Step Four: Moving to Cologne

The next two pieces of information that I will give you are by far the most crucial factors according the city of Cologne. As an American student and according to laws as they stand in 2012, you must register with the city upon arrival (as soon as you have a physical address) and apply for a Residence Permit. Because the US and Germany have a fairly open border agreement, you can enter the country with only a passport and apply for your living permit from within their borders. You will not need a visa to live here or to enter, but if you plan on staying past your 90 day travel limit, then you will need a Residence Permit. Depending on the length of your program this information may or may not apply to you.

The next step is registering with the city; for this step it does not matter in which district you are living as you can register at any of the offices around the city. However, you must apply for your Residence Permit within your own district so I would recommend doing both at the same time in your own district to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I did not know this when I started the process so I hit several speed bumps along the way.


I made my way on that first day in Cologne to the Kundenzentrum-Innenstadt (Inner City Customer Center); because of its proximity to the Dom and the Hauptbahnhof (Central Train Station). I thought I could pop in, get my papers and head back to Siegen without paying extra for a hotel as I wouldn’t be able to move in until the week after. I entered the building and found myself in a large room with no English signage and no one to greet me at the door. I have found that, in Germany at least, administration runs on self-initiative; this has been a valuable life lesson along the way, though a difficult one in terms of cultural assimilation. Thus, I presented myself to an official looking gentleman at a desk and kindly asked, “sprechen Sie Englisch?” His limited vocabulary soon had me standing alone in a waiting room full of people; I took a number and proceeded to wait for 90 minutes before my number popped onto the screen overhead. The process of registering was simple, quick and easy! Well, if the advisor spoke better English, it would have been. She asked questions by gesticulating and showing me examples through her broken English and slow, articulated German. After 15 minutes she had made copies and entered the necessary information. When you go to register, you will need:


-registration form (they fill this out with you)
-a valid passport
-the name and address of the landlord (the rental agreement/subtenancy agreement)

Afterward, I asked her where the office was to apply for my Residence Permit. She walked me to the door because she couldn’t explain in directions due to the language barrier; we both then discovered that the office had closed while I was sitting with her and would not take me even though I had been in their building for near two hours. She apologized and wrote down the opening hours for me to come in the morning.