Admin essentials when starting out

Registration

Your first step after moving to Mainz will be to complete your registration with the city. You can book an appointment for registration online at this link, and it is wise to book an appointment ASAP. You can even book an appointment before physically moving if you know when you will move. The university has provided some guidelines on booking an appointment here. The appointment will be at the Bürgeramt (=citizenship office) in Mainz, located on Kaiserstraße 3-5.
To register, you will need to have

  • Your passport (and a visa if applicable).
  • A residence address to which mail can be sent. This will ideally be the place you intend to stay at for a prolonged period of time, but an AirBnB or similar is also okay as long as it has a post-box. If the latter, you will later need to inform the city when you relocate. See here for how this is done.
  • Proof that you are indeed staying at the address mentioned above. If you are renting a place, you should ask your landlord/landlady for a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung.
  • If you are married, a marriage certificate (offically translated into German)
  • If you are registering children, you also need to carry ID proof for your children.

When you register, you will receive a piece of paper from the citizenship office called an Anmeldebescheinigung (=registration certificate). Hold on to this certificate, you could need it for many things. Most immediately, if you wish to open a German bank account, they will almost certainly ask you for your registration certificate. A week or two after registering, you will receive your Steuer ID (= tax ID) by post to the address you registered. This ID should be communicated to both JGU’s HR contact and to Sabine (our secretary). This is important because you cannot be paid without a Steuer ID.

Certificate of Conduct

The certificate of conduct is a police document required by JGU that essentially checks whether you have a criminal record in your home country. Everyone with an employment contract must submit a Certificate of Conduct to the university within the first three months of starting. Like Registration, the Certificate of Conduct is obtained from the Bürgeramt. The Certificate requires a €13 fee (to be paid by card). The Burgeramt will send the certificate directly to JGU’s HR: The address of HR is Dezernat Personal, Forum universitatis 3, 550099 Mainz. Both registration and getting the Certificate of Conduct can be done in the same appointment — I recommend doing this to save yourself time, there is no point in booking two separate appointments.

Bank accounts and getting your salary

You will be paid on the last working day of each month. To be paid, the university needs to have your Steuer ID. You also need to have a bank account that has an IBAN. As far as I (Shikhara) am aware, this is a largely European concept, so if you are not from Europe, you will likely have to create a local bank account to be paid. You can open a bank account immediately after registering with the city (see above), though some banks may have more stringent requirements than others (for instance, Sparkasse sometimes requires long-term residence permits). See here for some opinions on various banks in Germany to see your options. I (Shikhara) use Commerzbank because they have a branch in Mainz, have a very straightforward online process for opening an account, and offer English customer service. I have also heard good things about online banks like N26 and Revolut. However, please do your own research before taking financial advice on which bank to choose. Once you have an IBAN, you should share your IBAN with Sabine. This, again, is important for getting your salary.
When you get your first payslip, you will be able to find the Personalnummer that has been given to you by the Landesamt für finanzen (LfF). The Personalnummer is an eight digit number assigned to you by the LfF and is important for tax purposes, so keep note of it. In general, if you contact the LfF for queries related to your salary, tax contributions, or tax returns, you will need to quote your Personalnummer. You should also hold on to all the payslips you receive because you could need them for administrative purposes (for instance, when applying for a residence permit, see below). You will also need your Personalnummer to get travel expenses reimbursed.

Applying for a residence permit

If you are staying in Germany for longer than a year, you will need to apply for a residence permit. A residence permit essentially supersedes a visa and will be given for the length of your contract (or until your passport expires if that happens first). Applications for residence permits from JGU scientists are processed differently by the Bürgeramt, so do not try to apply for a residence permit independently. Instead, write an email to the JGU Welcome Center (welcome[at]international[dot]uni[hyphen]mainz[dot]de) saying you are employed with us and need a residence permit, and the Welcome Center will arrange for an appointment with the Burgerämt and give you further directions. When you first write to the Welcome Center for this, they will ask you to fill out some forms they send, and also send them copies of

  • Your passport and visa
  • Your rental certificate
  • Your employment certiciate
  • A hosting agreement from Hanna
  • A health insurance certificate (not just a card)
  • Your last three payslips

For the appointment with the Burgerämt itself, you will need

  • A current (= at most six month old) biometric picture of yourself.
  • Your passport and visa if applicable.
  • A debit card to pay a fee of €100 (they don’t take cash). I (Shikhara) was able to get this reimbursed by the university, so hang on to the receipt.

You will need to visit the Burgerämt in person a few weeks after this appoint to pick up your residence permit (the Burgerämt will give you an exact date). While your application is being processed (after the first appointment but before you pick it up), it is possible to ask the Burgerämt for a Fiktionsbescheinigung, a temporary form for any immigration/border authorities that says that your application is being processed. I would recommend taking this form just to be safe. The residence permit process can take a really long time, so make sure to contact the Welcome Center well before your visa expires. This is really important because your contract will be terminated immediately by HR if you do not have a residence permit in hand before your visa expires.