🇩🇪 Germany

Your employer files the social-insurance registration at first hire; Deutsche Rentenversicherung then assigns your lifelong Versicherungsnummer and mails you the Versicherungsnummernachweis. Self-employed persons in § 2 SGB VI occupations and voluntarily insured persons register with DRV directly.

Anyone moving into a dwelling in Germany must register with the local Meldebehörde within fourteen days, under § 17 Bundesmeldegesetz. The pathway is uniform across all sixteen Länder: present the Anmeldeformular plus a passport or national ID and the signed Wohnungsgeberbestätigung, sign before the clerk, and receive the Anmeldebestätigung on the spot. The Anmeldung is free. The Anmeldebestätigung unlocks the bank account, the Steuer-IdNr by post within two to four weeks, statutory health insurance, and — for non-EU nationals — the Aufenthaltstitel pathway at the Ausländerbehörde. Per-state authority names and city booking surfaces are in the state-specific guides.

Request a written or electronic Meldebescheinigung from your Bürgeramt, Bürgerbüro or Kundenzentrum under § 18 Bundesmeldegesetz. Fees and channels vary by municipality; the elektronische Meldebescheinigung is unentgeltlich nationwide.

Familiennachzug (also Familienzusammenführung) is a two-authority procedure. The joining family member applies abroad for a national visa (Visum-D) at the competent German Auslandsvertretung, then after arrival completes the Anmeldung at the Bürgeramt and applies at the local Ausländerbehörde for an Aufenthaltserlaubnis zum Familiennachzug. The sponsor's status — German citizen (§ 28 AufenthG), EU citizen (§ 3 FreizügG/EU) or Drittstaatler with a qualifying Aufenthaltstitel (§§ 29–36 AufenthG) — determines documents, language and livelihood prerequisites and fees. Reunification to subsidiarily-protected sponsors is suspended through 23 July 2027 (BGBl I 2025 Nr. 173); the three routine pathways operate normally.