Your first 72 hours in Berlin

Berlin rewards people who arrive with a plan, because almost every piece of admin depends on another one finishing first. Get the order right in your first three days and the rest of the month unlocks; get it wrong and you'll spend weeks waiting on appointments that can't happen yet.

The dependency chain, in one breath

Lease → Anmeldung (address registration) → Steuer-ID (arrives by post) → everything else. You can't register your address without a signed lease and your landlord's confirmation form, and you can't be paid properly, finish a residence permit, or sometimes open a "real" bank account until the Anmeldung is done. So the first 72 hours are about getting a roof and a Bürgeramt slot.

Day one: a number and some cash

Buy a prepaid SIM the moment you land, Aldi Talk or a Telekom-network SIM like Congstar. A German mobile number is the silent prerequisite for booking appointments, two-factor codes and parcel deliveries. Pull out some cash too: Berlin is stubbornly fond of it, and plenty of bars, bakeries and even the odd Bürgeramt won't take a foreign card.

Day one or two: open a bank account you can use

Open an N26 account from your phone on just a passport, you'll have a German IBAN the same afternoon, which is enough for a salary, a deposit and SEPA direct debits. You can add a traditional account (DKB, a Sparkasse) once your Anmeldung exists and you need a Girocard.

Day two: hunt the Bürgeramt slot

Appointments are the real currency of Berlin life. Open the city's service portal (service.berlin.de), pick Anmeldung einer Wohnung, and check every Bürgeramt across the city, not just the nearest one. Slots are released in the early morning and snapped up in minutes; refresh at 7 to 8am. No slot for weeks? Some offices keep a few same-day tickets if you queue at opening.

Day two or three: lock the lease paperwork

If you've signed even a temporary or sublet lease, get the Wohnungsgeberbestätigung: the form your landlord signs confirming you live there. Without it the Anmeldung can't happen, so chase it before anything else. A registered sublet counts; an Airbnb usually does not.

What can wait until week two

Health insurance signup, the residence-permit appointment at the LEA (non-EU), home internet, and the Rundfunkbeitrag letter that will inevitably find you. None of them block your first 72 hours, and most need the Anmeldung or Steuer-ID first anyway.

The mindset

Bring more printed copies than feels sane, expect German at every counter, and treat the appointment hunt as a daily habit rather than a one-off. Berlin's bureaucracy is slow but not hostile, it just assumes you already know the order. Now you do.