Documents for living in Germany

This page is for people who are already in Germany or are only planning to move and want to understand which papers they will need and in what order. It gives the overall picture. Detailed steps for individual documents are on the pages linked at the end.

# How do address registration, the Steuer-ID and a residence permit differ?

Address registration records where you live, and the Steuer-ID is needed for taxes. Only a residence permit gives you the right to live in Germany. The Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) explicitly states that the Steuer-ID says nothing about either a person’s status or their right to work.

# In what order are documents issued?

Usually you register your address first, then the Steuer-ID arrives, your permit application is processed in parallel, and the social insurance number comes with your first job. For people under temporary protection, the federal portal germany4ukraine.de describes this order: initial registration, allocation to a place of residence (if you need benefits), address registration, permit application.

1. Address registration. Within two weeks of moving in, you must register with the registration office where you live. Your landlord must confirm in writing that you have moved in (Wohnungsgeberbestätigung).
2. Steuer-ID. The registration office passes your data to the BZSt itself, and the number arrives by letter at your registered address. It is communicated only by letter. As a rule, the letter is not sent to any other address; if someone else requests the number for you, the BZSt needs a written power of attorney.
3. Residence permit. People under temporary protection must apply to the Ausländerbehörde within 90 days of their first entry. While the application is being processed, you receive a Fiktionsbescheinigung, and after that the permit card.
4. Health insurance. Everyone who lives in Germany must have health insurance. Employees and recipients of the basic income support Grundsicherungsgeld are compulsorily insured in statutory health insurance. Exceptions: in a Minijob (a job with earnings of up to €603 a month) there is no compulsory health insurance, and employees who earn above the annual limit set by law may stay outside statutory health insurance. An employee chooses a health insurance fund (Krankenkasse) within two weeks of the start of compulsory insurance; otherwise the employer registers them with one.
5. Social insurance number. It is assigned by the pension insurance; if you do not have a number yet, your employer requests it when registering you as an employee. The document with the number (Versicherungsnummernachweis) is free; you do not need to pay private companies for it.

You can open a bank account before you have all your documents: how to do it is explained in the article A bank account in Germany for Ukrainians (in Ukrainian).

# How much do documents cost?

A residence permit costs €100 and a Fiktionsbescheinigung €13; for minors the fees are half as much. People who cannot support themselves without basic income support, social assistance or benefits under the Asylum Seekers’ Benefits Act (AsylbLG) do not pay for issuing or extending a permit or for a Fiktionsbescheinigung. Federal rules contain no separate fee exemption specifically for holders of temporary protection. The full list of fees is on the page Residence permit card (eAT) and Fiktionsbescheinigung.

# Do Ukrainian documents need an apostille and translation?

If a German institution requires a Ukrainian official document to be certified, you need an apostille, not consular legalization. The 1961 Hague Apostille Convention has applied between Germany and Ukraine since July 2010: Germany first objected to Ukraine’s accession and withdrew that objection on 22 July 2010.

The apostille is affixed by Ukrainian authorities; the German Embassy in Kyiv does not do this. According to the embassy:

• civil registry (RATsS), court and notarial documents are certified by the Ministry of Justice; for a document that has already been issued, you can get an apostille at a larger civil registry office if you bring the original, or you can order a duplicate;
• diplomas are certified by the Ministry of Education and Science;
• the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the State Migration Service and the State Tax Service certify their own documents;
• in other cases, the apostille is affixed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ukraine does not affix an apostille to documents issued in Crimea after 17 March 2014, and, according to the embassy, marriages concluded there after that date are not recognized. In March 2022, Ukraine informed the parties to the convention that during the armed aggression it could not guarantee full performance of its obligations. On 1 December 2023 it clarified that the convention applies in full, except in territories where hostilities are or were taking place and in temporarily occupied territories.

You can find sworn translators by language and city in the official database of the state court administrations, justiz-dolmetscher.de. Which documents must be translated by a sworn translator is decided by the institution you are dealing with; we did not find a general federal rule.

# How do you get a Ukrainian diploma recognized?

You apply for recognition to the authority responsible for your profession, and it must decide within three months of receiving all the documents. Recognition is mandatory only for professions whose access is regulated by law, for example doctor, nurse or teacher. The anerkennung-in-deutschland.de portal, available in Ukrainian among other languages, explains which authority is responsible for your profession; the “Integration durch Qualifizierung (IQ)” network gives free advice, and for higher education, so does the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB). More on the page Work in Germany.

# What mistakes should you avoid?

• Treating address registration or the Steuer-ID as a residence permit.
• Putting off address registration: without it you will not get a Steuer-ID, and if an employee, through their own fault, does not give the employer the number, the employer withholds tax under tax class VI.
• Paying intermediaries for the document with your social insurance number: it is issued free of charge.
• Waiting for an apostille from the German embassy: only Ukrainian authorities affix it.