You must register with the appropriate registration office (municipality, city, or administrative association). You can register in person at the registration office or electronically online:

1. In-Person Registration

To register in person, you must fill out and sign a registration form and present it to the registration office along with your ID card, a recognized and valid passport or passport substitute, and either a confirmation from your landlord or the corresponding identification marker. If the registration system is automated, you may be exempt from filling out the registration form if you confirm the accuracy and completeness of the data collected by the registration office by signing a printed copy. You may also have someone else represent you during registration by presenting the required documents (registration documents and a power of attorney).

2. Electronic Registration

Electronic registration is only possible via the online service for electronic residence registration if the authority responsible for your place of residence has already connected to this online service, which is to be made available throughout Germany in stages. If the authority responsible for you is connected and you have selected your new place of residence as a location, the link will appear under “Online Procedures.”

• To use the electronic registration, you must first identify yourself in the online service using a BayernID or BundID account with your national ID card or, as a (non-German) EU citizen, using an eID card.
• You will then be shown the data stored about you at your previous registration office. Spouses, domestic partners, and children who are registered at the same address will also be displayed. You can choose whether they are also moving with you and need to be registered accordingly.
• In the next step, you’ll add your new address, the move-in and move-out dates, and information about the landlord ( and, if applicable, the owner) of your new residence, and upload the landlord’s confirmation. You now have the option to review any data-sharing restrictions you’ve set or to have new ones established (see “Related Topics”). Finally, review your information once more and submit the electronic registration form to the new registration office.
• (In a small number of cases, a confirmation code will be sent by mail to your new address on a random basis to verify the address. If this happens, log back into the online service and enter the confirmation code to complete the registration.)
• As a rule, a forgery-proof digital registration confirmation with an electronic and visual seal (similar to a QR code) will be available to you in the online service a few days later.
• After completing the electronic registration, you must still update your ID card and (if applicable) passport or eID card with your new address or place of residence. This also applies to the ID cards and (if applicable) passports or eID cards of family members who were registered alongside you during the electronic registration process.
• After you have re-identified yourself with your ID card or eID card, the online service can use the six-digit Card Access Number (CAN)—located on the front of the ID card or eID card to the right of the expiration date— (CAN) to save the new address on the chip of your ID card or eID card. In addition, you will receive an address sticker/residence sticker by mail, which you should affix to your ID card and passport according to the instructions provided. If the process is interrupted for legal or technical reasons during the electronic registration or the subsequent update of your identification documents, or if the registration office cancels the electronic registration during the review process, you will receive a notification to that effect. In that case, please visit your new municipality in person to complete the registration and update your documents (ID card, passport, or eID card).

Note: Electronic registration is currently available to German citizens and EU citizens with an eID card; registration for third-country nationals with an electronic residence permit is still in the planning stages.

You must register within two weeks of moving in.

In-person registration: immediately

Electronic registration: up to one week. You can update the information on the chip immediately after receiving your registration confirmation. It usually takes about one week for the address or place of residence sticker to be mailed to you.