Hi. I would've thought this'd be easy information to find, but so far haven't managed to get a definitive answer.

I'm a New Zealand citizen, married to a German citizen since the end of 2011, and have had residency and officially lived here since a couple months after that.

I want to be permanently settled in Germany and/or the EU, which I can do after three years of marriage, but there's several questions I can't find the answers for:

What else is required to get the settlement permit? Something about language and values tests, but I can't find specifics on these.

I work in international humanitarian aid, and this is going to require me to be out of the EU for extended periods quite often. Do I lose my residency/settlement if I'm out of Germany for more than six months?

If it does, am I better off getting the Long-term resident - EU permit?
What's involved in getting that?

Me and my wife are happy indeed, and obviously hopefully we always will be. But for the sake of pragmatic realism, what happens if we do ever decide to go our separate ways?

Thanks.

If you stay outside Germany for more than 6 months you would lose your Niederlassungserlaubnis, unless you have a letter/permission from the foreigner's office that explicitly allows you to stay abroad. I think the other EU-Daueraufenthaltserlaubnis extends this to 12 months but you should double check that.

Please research some more on other forums as well (e.g.toytowngermany, info4alien.de) but the best is to just go talk to the foreigner's authority in your city.