1 year work visa (Germany based) arrival into EU
 

My husband's employer is getting him a 1 year work visa for a project based out their office near Frankfurt. For work purposes they will not allow us to stay a day over 1 year because it changes his assignment status with his company from a "short term" to "long term" and I am sure has some financial reasons. We are coming along with him and will get resident cards (I am not allowed to work under his visa status).

We are considering alternative means of getting to Europe/Germany instead of a direct flight--Transatlantic Cruise!!

The 1 cruise I am leaning towards if the timing works out would travel from Texas to Barcelona (2 wk Disney Magic). If we disembark in Spain --I would assume we would go thru some sort of passport checkpoint but then we have to make our way to Frankfurt. There is a good chance we will travel by train through Paris then onto Frankfurt. Is there a passport check at each city or how do we "arrive" into Germany and get proof for residency and have our passport stamped??

The 2nd cruise line option is Queen Mary 2 to London depending upon the date we can possibly get one that goes on to Hamburg. Obviously the Hamburg end point would be much easier to navigate but depending upon the corp desired start date may not be an option. Cunard runs the TA cruises regularly between NYC and London but then we would have to get from London to Frankfurt.

Are there any rules that say we must arrive directly into Germany? The cost of the cruise is about the same as the plane tickets.

Germany, France and Spain are all part of Schengen which means there are no passport checks between them (normally - they occasionally get reintroduced for special events like major sporting fixtures).

This means you will get your Schengen entry stamp in Spain.

When you arrive in Frankfurt you will need to register with the local authorities. I believe that's where all your formalities will get taken care of. (The office you need to go to will probably be called something like "Ausländeramt" or "Ausländerbehörde" - they use different names in different towns)

The UK is not part of Schengen so if you arrive via London then you will get a UK stamp there and a Schengen stamp when you enter Germany (or another Schengen country - if, for example, you choose to take a Eurostar train via France. Though, to be pedantic, you actually get your Schengen stamp in London if you travel by train as they do French passport checks there)

Thanks so much! They haven't used the word Schengen on any of husband's paperwork so I wasn't sure if it was the same one or not.

We at least have a relocation company thru his employer assisting us with the registration at our local town--but I believe we have to have an apartment first to register the address for our stay.

The fact that you are staying is irrelevant. There is nothing extra you need to do until you arrive at your destination. Don't confuse the issue and enjoy the trip.

You arrive. You get settled (apartment, house, car). You get your papers. Have fun getting a bank account and be sure and thank Obama and your Senator for that little problem.

Positioning cruises are the cheapest way to come over, but 2 weeks on a Disney ship with only 3 stops...I hope you have kids and a lot of patience. Plus, baggage can be a big problem on a cruise. There is never a lot of room, and if you are using this as a moving trip be careful.

Same goes for the train from Barcelona to Frankfurt via Paris. 7hrs to Paris is a long time on a train. Paris to Frankfurt is only 4hrs (I take it weekly) so a lot easier.

Be careful here!

If your husband is getting a 1 year work visa, that is NOT a 'Schengen Visa' as mentioned here! It will quite likely be a specific visa for Germany. And when you present that in Barcelona or wherever you enter the Schengen area they will not allow you in (except when you enter the Schengen area in Germany of course). It is true that there are no border controls between the Schengen countries, but you will not allowed in on a 'specific country visa' except for into the country concerned. And the usual 'Schengen visa' is only valid for a maximum of 90 days (in a rolling 180 day 'window'), so you certainly will not be getting one of those.

If you want to enter through Barcelona (or anywhere else but a German entry port), you will have to organise the appropriate paperwork for that option! The same applies if you want to visit other countries during your stay: although there are no border controls, in many countries (Netherlands comes to mind, but possibly others too), you MAY be asked for identification and with the 'German specific visa' you would be illegal!

I think/thought that a one-year work permit for Germany would allow "side-travel" to other Schengen area countries during its validity. I am not sure about the question of arrival into the Schengen area in the first place, however.

IIRC, there is a 400€/month exemption you can get if you really, really, really want to work and can actually find someone that will hire you.

It does. I do it all the time.

As US Citizens we can travel to Europe for 90 days no visa requirements.
So I don't think that part should matter. Just not sure how we present ourselves for official arrival in Frankfurt should we arrive other than by direct flight (or cruise ship into Hamburg).

I hope we get a firm start date soon so I can see my options and hopefully the relocation company will offer some assistance if there are any peculiarities of his visa. They had asked in correspondence if we would be taking a separate trip for apartment hunting so it seems he can visit prior to his official "work year" start date.

Hubby will be getting German health insurance and all of us will have Resident Cards. The kids and I will be covered under our worldwide insurance program thru our current provider with his employer.

I am sure the kids would be fine with 2 weeks on the cruise ship going to the Kid's Club. My son is drooling at the idea of another cruise. We couldn't pry them out of the club on our 1 wk NCL cruise to New England/Canada in September. They loved the sea day. If they can play, run around, video games, pool and watch movies/cartoons they will be happy. Pretty laid back and low maintenance. The kids club staff spoiled them! Most of our vacations are 10 days.

I will get to relax-no cooking, cleaning and no running around to gymnastics, soccer, dance and boy scouts!! And I can walk to the bar! Sounds like the perfect vacation! And the cruise ship can store our excess luggage. Getting the luggage from the cruise ship to our final destination is probably the bigger problem.

You do not "arrive" in Germany officially. That doesn't happen until you have a place and you present yourself down at City Hall. You will then register as being a resident of that address (not a concept that exists in the US) and they will sort you out then.

No real limit on luggage on the train, but with kids, they tend to not be able to handle much luggage on their own. Have the company ship your stuff if possible.

Of course you can visit before. You are a tourist for 90 days. I HIGHLY recomment that the both of you go appartment hunting together at least 30 to 90 days before you are planning on moving. You can google moving to Germany and find absolutely masses of information. Most will target the military but it is easy to weed out the parts that are not related to you.

I must admit, your hubby's employer doesn't appear to be very on the ball about informing you what you need to do. Where are you planning on putting the kids in school? What town are you planning on living in? Where is the end-client for your husband? Banks are downtown but their IT departments are north of Frankfurt. Not sure why your husband would get local medical coverage and you not, but this is often and arrangement between the company and the host country. Make sure his contract includes tax equalization coverage and assistance doing your German AND US tax returns becuase you are going to have to file both.

They are helping us with the tax thing and our personal CPA has other clients that work overseas so she is pretty familiar with the process and rules.

Basically they want hubby to go over for the YEAR ---alone---and we are supposed to stay here and he is to visit us every 2 months. We asked for an exception for the family to accompany him so basically it is all on us for anything extra needed because of that. They don't give him any additional money or assist me and the kids at all. It would be different if he had a 2 yr assignment and everything including us and our personal goods/housing etc...would be included. Since they consider this temporary they are limited in what they offer.

The way the contract is worded--they don't want the overseas assignment to be a big boost in $. So money/taxes/COLA should equalize things comparable to living here in North Carolina. As they put it no LOSS and possibly a gain but it would be negligible.

His job site is either Eschborn or Schwalbach. They have offices in both places and engineering is in Rodelheim but he probably wont have any dealings with that site. I have researched the schools and since they will not offer any financial assistance --I am going with German public schools. It is just for a year and my son can make up his 2nd grade material easily. My daughter would be in Kindergarten if we can find an opening. If not I will just do some homeschooling and reinforce what she has been learning. I have plenty of online resources. I plan to have the boy work on 2nd grade a few times a week just to keep familiar. His current principal felt confident that he would easily catch up once we get him back him US schools. Fortunately they are not that far in their schooling.

Ok. Clearer. Be carefull about using complete town names though. Schwalbach is 200km from Frankfurt, near the Franch border, whereas Schwalbach am Taunus is a suburb of Frankfurt. You mean the latter.

Housing is much smaller than you are used to. Here is a site to give you an idea:

http://www.immobilienscout24.de/immo...+am+taunus.htm

Oh thanks! Didn't realize there was another....usually my Google map just says Schwalbach! Kinda like Frankfurt am Main?!

I have been all over the immobilienscout and immoworld.de websites checking out places just to get an idea of what is avail in certain price ranges and areas. An email we received today says July 1st start date now which is probably putting any of the transatlantic cruises out of the running unless we can work out getting into an apartment early. I think they only cover 2 wks hotel and 2-3 wks rental car. At least we got our housing allowance confirmed at 1000 Euro. That is the amount we were expecting.

I hope we get the rest of our financial details next week. They are really dragging this stuff out! We have been working on this since September and dates keep changing. Hard to live a life here in NC not knowing our future!

I figured you might bring up Frankfurt am Main and Frankfurt. That is actually different since Frankfurt is a tiny town on the border. It is like Paris. Yes, everybody knows Paris, Texas exists, but nobody would assume you are talking about it. Schwalbach and Schwalbach am Taunus aren't very different in size and aren't too far apart, so easily confused.

I see!

Going to email the Relocation company and see if they can provide some additional assistance and possibly give a name/type of visa.

It looks like if I hang out in Barcelona for 2 days I can get direct flights for a reasonable price! So hoping that we can arrive "early" still and take the cruise over.