CBinLux
12/27/2014 11:24 EST
Considerations – moving to Luxembourg for work
1. housing
Leases are 1 to 2 years. Because we have a child, we were told by one landlord that the lease will be 30% higher (at the last moment, after two meetings, when we were meeting to sign). This was week and a half into my search, when I stopped searching two days earlier, thinking that I have a place. I am sorry, but the apartment didn’t get 30% bigger all of a sudden! It was back to square one and the search had to start all over, I was seriously considering just buying a return ticket home, since this also meant expenses for another week in a hotel at 100 Euros per night, and daily meals in restaurants for the entire family.
Watch for warning signs. One landlord told us that the tenant, who leased from him for 7 years, still has to fix the small holes from pictures being hanged and paint the unit. Excuse me? I can just imagine what he would ask us to do when we would want to leave.
Expenses. There are some expenses that you would never expect to have. As a tenant, you pay the real-estate fee, worth one month of rent, plus a 15% tax on this amount. You also pay damage deposit in the amount of two months rent (good luck if you see it back). If you arrange for a bank guarantee instead of cash, the fee for this may be quite expensive. Not to mention, that my colleagues are still fighting landlords that do not want to let the bank release the funds, while the bank continues to charges a fee to the tenant for holding the funds.
On that note, bring lots of cash. It takes weeks to set up a bank account here and you will have to pay all these expenses up front, if you want to have a roof over your head.
Expenses at time of renting an apartment:
1st rent payment of 1,200 + 200 monthly maintenance fee
1200 commission + tax to the agent (15%) = 1380
2 months of rent as damage deposit = 2400
Total = over 5,180 EURO !!! in cash
Plus hotel costs (you will need a month, at least).
About 85-100Euro per night
2 weeks = at a really cheap rate of 85 Euro will cost 1,190 Euro
4 weeks 2,380 Euro
Be prepared to have about 7,500 Euro available. The apartment search took me all day, every day, it isn’t something you can do after work. Most agencies close at 5pm and absolutely nothing can be done on the weekend.
Pre-arrival costs:
flights for 3 people (about a $1000-1200 each)
storage (~ $300/month while gone, unless you get rid of all your possessions there)- first 2 months I count as initial cost, but it is up to you to add these costs to the total
Initial costs of coming here :
7,500 Euro = $10, 200 US
flights $ 3,600
Total minimal initial costs associated with coming to Luxembourg, for which you need to put funds aside = $13,800
There may be many apartments listed, but from over 60 that I considered and contacted the landlords, many were, in fact, either rented, or the landlord was not available, or just no response, no children allowed (surprisingly many cases), etc. I finally found one, which fell through when I was about to sign the lease and the landlord decided to raise the rent amount by 30%. Of course, all the other apartments were gone by then and my prospective move-in date moved from the 1st to the 15th of the month. I was already willing to take the first available apartment, even if it was far away.
You cannot rent an apartment while still in the US. I tried very hard. The last thing I wanted to do was to show up here, not knowing when I will have a roof over my head. However, it does not seem to be possible to arrange for an apartment ahead of time. There are many potential tenants. You will first have to meet with the agent, then you will have an interview with the landlord (if the agent thinks you are the best candidate) and then you will be contacted, if you still are the best candidate, to come and sign the lease. You will also need a lot of documentation to do this. One of these is a valid work contract and a bank account. This is an absolute requirement.
You will need to find an insurance company to insure the contents.
You will have to sign a contract for utilities, after you find a utility company to sign this with. The maintenance fee is for everything outside of the apartment, like washing of the hallways and garbage.
You will have to find a company to get a phone installed, as well as internet. The contract is usually two years, make sure that there is a diplomatic clause in the contract, in case you give up on this place after all. You will have to buy the equipment (router, etc.) – about 80 Euros. Under no circumstances should you deal with Orange. Everyone I know had problems leaving the contract. After a year and multiple re-sending of all the documents they required, we are still being charged for the service we terminated a year ago, with Orange refusing to cancel the contract.
2. legal advice – e.g. rental contract
As far as I know, including a “Diplomatic Clause” allows one to break the lease before the year is over, in case things don’t work out and you need to return to the US.
You will need someone to read the lease with you, particularly if it is in French. However, leases here can be written in a rather convoluted manner. With mine, all seemed clear, until it came to leaving.
You will need to write a letter to your landlord and, no matter how friendly he may seemed before, this letter will have to be sent via registered mail. Letter not sent via registered mail is like not sending anything at all. Make sure you keep the receipt from the post office. What you do if the landlord refuses to receive the letter and the post office cannot deliver it, is another story. Another reason why you need your employer to provide advice. Do not take the job, if this is not available.
I heard that the diplomatic clause does not have to be stated in the lease, that it is automatic, but as far as I could tell, it is not automatic.
3. Administrative issues
Unlike in the US, the administration is about 100x more complicated here (believe it or not). Just because you went to the office and they entered your information into the computer right in front of you, do not assume that it is in the system (from personal experience). A month later I was told during a subsequent step of the process, that I am still not in the system. I went back to the original office at city hall and was told that it was not put into the system, because the next person did not have the time to do it yet (it took 30 seconds at that point to actually do it). Then I had to go back to the previous office and resume the process, once in the system for a couple of days (it had to get registered elsewhere as well). This run-around through offices, where not everyone could or was willing to, speak English, was an enormously time consuming process.
To continue, the ONLY thing you can assume is that every step of the process will be performed badly. I kept waiting to be surprised when I’ll see an exception to this rule, but after four months, I am yet to be surprised.
I wish I could tell you that I am exaggerating, but unfortunately, I am trying to be as matter of fact as possible. In fact, I am leaving a number of issues out.
In retrospect, I would definitely not accept a job unless the employer guaranteed to process my paperwork. Do not take any excuse and do not settle for a “list” of steps to follow. There is no such thing, there is no set process, even the individuals administering it have no idea how to go about it. Do not take a verbal promise, these were forgotten rather quickly, once I was here. I was fully convinced that I have an HR contact that will help me with any issues that may arise, but in reality, nothing was further from the truth. The ONLY thing I got form my so-called “HR contact” was a website where all realtors post available apartments. This is the first website one reaches when you Google “Luxembourg apartments for rent”, I had it months earlier.
The process is so convoluted, that there is no set number of steps and no set way of going about this, everyone is an exception. Since you can’t ask about things you don’t know to ask about, and there will be plenty of unexpected twists and requirements you wouldn’t have dreamed of existed. Do not take this lightly, I had to make a trip to one office or another three times per week. Despite being a workaholic, my productivity has been reduced by 30-50%, making my experience here extremely frustrating and, in the end, reduced performance only looks bad on you, as no one will care that you spent nearly half your time visiting government offices. My mind was constantly preoccupied with some impending administrative disasters, wondering what is it I forgot to ask. After coming back four times and asking if all is well, more than once I would get a letter in the mail that some part of the process was not completed. It was like living in a twilight zone. It was impossible to make a good start at my new job, no matter how hard I tried. How can you concentrate when you are being kept in the dark whether your kids will get into a school and an after-school care for a month and a half, until the week before the school starts? I was in a total panic. I was locked into a lease by now, but I was facing a possibility that w would not be able to work, if I had no child care for my children. Worst case scenario would have been stopping lease payments and leaving Luxembourg, losing my 2-month deposit. I was told by locals that you won’t get far if you don’t speak Luxembourgish, i.e. are not Luxembourgish. Furthermore, most things are done according to whom you know. Do not, under any circumstances, underestimate this. I was blatantly lied to my face, only to find out later that the person knew the answer/situation perfectly well. The way this is done, without any hint of dishonesty, is entirely baffling to me. No, it was not a misunderstanding, it happened on many occasions, and the individuals spoke English.
4. Make sure the employer covers your administrative expenses (including medical). Just the medicals can be extremely expensive. Due to government requirement overlaps, you will have to go for a number of check-ups. There is one for residency that the City Hall requires – for a family of four that is 4 times 40-50 Euro plus a TB test (even for children). Then there is another health check for employment, usually arranged by the employer, but charged to you. None of these are covered by the local health system. Plus the cost (50 Euros per person) of submitting this information to the federal government (yes, after you submitted this to the city, they do not communicate, don’t make this mistake). I have spent hundreds and hundreds of Euros on just administrative costs, far in excess of what I was told to expect.
residency check-up – family of four ~45x4=180
TB test and chest x-rays 20 each = 80
Submitting documents to federal gov’t is 50 each = 200
total 460 Euros
not including fees paid for documents prior to entry to Luxembourg.
5. Do not expect that you would be able to walk up to someone at work and ask for even the simplest amount of help. They watch their hours and workload very carefully and something that would be a totally inconsequential question (i.e. do these two sentences I translated make sense in French, as I used Google translate) may result in a complaint by that person to their boss, staying that you were taking up their time. Hence, and this is not trivial – make sure that your employer provides someone who is REQUIRED to help you with documents and other administrative issues – THIS IS NOT A JOKE! Someone launched an anonymous complaint that I am taking their time when I asked exactly that question to one of the “support staff”. I know that this was the cause, because by then I knew to avoid that office all together and had no other interaction with other employees.
6. Car rental. You will need a car! A trip that can take you 10 min by car can, can take you 2 hours on public transport. Many residents drive to Germany (Trier), France or Belgium to shop. Shoes here are ridiculously expensive. Reasonable shoes will run you about 100Euros and up. It is normal to see reasonably good leather boots for 250 Euros.
It is far more difficult to rent a car in Luxembourg and there are very limiting restrictions as to where you can take the car, even within the EU. Make sure you check where you are allowed to go, before you rent a car. Also, there are very few options. At the airport, you will be charged a convenience fee, regardless how inconvenient it is to drag yourself out to the airport to rent a car. In town, the options are limited and car rental companies are not open on weekends. They are also closed between 12noon and 2pm and then again by 5pm. I would recommend renting in Trier, in Germany. You can take a train to Trier for about 9 Euros, return.
If I was moving to Luxembourg, I would require:
1. Temporary accommodations until I can find an apartment, employer to cover at least some of the costs associated with the hotel and with finding an apartment (agent fee and bank security deposit fee).
2. Guarantee that the HR will process ALL my documents, get this IN WRITING (many things were promised, but if not in writing, swiftly denied to have been promised) and cover the many fees associated with this.
3. A contact to refer to in case of any difficulties with Luxembourg administration, help with forms, dealing with administrative people that you have to call and who won’t speak English to you, lease, etc. Remember, you don’t get far if you don’t speak Luxembourgish (even though French and German are the other two official languages, I have witnessed that, you are dealt with differently). Don’t assume that an HR person assigned to you will help with this, I was told by an HR person “this is not in my job description”. Lease and all processing all your documentation, including obtaining the tax card for your employer, is considered a personal issue, not the issue of your employer, no one will help you with any aspects of this.
4. Arrange for a car lease for the time that I you are to be in Luxembourg, if this is less than two years. Leases are two years and the agents are not really interested in your business.
5. Schooling for children. The story of how the children will be instructed changed drastically, depending on whom you ask, from federal to local governments, to even different people in the same local office. Bottom line, despite what the curriculum says, most instruction is in Luxembourgish, in all grades.
As to my work contract, I found myself working at a much lower level than described. The job description was exciting, but it was clear very soon that it in no way reflected the true intention. It looks like they can afford to pay for a basic job what would be paid for a job much higher up the ladder in the US. You shouldn’t forget that a third of your pay will be swallowed up by taxes and social security (up front).
We were told that registration is no problem and that there is an after-school program and a way to integrate our child into the school system.
I was told that the first few grades are in German and the second half of Grade school is in French by the federal administrators. Then the local school government told me that his is not exactly so. Then the school had yet another description. Most instruction is in Luxembourgish, the early grades use school material written in German.
According to the Grade description, our child was supposed to be in Grade 6, this was confirmed by the person I contacted at the federal level. The local school administrator insisted that the child needs to go to Grade 5. I argued, based on age described in a table form the federal government, this is clearly Grade 6. I was told that all kids of the same age go to the same grade and our child should be in Grade 5 according to this, despite it obviously not being true. So, Grade 5 it was and on the first day, we discovered that out child, of average height in the US, is a head taller than everyone else, and older. Arguing with the school made no difference, we went back to the City Hall where the local school administration resides and were told that this is because their system is certainly ahead of ours. Two sentences later the same administrator told us that the Luxembourg schooling level may be a bit behind compared to the US, because they have three languages, so we can’t expect the children to be at the same math, as well as other subject, levels as everywhere else. Sure enough, within three weeks we were meeting with the teacher, because our child was at least a year ahead and was doing school material form the next grade. However, because of age, our child would not be moved up to the next grade level. I cannot describe my total exasperation with this system.
Childcare? Can you guess? No space. And the school finishes at noon, restarts at 2pm and finishes at around 4pm three times per week. Twice per week they finish before 2pm and have a later lunch. Like I can leave work at 11:30 and come back at 2:30, etc. The admin staff at work does, though. We were told to find someone. Good luck, there is no craigslist for this. Where do you even start? Some women watch children at home, but no one was able to tell us how to find them. (Then I found out that the person who said that she does not know how to find them had a list of their names. Finally, I was given the list by a daycare worker, when I came to sign up for a long wait list for after-school care. But the list had no phone numbers. I spoke to a number of administrators, the numbers were non-existent, or so I was told. Until someone told me that the person who denied me the very existence of this list in the first place had the numbers).
Daycare vs. income:
When I was researching after-school care options, it seemed that such care would be reasonably available and affordable. This was not true. I was on a long waiting list until the very start of the school! I was about to go door-to-door and knock at the addresses of women care-givers given to me, as there were no phone numbers and, at this time, I was told that a list of phone numbers for these women does not exist. I doubt that many would speak English, but without after-school care I would have to resign my position and return home.
Mid-week week before the start of the school, the very day I took a day off from work to go knock on doors, I was finally notified that we were awarded a spot in the after-school care at the school, which provides food and care for children during the 2-hour lunch break three days in a week, and after-school care on the two days when school ends at around 2pm.
Fees: I was dutifully supplying doctor’s notes whenever my child was sick. Without these you will be charged for the hours. So, even if it is a minor cold that you could treat at home, you need a doctor’s note. At first we were told to supply a parent-written note, but subsequently we were told that his is not sufficient and we would still be charged the fee for the hours missed.
When I finally received the first bill (after three months of school) the hours were significantly discordant with my notes. From September 15th to November 2nd we were charged about 1,000 Euros in childcare for one child.
I made another visit to the City Hall, since people at work told me that his seems high. Sure enough, one of the forms I submitted has not been processed. The amount was reduced to about $200Euro after the paperwork was processed. However, after a year, I received a bill for the full amount again and the City Hall is confused about their billing. I am not sure what will happen now.
All in all, we tried to save as much as we could, but we were barely making it to the end of the month. We never went out. To buy basic furniture here, we used our savings form home.
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