Welcome!

Hey there! I am glad that you decided to take the first step towards your aim of studying in Germany. The only thing left now is, going through the course, following the guidelines, videos, downloadables and text provided in the lessons and you will be in Germany sooner than you could imagine. BUT: is Germany the right place for you?

You must have heard this question plenty of times from your friends or especially your parents and many times it's difficult to come up with a proper answer. After all, how could you put a preference or liking in words when you just honestly really wish to do this: Is there a way you can explain why you love a certain type of Pizza? You just love it because it tastes good to you, although when you go a bit deeper, you can realize if your preference of this specific type of food is good or bad for you depending on your body type, allergies or anything else that might make it not so useful for you.

The same analogy can be applied to choosing a country. You might even have fallen in love with the idea of staying and living in Germany by something your friends might have said or a nice YouTube video that you might have seen about the country or just the fact that Germany has no tuition fee whatsoever for international students coming to Germany, other than the state of Baden-Württemberg (even in BW, the international students of public Studienkolleg still don't have to pay any kind of tuition fee).

With the experience I have gained after 2 years of living in Germany and meeting and talking to hundreds of students, both international and Indian, I have compiled and explained a list of reasons in the video above, of the things that you should absolutely pay attention to in order to realize if the reasons for which you wanted to come to Germany are good ones or would you regret them like a few I have seen after you arrive here.

If I were to pick 5 most common reasons people use and break them down into good and bad ones, the following ones would be my top picks:

1. Earning Money: Earning money sounds like a great reason. You can afford more things, do more things, buy fancy stuff and live like you've always wanted and as good as this reason sounds, it couldn't be further from the truth. Moving away to a completely different country purely because of money could sound good in the short term but once you settle down and you have everything that the money could buy you, you will come might just start missing all the years that you lived without your family and friends. Fitting in and integrating with the society and culture is way better motivations to move to any other country.
2. Bringing parents to Germany in old age: Unfortunately, Germany's immigration laws are extremely sadistic in this case. According to the German immigration laws, you are not allowed to move your parents to Germany too once you have Permanent Residency or even Citizenship. You are allowed to invite them to move in with you only when one of them is alive and the other one is dead. Their logic behind it is that as long as both of your parents are alive, they can take care of each other and they don't need their only child or children to bring them over to another country. Once one of them is dead, you can bring the other one over and keep them with you. So, please note that this is going to be an issue in the longer term.
3. No Tuition Fee: This is where Germany nails everything! Germany not only is the economic hub of Europe, meaning having an abundance of jobs and an extremely low unemployment rate of just 3.5%, it has also managed to keep the higher education absolutely free, even for the international students with the exception that was mentioned previously. This is something that many other countries should learn from because the German education is the ultimate combination of best quality and extremely cheap education.
4. Personal Freedom: Even after World War 2, Germany managed to rebuild extremely fast and also change the fabric of its society. The old rudimentary thoughts that caused that tragedy were let go of and Germany became the harbinger of more liberal and humanitarian believes. Even in the recent years, it has not only provided financial opportunities to thousands of well-educated and qualified migrants but has also provided a safe place for people to just be who they are. You can do photography, make films, roam around in weird clothes or don't wear at all; people can't care less because everybody is busy doing their own things and respect each other's personal space. So, if you are looking for a country where you can be completely yourself, you are definitely choosing the right one.
5. Opportunities: All of us aware of the bad job market developing in our home countries (especially India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). Where India still is boasting huge rises in it's GDP, the common public can't really see the effects of it. Everything is becoming more and more expensive and the talks about reducing taxes have become totally non-existent at this point. Among this scheiße storm, Germany has been a sanctuary for people who are looking for better living standards, well-paying jobs and a good work-life balance. Also being in the European Union, if you have the PR for Germany, you can move to any other country in the EU and start working there without any kind of immigration complications.

I hope you found this lesson helpful! If you have any questions or are curious about something, don't forget to let me know in the comment sections of this lesson. Let's have a discussion there! Also, if you want to download a quick check sheet for the lesson, you can do it here: