As a reality check, here is the sticky post in the Germany subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/germany/comments/1gk5ot0/want_to_move_to_germany_from_the_us_read_this/
I don’t think this applies so much to people here than to naive redditors who have wrong expectations what it means to emigrate but I think it’s important to highlight the difficulties, too
Good points. However, my posts were about obtaining German citizenship, not simply moving to Germany.
I’m really glad that Redditor wrote that. One item I’d add: If you are “mostly fluent in German”, you will still likely be unable to properly read the government paperwork for a residence application. “Deutsch” is much easier than “Amtdeutsch” (German as used in official documents). Allow room in the budget for hiring a professional to handle the paperwork. I’ve heard figures between three and five thousand Euro.
yikes. Certainly reinforces the idea that emigrating is generally for those that can afford it. Though i’m sure it is money well spent, wouldn’t want a stupid mistake to be responsible for not getting paperwork approved.
“legalese” is always hard to read, no matter the language. I remember trying to register as a freelancer in spain… and I’m spanish! is my native language! it could have been written in KLINGON for what is worth!
(i got it wrong and was fined for not declaring I was not selling my services to the EU… while not serving my services to the EU, and not declaring services sold in the EU. Because it was my first offense and I was already out of the freelance system and into normal employment they waived the fee but basically if I try to do freelancing again I will do my contracts via agents)
That’s a subtle trap. Yikes.
Did you have to declare, every morning, that you were not currently on fire?
You have to fill a lengthy form full of really obtuse definitions. I assumed marking the field forced me to declare transactions in the EU, when I did not plan to. Turns out it was the reverse, and marking it out opted out of that.
As I said, legalese is hard, us is not the only company guilty of this, and intuit is not the only company that benefits from legalese being obtuse. One of the reasons I stopped being a freelance is that filling taxes was so absurdly hard on my brain that I usually spent a week mentally recovering from the ordeal (if you’re employed the company fills the taxes directly and unless you have special requirements - disabilities, tax breaks, extra sources of income) annual taxes is pushing a button.
So very true, all over the world.
A friend had the misfortune of being a plaintiff in a civil court case (stay out of court if you can, kids; he won, but still). He asked his lawyer one day about the legalese. “Is it possible to write this in plain English?” His lawyer answered calmly and quickly (my friend was obviously not the first client to ask): “Yes, I can do that. But to achieve the same precision with plain English as I can with legal jargon, I’ll need about two hours to write something that usually takes me 10 minutes. You pay for my time in six-minute increments. Your call.” My friend accepted the legalese.
Same here. For a few years I was an “S-Corporation.” I felt prestigious but constantly confused. It all felt like playing a very strange game.
Tbh, when I was a contractor I totally missed filing taxes that year (thought my wife was doing them, she thought I was). When I filed back taxes later they just said “this is what we have for you for year x, you have Y days to contest it. And I was like, that looks fine.” And that was that.
People act like the IRS is scary, but naw, they deal with dozens of cases like mine before lunch. And they’re happy to help you if there are any problems.
i wish it was the same here man. They know what you owe them, but if you forgot to fill the taxes their first instinct is to fine you, and then is up to the benevolence of whoever handles your case to waive the fee. And no small fines either. They start at 5x the owed amount.
Summary, to avoid derailing this topic further: if you come to Spain hire someone to handle all the legal paperwork for you. And that probably applies to all EU (and the rest of the world TBH) countries. They know what you have to do better than you do and will translate legalese to human
OK OK, sorry, one more derrailment and I’m done. At some point, legalese was SO hermetic in Spain that legalese used a custom written style, derived from courtesan writing, called “procesal encadenada” (roughly chained legalese). This was done specifically because as more and more people became able to read, they felt that people would need less and less need of legal interpreters… how wrong they were! Anyway, this phased out as it became so obscure and obtuse scribes could not understand each other’s abbreviations and modisms so rulings were made about how legal writings should be put in paper.
It looks a bit like this:
If you cannot read this, you’re not alone. Experts on this lettering style are few (one of my friends is, and she is called of from time to time to decrypt 15th century inheritances, records of trials, property buyouts, etc.)
Hashtag sorrynotsorry (I think we need all the humor and energy we can derive in this trying times 
)
My God, it’s like weirdly cursive medieval minuscule! I’d expect to turn the page and see some bizarre alchemical illustration!
As much as I love cruises, I won’t be doing this…
…or this:
However, I have been researching my mid-winter “vacation” in Canada. My plan is leave in two months. So far, I’ve found a few nice places to stay while waiting out the first 100 days. It looks like one can be on vacation for up to six months, so no major paperwork would be needed up front, and I’ll be traveling light. That should give me time to consider next steps and retirement options.
There’s a lot of good advice already published by digital nomads, people who enjoy van life, and expats. So at this point I’m reviewing options for finances, economic concerns, insurance, healthcare, communications, and survival/climate concerns (I’m not a winter person, and the risk of flooding means basement apartments are not on my list).
Gotta find some very warm outfits, too 
:
Whoah, I didn’t realize Led Zeppelin was releasing a new album!
They call themselves Greta Van Fleet these days 
Well…that was uncanny.
Is that some of their kids?
If so, you’d think they would carve out their own path. But then, I guess say, Dweezil Zappa didn’t either. 
I don’t think there’s any relations. They’re just a good band emulating a style, carrying on a tradition.
More bands should maintain the styles of older bands with original music. It’d be nice to see a new Deep Purple style band pop up somewhere. 
