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These systems are remarkably hostile to recent immigrants. PostIdent (go to post office, get verified, send confirmation by mail) does not support Indian passp
by nicbou 3y ago
These systems are remarkably hostile to recent immigrants.
PostIdent (go to post office, get verified, send confirmation by mail) does not support Indian passports, among many others. The video replacement has the same flaw. You are legally entitled to a bank account, but a large portion of immigrants are left out.
Many banks now require a plastic residence permit. In Berlin it takes a few months to arrive. How do you pay your rent while you wait?
The residence permit is an eID, but I don't know anyone who activated it. You get an activation code weeks before the permit arrives, but it doesn't explain why it's useful and the activation requires an in-person visit somewhere. So I'm told; I have not activated mine.
Soon they want to use the eID for the address registration. This would save everyone an in-person appointment... except immigrants who must register long before they get a residence permit.
Fortunately, there are old Germans who must also be accounted for, so old-fashioned bureaucratic services exist in parallel.
France allegedly has a good method: the postal worker knocks at your door and verifies your identity.
- hef19898 3y agoHow do ypu pay your rent? Good question, but I have an even better one: How do you get your salary without a bank account in the first place? As a side note, it is kind of funny when Indians complain about German bureaucracy.
- rafram 3y agoSay what you want about Indian bureaucracy, but Aadhaar is a good example of a system that’s been designed to be accessible to every single segment of society, even people with minimal documentation or little access to technology at home. EU bureaucracy (and German bureaucracy in particular) doesn’t even try.
- nicbou 3y agoI'm not Indian, but I help people immigrate for a living. There is no straight answer. It's just complicated. You either send money through another channel, or choose from a smaller selection of banks until you get a residence permit. I can't answer so easily because I opened my account 8 years ago and things got harder since then.