Moving to Germany: Career, Visa & Family Tips

What does it take to build a career and a family in a country that isn’t yours? Fernanda moved from Brazil to Berlin eight years ago to do an MBA at IU. Today she has a marketing career, two children and a home of her own in Germany. She talks openly about the path in between.

Fernanda Guimarães...

comes from São Paulo, Brazil, and has lived in Germany for eight and a half years. She holds an MBA in Marketing from IU International University of Applied Sciences and began her career in logistics in Brazil, at companies such as Unilever, Oxiteno and PepsiCo. In Berlin, Fernanda moved into marketing: she started at Zalando as a working student and intern, became Global Category Marketing Specialist and worked as Influencer Marketing Manager at OneFootball. Today, Fernanda works as Senior Project Manager at the marketing agency act.3, where she takes care of adidas’ membership program adiClub.

Moving to Germany: The four numbers and deadlines that matter

Visa money, real living costs and your first official errand: four things that make the start easier.

In the episode, Fernanda Guimarães tells how she prepared for Berlin from Brazil with an intensive German course. Language is a great start. But a few practical things decide whether your first weeks feel smooth or stressful.

1. The money proof. Students from outside the EU usually need a blocked account (Sperrkonto) for the visa. Right now that means €11,904 for a year, or €992 a month. Proof of tuition fees paid in advance (one year) is also increasingly requested by German embassies. The amount can change, and the Federal Foreign Office website lists the current figure.

2. The real budget. That amount is a minimum, not a budget. University cost-of-living guidance suggests planning €1,000–1,200 a month and warns that tight housing markets push that figure higher. Typical examples: €300–510 for a student residence room, €350–600 for a shared flat. Costs differ by city. You should expect to pay between €450 and €650/700 on average per month for a room in a shared apartment in Cologne.

3. The waiting time. Embassies quote around six to twelve weeks for a student visa, sometimes longer. So book your appointment as soon as your admission letter arrives and wait for your visa confirmation to book your flights.

4. The Anmeldung. Within two weeks of moving in, you have to register your address at the local registration office. The office asks for your passport or residence permit and a confirmation from your landlord (Wohnungsgeberbestätigung), which landlords are required to give you. In return you get the certificate that banks and offices ask for, from opening an account to applying for your residence permit.

German admin stays German admin. But with these four sorted early, the rest is mostly a matter of working through the list, and our pre-arrival checklist has it in full. Check it out: Your First Six Months at IU

Starting your career in Germany: Rules, routes and CV basics

How much you can work while studying, how long you can stay to find a job, and what a German CV looks like.

Working student, intern, first full-time role: a common route, and one this episode follows. If you come from outside the EU, a few rules shape it. (EU citizens face none of these limits.)

While you study: You can work up to 140 full days or 280 half days a year without extra approval. A half day is up to four hours. Alternatively, you can work up to 20 hours a week during lectures.

After you graduate: Students can extend their residence permit for 18 months to find a job in Germany, with strong career prospects in various industries. The 18 months are a total, not per degree, and there is no extension, so apply before your student permit expires. In the meantime, you can take any job to pay the bills.

Your CV: In Germany, it's typically one or two pages, in reverse chronological order, with short bullet points instead of long paragraphs. Keep the timeline complete, because gaps tend to get asked about, and state language skills with levels such as B2 or C1 rather than words like fluent. References at the end are unusual here; instead, employers expect copies of your certificates and written references from previous employers as attachments. A photo is no longer required, but it's still common. The federal Make it in Germany portal has templates and checklists for the whole application package.

Student jobs are an ideal way to gather first work experience and build valuable contacts while you are still studying, so you start your career with a head start.

Career and family in Germany: What working parents should know

Protection from dismissal, parental leave, childcare and an honest look at the pay gap.

In the episode, Fernanda Guimarães says that having children didn't slow down her career in Germany. Here is the framework behind that, plus a reality check.

Protected from day one. From the start of a pregnancy until four months after the birth, employers can dismiss you only in rare exceptions. Maternity protection begins six weeks before the due date and lasts eight weeks after the birth.

Time and money. Each parent can take up to three years of parental leave per child, working up to 32 hours a week. Parental allowance (Elterngeld) replaces about two thirds of your net income (€300–1,800 a month) for 12 months, or 14 if both parents take part. Amounts can change; the federal Family Portal lists current figures. Who actually takes that time is a different story: in 2025, 25.9% of claimants were fathers, planning 3.8 months on average against 14.9 for mothers.

Childcare. From their first birthday, every child has a legal right to a place in a day-care centre or with a childminder. The right exists on paper everywhere; the places do not. Research by the German Economic Institute puts the shortfall for under-threes at around 300,000 places in 2025, which is roughly one in seven children, and the situation is tighter in western Germany than in the east. In practice that means registering early, often while still pregnant, putting your name down at several centres, and asking your city about the local waiting list procedure. If no place comes through, parents can in principle claim the right, but that takes time you may not have.

The reality check. In 2025, women in Germany earned 16% less per hour than men, €22.81 against €27.05. Most of that gap comes from structures rather than individual choices: women work part-time more often, are concentrated in sectors and occupations that pay less, and more often hold jobs with lower requirement levels. Even with the same job, qualification and work history, women still earned 6% less per hour, and the Federal Statistical Office points out that this figure might be smaller if data on career breaks for pregnancy, childbirth and caregiving were available. The gap is not a personal failing, it is a pattern. And it varies widely: 4% in the public sector against 17% in the private sector, 5% in eastern against 17% in western Germany.

The law gives you a solid base. Equal pay and shared leave are not the law's job to deliver, they are the employer's.