Most newcomer checklists are a pile of tasks with no sequence. But German bureaucracy is a dependency chain: you can't get a bank account without an address registration, no tax ID without the registration, no permit appointment without insurance. Do things in the wrong order and you wait twice.
Here's the order that works — the same one the Expadu app builds for your specific situation.
Before you fly
- Passport validity — permits are capped at your passport's expiry date. If it expires within a year, renew before you leave.
- Documents that must travel with you: birth certificate, marriage certificate if applicable, degree certificates, and (non-EU students) proof of your blocked account. Getting certified translations is dramatically easier to arrange from home.
- Line up a first address. A sublet works — what matters is a landlord willing to sign the registration form (more on that below).
Days 1–14: the one hard deadline
Anmeldung — register your address. Within 14 days of moving in, at any Kundenzentrum in the city, free of charge. You need your passport and the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung (a form your landlord signs — the rental contract is not enough). Everything else in your German life hangs off this appointment.
We wrote the full English guide to the Anmeldung — the 14-day rule, the landlord form trap, and how to actually find a slot.
Weeks 1–3: the money-and-health layer
- Health insurance. Legally required, and payroll (or the university) will ask for it in week one. Employees: pick a public Krankenkasse and give the name to HR. Students: the discounted student rate is about €145/month all-in (2026). Freelancers: you self-register — public (voluntary) or private, and this choice is sticky, so decide deliberately.
- Your Steuer-ID arrives by post 2–4 weeks after Anmeldung, automatically. It looks like junk mail. It is not junk mail. No Steuer-ID at payroll time = maximum tax class until it arrives.
- Bank account. With your Meldebescheinigung and passport, any bank or neobank works. Rent, insurance and salary all want a European IBAN.
Weeks 2–8: your permit, if you need one
EU citizens: skip ahead — you're done with this section, no permit needed.
Everyone else: your visa has an expiry date, and Cologne's Ausländerbehörde books out weeks ahead — so submit your permit application well before the visa runs out. Which permit depends on your situation: standard work permit or EU Blue Card (salary threshold around €50.7k in 2026, lower in shortage jobs), student permit (enrolment + blocked account), family reunification (certificates + translations), or the §21 self-employment route (business plan + financing).
Two things that surprise people:
- Submitting the application before your visa expires protects your status while you wait (you may get a Fiktionsbescheinigung as proof).
- Your appointment date can be months out — that's normal, and legal, as long as you applied in time.
Month 1–3: the quiet obligations
- Rundfunkbeitrag (broadcast fee): €18.36/month, one per household — it finds your mailbox automatically after Anmeldung. If a flatmate already pays, you register that instead of paying twice.
- Haftpflichtversicherung (personal liability insurance): not mandatory, but ~€5/month and Germans consider you reckless without it. If you break someone's €2,000 e-bike, you'll agree.
- Transit ticket. If you ride more than about 4 times a week, the €63 Deutschlandticket beats paying per ride — check your own break-even with Cologne's 2026 fares.
After 90 days: lift your head
You're through the paperwork phase. Now the good part of arriving somewhere: your Veedel (Cologne's word for its neighbourhoods, each with its own character), the Rhine in the evening, third places that aren't a chain café. And a long-game marker worth knowing early: permanent residency has a fixed timeline per permit type — see your earliest date.
The honest caveat
Your situation changes this list. A student's path isn't a freelancer's; a family adds registrations and Kindergeld; the UK passport in your drawer changes the permit chapter entirely. That's exactly what Expadu does — it builds your checklist from your situation, tracks the deadlines, and tells you which office, with what documents, when.
Sources
Checked July 2026: Stadt Köln service portal (Anmeldung, Kundenzentren) · § 17 BMG (14-day rule) · Rundfunkbeitrag (€18.36) · Make it in Germany — EU Blue Card (salary thresholds) · KVB price table (fares).