The DU Lounge

I’ve been a legal resident just outside of Düsseldorf since the fall of 2011.

With me, the process went a bit quicker (about two months for the 3 year provisional, and then the unlimited). Work permit automatic, zero health insurance or pension.

Advantages I had: longterm marriage to a working German citizen, steady employment (in the USA), long term health insurance (American, so useless, but they didn’t know that), fluency in German (as well as six other EU languages), and I was able to convince them I would never ask for welfare.

Disadvantages: the only German health insurance I could get would have cost me $35,000 a year, and they try to double tax me in violation of the Double Taxation Treaty. It’s expensive here, although having your salary paid out in the USA, and being taxed in both countries is not typical. Between the USA and Germany, they ask me for about 73% income tax. Heil Honecker! You can fall through certain cracks in Germany. My wife's a social worker here, and she often worked with some of the several hundred thousand Germans who have no health insurance. The “everything-is-free-there” crowd is lying to you: it is not. The EU is no more interested in immigrant freeloaders than North America is.


My younger daughter has it a little easier, as she is a dual citizen and gets paid in Germany, so she only pays about 50% in income taxes. That’s really important, since she makes many multiples of what I do.