Your Expat Community in Berlin

That totally depends on what you are looking for and what’s important to you. Berlin only ranked 45th out of 49 cities in our Expat Insider 2023 survey, but that is mainly due to the fact that expats find it hard to get used to German culture, struggle with the language, are frustrated by the bureaucracy, and complain about the slow digitalization. If you’re willing to put up with that, Berlin is an exciting place that attracts many interesting people from around the world, and you can be almost certain to find your crowd. Check out our Pros & Cons and further Q&As below for more detailed insights.

It all depends on what you want to do in Berlin and where you come from. Citizens of EU countries are generally free to visit, live and work in any EU member state. If you’re from a non-EU country, different regulations apply. As a general rule, all foreigners who are not EU or EEA citizens or Swiss nationals require visas for stays of more than three months and/or if they want to take up gainful employment. If you want to start work in Germany, you need to apply for the necessary residence title at the German mission abroad before entering Germany – unless you are a national of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, or the USA, in which case you can apply for the residence title after arrival. Access to the German labour market is restricted for non-EU/EEA citizens. It depends on your academic qualifications, skills profile, and the salary offered for the job in question. Since there is a skills shortage in many areas of work, from care work to IT, academic qualifications aren’t a pre-requesite as long as you can prove the necessary professional qualifications. A word of warning though: Although processes have been simplified in recent years, it can still take a fairly long time to get your professional qualifications recognized and your work permit approved.

compared to other European capitals and even other major German cities, Berlin is relatively affordable. A renter’s paradise in the early 2000s, with lots of available properties at very low cost, accommodation has become scarce and rental prices have seen a very steep increase in recent years. But you can save in other areas of daily life. With more restaurants and cafes than you can try out in a life time, there are options for eating out that suit almost every budget. If you’re on a budget, Germany, the home of the food discounter, offers plenty of opportunities for cheap grocery shopping. On the other hand, you can also find plenty of delis and organic food shops around the city which offer high-quality, sometimes locally-sourced produce. The vibrant arts, culture and entertainment scene holds countless opportunities to spend money, but there are also free activities happening around town, especially during the summer months.

The average rent per square metre is 15 EUR/month (2024) – “cold”, as they say in Germany (Kaltmiete), meaning electricity, heating, and some other service costs are not included. Depending on the size of your apartment and the heating system of the building you live in, these bills will add another 150 EUR at least to your monthly rent. These averages are for unfurnished apartments, which are the rule in Germany. Places like Berlin offer furnished apartments as well, but rent for theses places is basically uncapped and massively exceeds local averages. As with any city, rents in highly-sought after areas are much higher than the average, and it gets cheaper the further you move into the suburbs — except some of the Western suburbs, which are among the most affluent areas in Berlin.

Most apartments for rent are listed on Germany’s big property websites, such as ImmoScout24. There are also websites specifically catering to those looking for rooms in shared aparments (called WG for Wohngemeinschaft in German), e.g. WG-Gesucht. Competition from other hopeful renters is usually fierce, so if you have access to any sort of network, e.g. through your employer or university, make use of it during your hunt for accommodation.

Having a health insurance is obligatory in Germany. Generally, you have the choice between private or public health insurance. The latter is called Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung in German. Public health insurances have to accept everybody, unless you have previously been privately insured. In that case, you need to be an employee (as opposed to a freelancer, for example) under 55 years of age with a gross annual income below 69,300 EUR (2024) in order to be let back into the public healthcare system.

Both in the public and the private sector, you can choose your insurance provider freely; there are more than 90, often regional, public health insurance providers alone. If you have a regular German employment contract, 14.6% of your monthly salary goes towards your health insurance if you opt for the public system; however, half of that is covered by your employer.

If you opt for a private provider, you can choose from a wide variety of tarifs to meet your individual needs, but you’ll need to undergo a health check first. For employees with a high salary or for freelancers, private health insurance is often cheaper than public health insurance – unless you have pre-existing health conditions. On the other hand, it can put you into financial difficulties should you lose your income or retire.

If you fall ill, your first point of contact is usually your Hausarzt (“house doctor”, a general practitioner). They will refer you to a specialist if necessary, but waiting times can be long. In case of emergency, the nearest hospital is often the better choice.

Berlin has a good public transport network, run by the BVG (Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe). It consists of trams, busses, underground and overground trains, which take you almost everywhere. The BVG website, where you can find all information on the different transport options and also plan your journey, is very accessible and offers an English and an easy language version. They also have different apps: The BVG Ticket App, which is great if you know where you’re going and simply want to buy the ticket on the go; the BVG Fahrinfo App, which lets you plan your journey and buy tickets as well; and the Jelbi App, which combines all of Berlin’s mobility offers, including taxis and sharing providers for bikes or scooters. Car sharing providers are also abundant in Berlin, so that unless you need to travel outside the city on a regular basis, owning a car is generally not necessary and even not recommended. Only very few apartments in Berlin come with their own parking space.

Although Berlin is a vast city, it is very walkable for shorter distances. For longer distances, cycling is a great way of getting around if you’re up for it. Some of the bicycle lanes are still old and narrow, but many of the big roads in the city now have one lane closed off to motorized traffic and reserved for bicycles and scooters.

For every-day life, especially if your job doesn’t require you to speak German, English is sufficient. In fact, in some of the trendy areas of town, it has almost become the lingua franca, and you are automatically greeted in English when entering a restaurant, a hairdresser’s, or your neighbourhood yoga studio. It gets a bit more cumbersome when you need to deal with official documents or local authorities: On top of the gruelling bureaucracy, not all communication is available in English. And not only is German a notoriously difficult language to learn, but Behördendeutsch (“institutional” or “bureaucratic German”) is on another level. It’s hard to understand even for native German speakers!

By international standards, Berlin is a relatively safe metropolis, and crime statistics have reached a 10-year low in 2024. As in most places, try to avoid dark, unlit spaces at night, esepcially if you are alone. Görlitzer Park, in the Kreuzberg district, often makes it into the local news for being a notoriously unsafe place to hang out at night, and it is also known as a drug dealing hotspot. Generally speaking, theft and pickpocketing are the most likely instances of crime you might encounter in Berlin, but they can usually be avoided by applying common sense. For example: If you have a bicycle, invest in a proper lock and never leave it unlocked, not even in your own basement. Or if you use public transport at night, make sure to not fall asleep.

Yes and no. According to our Expat Insider 2023 survey, Berlin residents are considered the second least friendly among all the cities featured in our survey. This might explain why almost 39% of expats don’t feel at home in Berlin, which is almost twice as high as the average in all 49 cities in our survey. The famous “Berliner Schnauze” could play a part in this, if you don’t get along with a slightly rough humour and a very direct, sometimes laconic way of communication. This perceived unfriendliness is probably also one of the reasons why expats in Berlin tend to find it hard to make friends with the locals. Another reason might be – and that’s the good news – that there simply are a lot of other international people around to make friends with. Berlin is a melting pot with a big expat community, and newcomers to the city often find it easier to make friends with other expats than with the locals.

Berlin is such a diverse place that no matter what your interests, hobbies, or fetishes are, you’ll find a community to share them with. A good place to start is of course InterNations: Connecting global minds is what we stand for, and our events and interest-based groups are perfect for making new connections and forging international friendships. The motto at all our events is “nobody stands alone”, and we take this seriously. Turning up on your own without knowing anybody is totally normal — we’ve all been there before!

But we’d be lying if we were to say that InterNations is the only way to meet people in Berlin. Meetup also offers a variety of groups catering to English speakers, and Instagram, Facebook, or Eventbrite are always useful when it comes to finding events you’re interested in. Dating apps are popular as well, and many of them now also offer networking or finding friends options. Last but not least, try to connect with the community around you. Speaking German helps, but some neighbourhoods are so international that even if you just turn up at your local yoga studio or gym, there will be classes in English.