I am moving to Denmark from Germany. This blog post documents everything I did and had to do for that. I'll try to order it chronologically, though there might be some jumps in time for clarity.

I will write up some text for every major step. If you're just interested in the itemized list: look here.

Preparation

For context, I've somehow got into the situation of having a danish girlfriend while living in the middle of Germany. While that relationship wasn't to last, the impression Denmark left on me was. We're still good friends, which will come in handy for the move. While I cannot give a good checklist on how to, I strongly recommend knowing someone from Denmark to learn about how they operate. A place to start can be the Danish Language Discord Server. They host community-driven classes and share learning material. On the topic of language: I tried to learn Danish. One problem with that is that Danes, especially the younger generations, are exceptional at English, to the point that I essentially lived at my girlfriend's place for what amounts to around one year, without needing to speak Danish at all.

Resources

Planning

I set up a list of things I had to cancel, register and notify institutions of my move. One important thing to note is that, because I hold a passport of an EU member state, I am allowed to stay in Denmark for up to 6 months without having to register for a residency permit (ICS Checklist). Before you plan anything else, I recommend browsing the official german brochure for moving into another European country. While ordering the post-redirection, I came across their great resource for moving: moving checklist.

You should also be aware that the rent, as well as security and up-front payments for renting any property, are a lot higher in Denmark than in Germany.

Denmark

On the Danish side, you will have to contact the closest ICS.

The checklist outlines the main things one has to apply for when wanting to stay over six months:

  1. Residency permit
  2. CPR Number
  3. Tax Card
  4. NemID / NemKonto
  5. A-Konto

Also, an honorable mention: if you own a car and plan to drive it in Denmark, you can import it (which will be expensive), but also be aware that if you plan to drive between Germany and Sjælland (the big island with Kopenhagen on it) that there is no free way onto that island. You can take a toll bridge from Sweden you can take a nice ferry from Rostock to Gedser for ~60-120€, take a worse ferry from Puttgarden to Rødby for the same kinda price or take the Storebælt-Bridge between Fyn and Sjælland for ~200DKK (25€) after a Signup with BroBizz. They are currently working on a tunnel, but it will also have fees, which are not announced yet, at the time of writing.

CPR Number

Having had another look at my options, I am considering acquiring a CPR temporarily earlier in one of two ways:

  1. self-sufficient funds (savings + own income)
  2. self-sufficient funds (a vouching danish person)

Priorities

As my move approaches, the order in which I want to get things are changing.

I will rather quickly need to get internet and phone number. I have decided to go with Oister for now, as they service the area I will be in, and I have not heard anything bad about them. They offer a seemingly quite good phone plan for 79DKK/month and a mobile wifi plan for 229DKK/month. I played with the idea of just getting a phone plan and two sim cards for it, thus saving the 229DDK/month, but I like hosting some of my data and port-forward, which is a hassle with phone hotspots. While the wifi plan is quite a downgrade from my current service, as it is only a 4G/LTE router, being able to move with it is very nice as I plan to move as soon as I can afford a bigger flat. The phone plan will be an upgrade for me, as I am currently on a terrible Vodafone DE plan.

However, I would like to have internet and phone already be paid from a danish bank account if possible. This way, I would avoid surprising surcharges due to conversions (which I am currently experiencing sometimes). This would mean I need to get a bank account first, which should be possible as I can prove that I have permanent residence in Denmark. While it seems possible to open a bank account in Denmark without a CPR number, it seems discouraged, especially as I do not have a Danish employer, at least for the first few months. A possible bank is Lån & Spar. I have written them an E-mail with my exact situation, awaiting a response.

Ideally, to fit my needs, this order would be ideal:

  1. Bank account
  2. Internet & phone plan (danish bank)
  3. CPR number
  4. NemID/NemKonto
  5. Tax card

However, I might need to aim for:

  1. Internet & phone plan (german bank)
  2. CPR number
  3. Tax card
  4. Bank account
  5. NemID/NemKonto

Germany

I'm allowing myself some overlap because of the current pandemic and because the flat I ended up finding was too good an offer. So I may have signed the contract a bit too early.

  1. Sell all the stuff you don't need
  2. Cancel all the things
  3. De-register current residence
  4. Update running contracts

Ending Rent

This should have been an easy E-Mail, but my landlord decided to want an additional month of rent from me, which I argue they have no right to require. The rent contract references the BGB. As I wrote on 1. May, I count three months as follows: May, June, July, and, therefore, end the contract for the 31.7.2021. They, however, moved the goalposts and required a written letter on the 15. May, after ignoring me until then.

I also offered the landlord to buy the washing machine straight off of me because I won't meet the next tenant. They will try to sell it to the next tenant for me and have the tenant send me the money directly.

Notice of Departure

The Abmeldung bei der Meldebehörde should be handed in one week before or up to two weeks after your move. A reason for doing this early is that the document you get in response is required to cancel internet contracts ahead of term.

Moving

I started setting up a moving plan for my dad and me.

TODO: this hasn't happened yet

I kept an eye on job postings that fit me. As I was playing with the idea of continuing my academic path as a post-grad, I wrote an RSS feed for SDU vacancies. Later, I found the SDU Jobbank which also includes non-academic jobs.

TODO: this hasn't happened yet

Protocol

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