Programmer in Berlin: Motivation / Before the move

This is part 1 of a 5-part series detailing what I wish I had known as an American programmer moving to Berlin. This page explores the motivation to move to a different country, some ways to guide your decision making, and what you might want to establish before moving to make your future life easier.

Motivation

Why you should do it

You’re probably not going to do something just because someone online tells you to do it, but I might as well give you some motivation on why moving is a good idea. There are the more abstract reasons, like “living abroad expands how you think about the world,” lifestyle/political reasons like experiencing life in a place with universal healthcare, and more prosaic reasons like enjoying techno music. Personally, I just really liked Berlin and was at a point in my life and career where making such a move was possible – things aligned, and I knew that such an opportunity wouldn’t happen again soon. In any case it’s fun and cool!

Additionally, software engineering is relatively well-suited to moving abroad. It’s in high demand (which helps when applying for a visa), it usually doesn’t require a license to practice in the target country and you usually don’t need to be near a factory, laboratory or specific natural resource to do it.

Why you shouldn’t do it

Probably the biggest downside for me was moving away from friends and family. I’ve had to say no to weddings and family events, don’t get to see my parents as much, etc. I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to see people occasionally, but it’s nothing like before. Additionally, it’s easy to start losing your culture a bit – interacting with people back home gets a little stranger every day, since you’re slowly losing a common cultural language. I remember my friends once mentioning White Claw, and upon asking what that was, they said something like “oh, I guess you missed that whole thing.” Apparently it was a thing?

Being in a different land stresses your social connections, and it can often be difficult to make new friends. There’s the language barrier, cultural barrier, and sometimes just an in-group barrier. It helps immensely to know some people who live here, or at least have an employer with a strong group culture. I’m not saying it’s impossible to move somewhere without knowing anyone beforehand, just that it makes a difficult thing even more difficult.

Goals

I think it’s useful to have some kind of goal in mind when attempting a life change like this. This isn’t a task list to check off once you’re done, but more of a way to orient yourself. A choice of time frame and mindset are usually good enough, but use whatever is meaningful to you. Some examples:

• Going to a different country for a set time frame, maybe due to a job assignment where you know you’re moving back in three years.

• Going to a different country when you don’t have family/relationship/career commitments and can easily leave after a few years if it doesn’t work out.

• Going to a different country with a plan to settle down, but maintaining ties with your home.

• Going to a different country all in, with no plans to move back.

Obviously people go in intending to stay forever and leave after a year, and vice versa. The point isn’t to measure yourself against some kind of benchmark and feel good or bad depending on how you did, but to use your planned goal to inform your decision making. An example: depending on your situation, getting a German driver’s license can be a costly and time-consuming process. Your goal can influence whether it’s worth pursuing earlier, later, or at all.

Before the Move

Maintaining a US presence before you leave

For various reasons, you’ll want to maintain some kind of US presence before you leave. You can live your life without these, but things will be much easier if you have:

• A US address which can accept mail
• A US phone number
• A US credit or debit card
• A US bank account

Most people use a relative’s address for the first one, but you can also use mail forwarding companies to get mail forwarded to you.

A US phone number will be harder to maintain. You can get a Google Voice number as long as you still have a functional US phone number. It works for most, but not all services which need to text or call you. There are other alternatives, but either way it’s worth taking care of before you make the move.

For your credit/debit cards, your bank may let you set an address outside the US. Some larger banks let you do this, but it’s not common. If not you’ll have to use a US address, which makes payment online easier¹ but also makes it harder to get a new card mailed to you. Both accounts with US and non-US addresses have downsides, so you’ll have to choose which makes the most sense for you.

In addition to some of the larger or multinational banks, you may want to look into TransferWise²’s “borderless account,” which gives you a single bank account accessible from multiple banking systems. I don’t have experience with it but it seems nice.

Mutual fund/brokerage accounts

If you’re a US citizen, you may want to open some mutual fund/brokerage accounts before you move (and while you still have a US address), as this becomes difficult or impossible to do once you’re abroad. See the finances section for why.

Driver’s License

Some federal services in the US have a system where you need two forms of ID to prove your identity – usually a passport and state ID. The latter is supposed to establish a residential address along with identity, since a passport doesn’t have an address on it. This is great in theory, unless your driver’s license expires while you’re outside the US and can’t renew it. Not only would that require a costly flight, but if you claim to still live in a state they may start demanding taxes for all the time you “lived” there. I’d recommend renewing your license before moving if you can, and signing up for government accounts before it expires – getting an IRS account might be a good idea, for example.

Navigation

From here you can go on to the moving-in section or back to the main page.