While we were getting ready to move, we started learning German - in order to get a permanent residence permit it was necessary to pass the language exam at least to the level of A1, and we did not want to understand what was going on and what people were talking about. At first, it was difficult - German is not an easy language, but we tried to support each other, we spoke broken German at home, bought some children's books, to somehow immerse ourselves in the atmosphere.
Once all the paperwork was behind us and our move was approved, the consulate gave us a year to pack and, actually, move to Germany. We sold our apartment, car, garage, dacha, opened an account, packed our bags.
We decided to move closer to my relatives, to Nuremberg. At first, when we arrived, we lived in a hostel for newly arrived foreigners - in Bavaria, like in other regions of Germany, it is not easy to quickly find a good place to live on long-term lease. It takes time to find one - and we had to be prepared for that. My aunt warned me and even offered to stay with her temporarily, but we decided to live separately and, in time, found a beautiful house in the suburbs.
As immigrants on Jewish line, we were given many things for free or at great discounts, for example, braces for my son, who was not yet 18 years, instead of 3.000 euros we put for 200, thanks to the health insurance we got for free.
Getting all the documents for permanent residence already in the country took another three months, but because we were helped at all stages of our agency, everything went smoothly.