Departure

Your stay in the state of Bremen is coming to an end?
Here you will find valuable information about formalities that you should definitely take care of before you leave.
We hope you stay in touch with the university through our alumni network and wish you a safe journey home.

Formalities after departure

Just as with arrival, there are also some formalities to be observed when leaving Germany. Broadly speaking, these relate to the following:

Deregistration with the city

If you are moving permanently to another country, it is necessary to deregister with the city through the BürgerServiceCenter. To do this, you need to fill out this form and bring it to the Stadtamt together with your ID card one week before you move away.

Cancelling your broadcasting fee ("Rundfunkbeitrag")

To deregister, you must declare on the form that you are moving away ("that I am moving abroad permanently"/ "ich dauerhaft ins Ausland ziehe").

Cancel health insurance

You can usually cancel your private health insurance up to three months before the end of the insurance year (depending on the start of the contract). You should state in the letter of termination that you are moving to another country. With all statutory health insurance companies, you must (as a rule) send a letter of termination - if it is not a fixed-term contract - two months in advance. You can find samples on this website.

Additional notices of termination

You should remember to cancel your day-care centre, sports club, telephone contracts and bank account, etc. If you move out of Bremen and/or out of Germany, special cancellation deadlines usually apply.

Statutory pension insurance

If you have paid contributions to the German statutory pension insurance and the VBL, we strongly recommend that you check the Find your Pension portal. Under certain circumstances you may be entitled to a refund.

Join the Alumni network

We would like to keep in touch with you and invite you to become a member of the Alumni network. To become a member of our university-wide alumni network, please register here. If you live outside of Germany, membership is free of charge for "Alumni der Universität Bremen e.V.".

As an Alumni, you have the chance to become an Research Ambassador. Aiming to promote worldwide the University of Bremen and the research work it does, eleven research alumni have been appointed Research Ambassadors since the summer of 2015. They are from various departments and research areas, with a special focus on their geographic diversity. Further information can be found here.

Registration Alumni World Map

We invite you to register for our alumni map! This map is an interactive world map to visualise where our alumni are located.

Are you coming back?

If you are planning to stay longer at the University of Bremen or already know when you will be back, please let us know so that we can continue to keep you informed about news and events for international researchers.

Alumni Network and World Map

In 2014, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation jointly awarded the University of Bremen and Alumni der Universität Bremen e.V. for their researcher:in alumni strategy. The core of the approach is to maintain contact with those former researchers of the University who have come to Bremen from abroad and who return to their home or third countries after their stay in Bremen. In this way, a worldwide research alumni network of the University of Bremen is to be created. Our research alumni strategy includes various measures such as data collection & contact maintenance with the university's research alumni or the nomination of former researchers of the university as Research Ambassadors, among others through the Alumni World Map.