Receiving your POV

Once you arrive in Germany one of the first things on your mind is probably "where is my car?" It can be very frustrating wondering where it is when you’re sitting in the hotel with nowhere to go. You can track your car from status from www.whereismypov.com. You will need to enter the sponsors last name and his/her social or order# given to you by the VPC when you dropped it off. When your car has arrived you will receive an email that it’s ready for pick up. If you call asking for updates they will ask "have you received an email yet?"  Also, once your car has arrived in Germany and is on a truck to your location it will not tell you where it is. It will only tell you it arrived at the port.

Once you receive the email you will need to take ALL your POV paperwork from shipping it with you to pick it up (especially the POA). You cannot pick up your car unless you have your German drivers license so be sure you have that. The VPC to pick up your car may not be at your exact location. For example, if you're stationed at Vilseck, your car will be at the Grafenwoher VPC. When you go to pick it up you will need to go to the registration office first (expect to wait a little bit, the earlier the better) and tell them your car is ready to be picked up. They have to issue you temporary license plates first just so you can drive it out of the parking lot. They will look at your paperwork, drivers license and you must pay either 15 or 30 dollars (sorry, I can't remember) and then they will issue you a new German registration. Make sure you have both the soldier and spouse name on the registration. You need both names on it so both names can be on the gas ration card. Once you have the registration you can go to the actual VPC office and show them you have the registration and temporary plates. This is where they will need your POA if you have one. They will take you to your car where you personally look it over to make sure there are no scratches or dents that weren't previously there. If there are, be sure to tell them and they will document it (this will later be taken to the claims office). Their paper to document dents and scratches is carbon copy paper, be sure to write hard enough to copy through. If the claims office can't read it they will have to go through a process to get the original. After you inspect the car they will place the temporary places on. You then have 30 days to get your car inspected on post by the German inspection center. The inspection itself will only take about 15 minutes but the line to get the inspection could be very long so prepare to wait. Once your car has been inspected and passed you will then go back to the registration office, the first place, and they will issue you the official license plates. Once you have those you have freedom! Enjoy exploring!

German drivers license

If you want to drive in Germany you must first have a valid stateside drivers license. If you are stateside right now and your license is close to expiring get it renewed! Once you get here you will need to go to the drivers class, which is about 2 hours long. Immediately after the class they give you the test. Good old fashion pencil and paper test! The class goes over or reviews about 98% of what is on the test but it’s important you study before the class. You can go by the drivers test office and ask for a book to study. The signs are one of the most important parts of the test. If you don’t like to study the least you should do is learn the signs. You will not be able to learn them all in the 2 hour class. Once you pass your test they give you a 90 day temporary license (which is good to drive on) and they will mail you an official German license in about 2 weeks.

Depending on your location, the times available to take the drivers test will vary. At Vileck they say civilians take them only on Thursdays. The other days are for soldiers and in-processing groups. The sooner you get your license the better! Once your car arrives you want to be able to pick it up! 

Don't stress about the test. It's not that hard. Most of it is common sense and very similar the driving in the states. Just learn those signs and you'll be fine!

 

        Hubs and I after we passed our driving test (horrible picture). 

                      We were excited to get out and explore!

  

Receiving HHG and UB

Receiving your HHG and UB in Germany can be a little overwhelming. All these boxes coming into the house and people that don't speak English constantly asking "where does this go?" If you don’t know any German you might want to try to learn these words: bedroom, kitchen, living room, office, bathroom, 1^st floor, 2^nd floor, one, two , three and four. Most Germans speak English but if they don’t speak it they usually understand it. But that is not the case for all of them. You may have movers that can’t understand anything and you will have boxes in all the wrong rooms.  They might offer to unpack everything, mine did not, meaning they will take everything out of a box and lay it on the floor leaving you with a huge mess! Take your time unpacking your items. You can schedule a time later for the moving company to come back and pick up the boxes and paper. 

Once they unload everything it's time to sign away! Be sure to read all the paperwork before signing it. If you have a high value item list make sure you have physically seen all those items before you sign for it. When my movers came they helped me unpack a few boxes to find those high value items. Make sure you ask the movers to also put tables, chairs, and beds together. They may not do it unless you ask. If you have broken furniture do not throw it away. You have to keep all broken and damaged items for the claims process. Unfortunately you have to keep it until the claims process is finished.  

My HHG and UB were delivered on the same day. They should unload one shipment and have you sign papers for it then unload the second shipment. It's important to keep the 2 shipments separate in case something is damaged. You'll need to know if it came from HHG or UB. Also, just a small tip or reminder, make sure you unwrap everything in the box. I accidentally threw out my spoon rest that was tightly wrapped in the bottom of a box. 

Tipping the movers is not necessary but is often done. Providing water and maybe a snack is a good way to go!  

German bank account

Everyone moving to Germany will need a German bank account. Don't worry, this doesn't mean you have to go off post to a local German bank where you don't understand anything. There are 2 banks offered to military, Service Credit Union and Community Bank which is also Bank of America (this is not the same as the state side Bank of America). To have a cell phone account or to pay a landlord for rent you will need a German bank account. You will need to open an account to pay internet, home phone and electric bills. German companies will not accept transfers from state side back accounts. This is very easy to do and should be something you do very soon after arriving! If you don't have an account open then you cannot get a cell phone plan or set up internet! Go to one of the banks and let them know you just arrived and need to set up a new account. They obviously do this with everyone so it will be quick and easy! When paying bills some companies will do an automatic withdraw or you can bring the bill into the bank and fill out a form that will in return send money to the company you owe. You won't need to go into the utilities company to pay a bill. Just remember, if your paychecks are being sent to your stateside bank account then you'll need to transfer money to the German account every month to keep the bills covered!

VAT forms

In Germany there is a 19% tax on everything. With a VAT form you can have that % removed from some items you purchase. VAT forms are given to military service members or any DOD (department of defense) employees. You can have 10 VAT forms at one time. You have to go to the tax office and buy them. If you use 5 of your 10 VAT forms you can go back in a buy 5 more. VAT forms are great for buying expensive items such as furniture, grandfather clocks, Cookoo clocks, dirndl, lederhosen and can even be used on cell phone plans. Not all businesses will accept them but be sure to ask before you purchase something. Buying VAT forms is better in bulk. The more you buy (up to 10) the better deal you are getting. VAT forms can be used for purchases up to 2,500 Euro. If you have something to purchase that cost more than that then you have to get a different VAT form. Go to your tax office and ask them what you'll need to do. We have not used one yet but I'm pretty sure you'll need a per-purchase agreement. 

These VAT forms can only be used in Germany. So if you go off to Poland and want to purchase a bunch of Polish pottery then you'll have to pay their tax. But here is something you could try! While in Amsterdam this weekend, we had to go to the customs office in the airport and it listed that you could get VAT forms. So if you knew you were going to purchase something very expensive you could try to find a customs office in the country you are going to see if you can get one.

VAT forms also have about a billion different pages attached together. The yellow copy goes to the business, the pink copy you keep and the white copy needs to be returned to the VAT/tax office. If you never turn in those white sheets then you can't purchase more VAT forms. There are also other pages that are filled out by the business. Most of them have done it before and know exactly what to do. If they've never done it before, don't worry, it's also written in German. 

Hubs and I always have VAT forms in the car and one in my purse! You never know when you could use one. And when you do purchase them, the VAT office will explain them for you!