to have good luck(especially in meeting the right people) inaddition to being hard working.


I have a question which I have been asking myself ; Is Germany actually a place to settle down and be glad?

Hi aalvarez,

I'm a little confused about your situation.

Some weeks ago you told us that your life had changed. It looked to me that your post was not very positive that day.

And now, after reading your post, I could guess that you were expecting the negative answer from AB...

And, if that was the case, why did not you contact the people of VPMK? You are one of our most important contributor here and you are always well informed...

And why are you in UK? Does it mean that you don´t have any job in Germany? Well, it seems that that is the case, which makes your history a little confusing...I don't know how easy is to get BE without a job...

Best wishes,

Alex

@onye

I have a question which I have been asking myself ; Is Germany actually a place to settle down and be glad?


just read clearly the messages from Gentlmen and JJ again - they are living here since many many years, and speak very fluent German.

I had a job in Germany when I made the antrag, they told me to wait 4 to 6 weeks, i waited, and waited patiently, i emailed them, i called them, i even went there to push.

But nothing.

Unfortunately, I have only one life, and can not wait forever. The offer they made to me in the UK simply beat up Germany on every category, and i have to say this even though i'm the most pro-german person i know.

Now, as we say in my home country, Comparisons are an awful thing. But if this were the US and i had moved from one state to the other, this would have made no difference, and that's the whole point of having a European Union.

If you look at it closely, the law does not prohibit a dual residence, and if you look at the precedents, when it comes to tax reasons for example, they will try the opposite, which is to force a residence on you.

I could go on, but rants rarely bring anything useful.

cheers,
A.

Hi again aalvarez,

well, now it's clearer.

Anyway I think that you should have contacted the help of the lawyers when you started to see the long delay.

But, if you say that the offer was better in UK, then with or without BE approval, your moving to England was already a fact, as far as I can understand.

I'm not sure if your disappointment is just symbolic (considering that you chose the job in UK) or you were planning to stay in Germany.

Anyway, good luck in your new job, the news aren't bad at all.

Best wishes,

Alex