Instrument · living and working in Germany

Working alongside your studies in Germany

One page for students who came from outside the European Union. What actually arrives in your account, printed line by line. The two work limits that students confuse constantly, side by side. What a month costs in six cities. And the arrival paperwork in the order it has to happen. Every figure below carries its source and the date it was checked.

01What actually arrives

Your job

Gross pay per month, EUR Before any deduction. What the contract says.

Hours per week During the lecture period.

Tax class Single and one job is usually class 1.

Church tax Only if you are a registered member of a church that collects it.

I am 23 or older and have no children

02The two limits

These are two different rules from two different authorities. One protects your residence permit. The other protects your insurance exemption. Breaking one does not break the other, and keeping one does not keep the other.

03What a month costs

Two cities side by side. Rent is the only line that really moves between cities, and it is the line with the best data. Where this tool has no verified figure for you it leaves the field empty and asks you to fill it in rather than guessing on your behalf.

City A

City B

Where you live

04The paperwork, in order

Seven steps. The order matters, because three of them need a document that an earlier step produces. Ticking a box saves it in this browser, so the list survives a reload.

05Sources and dates

Every number this tool holds is listed here with its value, where it came from, the day it was read and the year it applies to. Nothing else is hard coded. If a figure below has moved, this tool is wrong and the source is right.

Constants

What this tool could not verify

These figures were not written into the code. Where the tool needs one it shows an empty field and says where to find the answer.