Living in the community

In Germany, everyone must have health insurance.  Health insurance pays when you or your family need medical help or medication.

Health insurance is paid for by the Job Centre as long as you receive citizen’s income. If you are working, the money for health insurance is transferred directly from your employer to the health insurance company.

After registering with the health insurance company, you will receive a health insurance card. You present this to the doctor or hospital so that the costs of treatment are covered directly by the health insurance company.

Sometimes it may take a while for the health insurance card to arrive after you have registered. If you need urgent medical treatment in the meantime, you can ask the health insurance company to issue you with a certificate proving that you are insured.

When you arrive in Germany, you may already have medical records with you, such as your IOM health file.

Take the IOM health file in English, your vaccination card and any other medical documents you have with you to your doctor’s appointments. Many people who work in doctors’ surgeries or hospitals can understand English.

At the doctor’s surgery, it is important that you understand everything well and that the doctor also understands you. Unfortunately, doctors’ surgeries and hospitals in Germany are not obliged to provide an interpreter for your appointment. Therefore, you must ensure that language mediation is available.

Here are a few tips:

• Before your appointment, ask the surgery or the hospital’s social service department whether language mediation is available. Sometimes, language mediation is available by telephone.
• Many doctors and nurses in Germany speak English, and some also speak French, Turkish or other languages. You can also ask about this before your appointment.
• In many places, there are pools of language mediators who can accompany you to appointments at a doctor’s surgery or hospital. Ask at an Immigrant Advice Centre for more information.

Sometimes a friend, acquaintance or volunteer can come with you to doctor’s appointments to translate. However, it is important that you agree to this person receiving information about your health. It is not good for children to accompany you for translation purposes. The responsibility is far too great for children.

There is plenty of good multilingual information material available on healthcare in Germany, e.g. on vaccinations, preventive medical check-ups for children, pregnancy and much more. You will find a lot of useful information and links on this page:

[Gesundheit]

The German job market is very formalised. This means that many companies want to see documents proving that you have completed school, an apprenticeship or training course, or have a degree. If you have certificates proving your school education, university/college degree or apprenticeship/training, you should have them officially accepted in Germany.

The acceptance procedure is complicated. Be sure to seek help from an Advice Centre. You can find more information on this page.[Anerkennung ausländischer Abschlüsse | Handbook Germany : Together]

The Job Centre will help you find work in Germany. For example, you can receive help with your application or a voucher that you can use to take part in advanced training or further education. The Job Centre can also cover the costs of having your professional qualifications accepted. You can find more information on this page. [Bekomme ich Unterstützung bei der Suche nach einer Arbeit? | Handbook Germany : Together]

There are strong rights in Germany that protect employees. For example, you have the right to holiday leave and to be receive your salary/wages on time and in full.

You can find more information about your rights at work on this page. [ Arbeitnehmer*innenrechte | Handbook Germany : Together]

The “Fair Integration” advice centres offer free help with any questions about labour law. [Faire Integration]

In Germany, all children and young people aged 6 or 7 and above are required to attend school. Children must attend school for at least 9 years from this age. So if you have children between the ages of 6 and 16, you will usually receive a letter from the relevant authority shortly after arriving in the municipality. The letter contains the most important information about how and where your child will go to school.

Schools in Germany are regulated by the federal states. Therefore, the school system varies slightly from state to state.

On this page, you will find information about the school system in your federal state. [Schule | Handbook Germany : Together]

In Germany, young children under the age of 6 often attend a daycare centre (Kita in German). There, your children can make new friends, play and learn. It is not compulsory to send your children to a daycare centre. It can be very beneficial for your children to attend a daycare centre (Kita). There they will learn German and prepare for school.

If your child attends a daycare centre, you can use the time to attend integration courses and take care of any appointments. You will also get to know other parents whose children attend the same nursery.

In many cities, there are not enough nursery places. This can lead to waiting times.

You can find out how to register your child for a nursery from your local Youth Welfare Office. Unfortunately, the procedure varies from city to city, so we are unable to provide general information here. You can find the contact details for your Youth Welfare Office on this website. [Jugendamt vor Ort finden – Das Jugendamt. Unterstützung, die ankommt.]

You can find more information about nurseries at this link. [Kita | Handbook Germany : Together]

Sometimes not all family members can immigrate to Germany at the same time through resettlement because the family was separated during their flight.

Your “nuclear family” can apply for a visa to join you in Germany. Core family means:

• Minors and unmarried children can join their parents.
• Spouses can join each other.
• If a minor child immigrates to Germany through resettlement without their parents, the parents can join the child.

All other family members (adult children, siblings, parents of adult children) are not considered part of the “nuclear family” and cannot join you.

If members of your core family are still abroad and are to join you, the following is very important: You or your family members must submit a “fristwahrende Anzeige” (timely notification of intention) to the German embassy or the Immigration Authority no later than 3 months after you have received your residence permit. This will enable you to obtain a visa for family reunification at a later date without having to prove that you have sufficient living space or income to support your relatives.

Make sure to seek help from a Immigrant Advice <centre to ensure that the “fristwahrende Anzeige” (timely notification of intention) is submitted to the authorities on time and correctly. The Immigrant Advice Centre will also help you with the further steps involved in applying for family reunification.

In Germany, there are laws that require all authorities and organisations to handle your data properly and securely. This data includes, for example, your name and date of birth, but also sensitive information, such as your state of health.

All organisations you deal with (authorities, advice centres, schools, nurseries, doctors, etc.) must inform you how they use your data. Sometimes they also need or want your written consent to process your data.

For example: when you go to a new doctor’s surgery, the reception staff will give you a “data protection consent form”. This states that your personal data and information about your health will be stored by the doctor’s surgery and that the doctor’s surgery will pass on certain information to your health insurance company for billing purposes. It also contains information about how long the data will be stored and that you can request that the data be deleted.

Many other organisations and authorities will also present you with a “data protection consent form” at the beginning and ask you to sign it. Sometimes the data protection consent form is only available in German, sometimes it is also available in other languages. It is a good idea to read and understand the data protection consent form before you sign it.

Many people in Germany sign data protection consent forms without reading them carefully because they trust the organisation or people who store and use the data.  Sometimes there is no alternative to signing the consent form, as otherwise you will not be able to conclude certain contracts.

If you do not want to sign the data protection consent form, e.g. at the doctor’s surgery, you must be prepared for people to be irritated and perhaps even angry. Sometimes they will also tell you that you cannot be treated without signing the consent form. Whether this is correct or not depends on the specific consent form.