homeschoolers moving to Germany (driving, license, kids, cons)

[Threestep]

Bildungspflicht statt Schulpflicht « Bildungspolitik 2.0 (http://piratenbildung.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/bildungspflicht-statt-schulpflicht/ - broken link)

Your husband should be able to google the respective paragraphs of BGB.

[XodoX]

Originally Posted by Threestep

Slow down - do the kids have both passports or German only?

My question was not regarding his age but did he legally satisfy his draft requirements?

Her children were probably born in the U.S.

And I'm pretty sure her husband took care of the army stuff. Especially since he went to College in Germany.

[homemommy]

Yes, all of our children were born in the U.S.

My husband went in front of the draft committee after he graduated high school in Germany and they put his status on hold because he had been awarded a soccer scholarship to attend a college in the U.S. (not Germany).

He got married right after college and has not been back to Germany since 1987 except for short visits to see his family. He thinks he is now exempt because of this fact along with his age.

Originally Posted by XodoX

Her children were probably born in the U.S.

And I'm pretty sure her husband took care of the army stuff. Especially since he went to College in Germany.

[Threestep]

Originally Posted by homemommy

Yes, all of our children were born in the U.S.

My husband went in front of the draft committee after he graduated high school in Germany and they put his status on hold because he had been awarded a soccer scholarship to attend a college in the U.S. (not Germany). .

You may think this is trivial. Not unless he has his documents in order. Have you looked into the possible implications for your sons?

Originally Posted by homemommy

He got married right after college and has not been back to Germany since 1987 except for short visits to see his family. He thinks he is now exempt because of this fact along with his age.

He got married?
I am not up to speed on BWs recall. They keep after my sister whose first name is Eva. Draft has always been limited to males:>)

Exposing kids to other cultures is a great experience for them. What are your kids' responses to plan A?

[homemommy]

Housing in U.S. -- We are putting our house on the market in the next few weeks in hopes of selling. If it doesn't sell, we will turn it over to a leasing agent and rent it out so we can continue to make the mortgage payment each month.

Housing in Germany -- Our family there owns a hotel (actually it is the house my husband grew up in that has been converted into a hotel/restaurant) with a seperate area that we can stay in until we find a place to live. So food/housing is free at first.

Money -- My husband company is allowing him to take a leave of absence from his current company so he has a job to come back to. My sister in law who runs the hotel is getting in contact with people she knows for possible employment for my husband. My husband is updating his resume and will fax it to international headhunters. He has a customer in Germany that he plans to meet with as well. He is an applications engineer in the industrial fan/air pollution control field.

Furniture: Undecided... Since we will start out at the hotel, we are thinking of selling most everything we can on craigslist, garage sale, etc... and renting a storage room for the items we just can't part with. My husband said the plug ins/voltage is different in Germany so we can't bring any electronics. I'm not sure about some stuff though like our piano for instance... my kids practice daily. If we leave it here, it would not do well in a storage facility with extreme weather changes. I do hate the thought of going overseas without anything since we have the kids to think about. We also have to figure out what to do with our vehicles... sell or ship??

Medical Insurance -- No idea how it works in Germany if you are not a citizen... but we don't carry it in the states because it is almost $500 a month for a family our size. When we need the doctor (which isn't very often -- once or twice a year tops), we pay cash. We had to take one of our sons to the emergency room for stitches last year and the total cost was $491... so we feel we are saving money by not carrying health insurance. Of course if any of our children had ongoing medical issues we would carry insurance... but it doesn't make sense to us since we've been blessed with overall health. My husband's company pays up to $5000 a year for our dental health. We've never had to go above and beyond that. We get our teeth cleaned every 6 months and so far none of our kids have had any cavities. Again, I have not idea how we will take care of this in Germany.

Our 18 year old who wants to stay in the states -- this is a tough one and we are hoping that she ultimately will decide to go at least for the summer. If not, we will, of course, help her out as much as we can from Germany, but life would be much easier if she would go with us. Beyond that... I don't know.


[/quote] How will you handle housing/furniture/cost of living/insurance for a family of five plus one in the US?[/quote]

[XodoX]

Originally Posted by homemommy

Medical Insurance -- No idea how it works in Germany if you are not a citizen... but we don't carry it in the states because it is almost $500 a month for a family our size. When we need the doctor (which isn't very often -- once or twice a year tops), we pay cash. We had to take one of our sons to the emergency room for stitches last year and the total cost was $491... so we feel we are saving money by not carrying health insurance. Of course if any of our children had ongoing medical issues we would carry insurance... but it doesn't make sense to us since we've been blessed with overall health. My husband's company pays up to $5000 a year for our dental health. We've never had to go above and beyond that. We get our teeth cleaned every 6 months and so far none of our kids have had any cavities. Again, I have not idea how we will take care of this in Germany.

You can just choose any insurance company. They must accept you and everybody must have one, It's mandated by law. Pretty much anything you need will be paid for.There are no co-payments. I wouldn't worry about that.

[Threestep]

Originally Posted by XodoX

You can just choose any insurance company. They must accept you and everybody must have one, It's mandated by law. Pretty much anything you need will be paid for.There are no co-payments. I wouldn't worry about that.

I hate to contradict you. He better check ito it. Unless he has fulltime employment there is no coverage. Germany's large medical carriers actually added fees today.

[XodoX]

Originally Posted by Threestep

I hate to contradict you. He better check ito it. Unless he has fulltime employment there is no coverage. Germany's large medical carriers actually added fees today.

No. That was changed in 2007. They must accept them. EVen when you don't have any employment yet. Once you go there and pick up your work/resident permit, your in it.

[Threestep]

I do not feel like copy post for quotes.

Your financial situation does not allow to get the kids dual citizenship taken care of.
The way you described it - your in-laws turned a house into a" pension". B&B for Americans.
Climate controlled storage is available all over selfstorage places.
Are you looking at making the move without financial security or your husband having at least a binding job offer?
Your vehicles would need to get shipped, inspected and refitted. Sell them!
You post no medical bills - four kids, four deliveries ...
I lived on both sides of the pond. Family and fish has a certain shelf live and expenses.
Please do not think of me as being negative - been there ...

[Threestep]

Originally Posted by XodoX

No. That was changed in 2007. They must accept them. EVen when you don't have any employment yet. Once you go there and pick up your work/resident permit, your in it.

Current link please. Thank you.