thewizzart5548

Hi Everyone,

We are planning to travel around Germany for 6-12 months with our van. At the same time we would like to work(farm, waiter etc.). What visa would we need for thta? How easy to obtain such a visa? How easy to find jobs in Germany with English only?

KTtravel

What is your citizenship? If you are not a citizen of the EU, I think this would be very difficult. If you are a US citizen, here is a website that might be helpful: https://www.germany.info/us-en/servi...ce-visa/922288.

Heimdall

I doubt working in Germany will be possible unless you have a passport from an EU country. Western European countries now have a source of cheap labour for farm work, waiters, etc from former eastern bloc countries which are now part of the EU.

Heimdall

Another point, unless you are a citizen of the EU/Schengen (look it up if you don’t know what Schengen is), with a rare few exceptions you are only allowed to stay for a maximum of 90 days in 180. When the 90 days is up you have to stay out of Schengen until the 180 days has passed. You can’t reset the calendar by briefly leaving the Schengen zone and re-entering.

hetismij2

If you enter the EU/Schengen not one and the same) as a non EU citizen without a work permit you are not allowed to work at all.
Germany is very German, by which I mean the language is pretty much essential for anything but the most menial tasks, and those are filled by legal eastern Europeans.
If you intend to stay in Germany for that length of time I think you will find you also need to register with the authorities there.
Will your van insurance cover you for so long abroad? What about health care? Any annual safety test needed on your vehicle? Where do you intend to live? Wild camping in your van is not a good idea, and is in fact illegal. You can overnight at Raststätten by motorways for a single nig, but that is a pretty desperate thing to do, and meant for those travelling through. If you are caught wild camping ( ie anywhere outside an official campsite or Stellplatz) , and many are caught, the fines are high.

thewizzart5548

We are from the UK.

hetismij2

Then you need a visa. No longer part of the EU. You can only stay for 90 days in Schengen now, and cannot work during that time.
You would need to check with your van insurer that they will cover the van for a long time in Europe, and you will need to consider what you do about an MOT for it.
You can get a GHIIC from the NHS but that only covers emergency medical care.
Do you have any special skills that would help you find work?
As I said before where do you intend to live, campsites get expensive and aren't open all year, and wild camping is illegal.

thewizzart5548

Good bless Brexit, made our life easier
I am a roofer and my partner is working as a PR consultant.
If we choos a base somewhere in Germany and work for some times (e.g. 6 months) there and then explore Germany for 6 months and maybe some of the neighboring countries what visa would we need? How extensive are the paperwork for the visa and what are the requirements? Do wee need to have a work contract before?
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hetismij2

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-to-germany-for-work
For a start. Google is your friend.
This forum is more for holidays that working abroad.

thewizzart5548

Thank you. Google helped. We are in Germany and organising the paperworks, registration, Finanzamt and trying to figure out the tax system maybe it will make sense to get married here to make use of the joint tax filing

thewizzart5548

Hi all,

Every month €40.49 is deducted from my gross payment. After some research, this site states that if I leave the church I don't have to pay church tax. This would be great, but I have some questions:
1. How do I do that?
2. Does this means that I am also out from the UK Catholic church?
3. Is this information exchanged by different countries Catholic church?

Heimdall

You’ve probably already seen this:
https://www.settle-in-berlin.com/sto...an-church-tax/

Good luck!

thewizzart5548

Thank you for the link. No I haven't.

I was going through this, which states (althought not sure where did they get this info)

Isn't this a violation of GDPR?

VANAARLE

I am please to read you managed to obtain a work permit. that could not have been easy after brexit.
have you asked on a expat forum about working and taxes in Germany?

lavandula

I think you can have been a practising member of a religion but have lapsed. You have to make an official statement. It's called 'aus der Kirche austreten' (leaving the church). When my husband moved to Germany, when he was registering for tax the guy helping us relocate asked him if he practised a religion and based on his answer he ticked the box for no. We also have an acquaintance who was Catholic, in fact started his training as a Catholic priest but left because he met a woman whom he married, and eventually left the church officially, I guess in part to not pay taxes but also as a reflection of where he had gone with his life. So you can have been religious or practicing in the past. It is or was quite a big deal. I am sorry I can't be more helpful with this. It used to be the case that you could not just be of no religion or that you decided, you were what your family was, and you couldn't just decide when you got older. This is probably not the case any more, but things used to be quite inflexible. It would not surprise me if things are now different, but the weaving-in of church with the collection of taxes / charitable funds remains.

Lavandula