Registry entry

Germany Residence Registration (Anmeldung)

Register a person's sole or main residence (alleinige Wohnung / Hauptwohnung) with the local registration authority (Meldebehörde) after moving into a dwelling in Germany, as required by the Bundesmeldegesetz (BMG) within 14 days of moving in. Two channels exist: in-person registration at the local Bürgeramt/Einwohnermeldeamt (available throughout Germany), and the federal Elektronische Wohnsitzanmeldung (EWA) online service (BundID account plus eID), which is offered for municipalities to adopt and is rolling out municipality by municipality. This document is scoped to a single adult registrant moving into a sole or main residence; it does not cover secondary-residence-only (Nebenwohnung) registration, joint family registration of multiple household members in one submission, deregistration (Abmeldung), or minors registering without a guardian. It does not submit the registration; the live sources are always authoritative (see VERIFICATION.md).

Registry entry

de/bmi/residence-registration

Jurisdiction
Germany · national
Version
1.1.1
Verification
verified
Authority
Meldebehörde (local residents' registration office, e.g. Bürgeramt/Einwohnermeldeamt), under the Bundesmeldegesetz (Federal Registration Act) and the federal Elektronische Wohnsitzanmeldung service co-run by the Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat

GovSchema spec v0.3

Authoritative source Meldeschein (Anmeldung bei der Meldebehörde)

Machine access

Schema document
registry/de/bmi/residence-registration/1.1.1/schema.jsonapplication/schema+json
Verification record
registry/de/bmi/residence-registration/1.1.1/VERIFICATION.mdtext/markdown
Registry catalog
registry/index.jsonone record per schema id

Field reference

35 fields across 5 steps, read from the published schema.json — names, types, requiredness, and validation as the document states them. The live government form remains the authoritative source.

New dwelling

  • residenceType enum required

    Whether this dwelling is the registrant's only dwelling in Germany, or their main dwelling (if they keep more than one). A dwelling used most of the time is the Hauptwohnung; others are Nebenwohnungen. This document covers only the sole/main-residence service; registering a Nebenwohnung-only is a separate, out-of-scope service.

    enum: sole_residence | main_residence
  • moveInDate date required

    YYYY-MM-DD. Registration is legally required within 14 days of this date (BMG §17 Abs. 2), though some Bürgerämter do not strictly enforce the deadline for a later appointment.

  • newAddressPostalCode string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. German 5-digit postal code (Postleitzahl).

    pattern
  • newAddressMunicipality string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data.

    length: 0–100
  • newAddressDistrict string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Locality/borough within the municipality, where applicable (e.g. a Berlin Ortsteil such as Mitte).

    length: 0–100
  • newAddressStreet string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data.

    length: 0–150
  • newAddressHouseNumber string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data.

    length: 0–20
  • newAddressAdditional string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Floor, apartment number, or a "c/o"/"bei" line when the registrant's name is not on the mailbox/doorbell.

    length: 0–150

Previous dwelling

  • previousResidenceType enum optional

    Required when the registrant had a previous dwelling in Germany. Not applicable to a first-ever registration from abroad with no prior German address.

    enum: sole_residence | main_residence | secondary_residence
  • previousAddressPostalCode string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Required only when the previous dwelling was in Germany.

    pattern
  • previousAddressMunicipality string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Required only when the previous dwelling was in Germany.

    length: 0–100
  • previousAddressStreet string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Required only when the previous dwelling was in Germany.

    length: 0–150
  • previousAddressCountry string optional

    Only given when moving to Germany from abroad, in place of a previous German address.

  • keepingPreviousResidence boolean optional

    If true, one of the registrant's dwellings (previous or new) must be declared the Hauptwohnung and the other a Nebenwohnung; that declaration is made on the separate Beiblatt/Hauptwohnungserklärung supplement, out of scope of this document.

  • additionalResidencesInGermany boolean optional

    Flags whether a multiple-residence declaration (Beiblatt/Hauptwohnungserklärung) is needed; that supplement is out of scope of this document.

Personal details

  • lastName string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. As it appears on the registrant's identity document, including an academic doctoral degree (Doktorgrad) where held.

    length: 1–100
  • firstNames string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Given names as recorded on the civil-status register; the everyday first name (Rufname) is conventionally underlined on the paper form.

    length: 1–100
  • birthName string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. E.g. a maiden name, if the current last name differs from the name at birth.

    length: 0–100
  • gender enum required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Options are confirmed from the Munich Meldeschein PDF's own field tooltip (`/TU` on the `geschl` field, UTF-16BE): M (männlich) = male; W (weiblich) = female; D (divers) = diverse; o.A. (ohne Angabe) = unspecified. The 'divers'/no-entry option follows Personenstandsgesetz §22 Abs. 3 (in force since 2019). See VERIFICATION.md.

    enum: male | female | diverse | unspecified
  • dateOfBirth date required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. YYYY-MM-DD.

    classification: sensitive-pii
  • placeOfBirth string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Municipality and district (Gemeinde, Landkreis) of birth.

    length: 0–150
  • countryOfBirth string optional

    Given in addition to placeOfBirth only when the registrant was born outside Germany.

  • religiousAffiliation string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. A church or religious society entitled to levy church tax (Kirchensteuer) in Germany, e.g. Roman Catholic (rk) or Evangelical (ev); giving none means no church-tax liability is registered. Answering is voluntary but affects payroll tax withholding.

  • religiousOrArtisticName string optional

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. E.g. a name taken as a member of a religious order, or an artist's/author's pseudonym used in official use.

    length: 0–100
  • nationality string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. Free text; more than one nationality may be given.

  • maritalStatus enum required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data. The full official code set is enumerated on the Munich Meldeschein PDF's own field tooltip (`/TU` on the `famst` field, UTF-16BE): LD (ledig) = single; VH (verheiratet) = married; VW (verwitwet) = widowed; GS (geschieden) = divorced; LP (eingetragene Lebenspartnerschaft) = registered_civil_partnership; LV (Lebenspartner verstorben) = civil_partner_deceased; LA (Lebenspartnerschaft aufgehoben) = civil_partnership_dissolved; EA (Ehe aufgehoben) = marriage_annulled; LE (Lebenspartner für tot erklärt) = civil_partner_declared_dead; NB (nicht bekannt) = unknown. Enum values are ordered to match the form's own code sequence.

    enum: 10 values

Identity document

  • identityDocumentType enum required

    Codes are those enumerated on the Munich Meldeschein PDF (`/Opt` array plus the `/TU` tooltip on the Pass-/Ausweisdaten field): personalausweis = PA (Personalausweis, German national ID card); reisepass = RP (Reisepass, passport); kinderreisepass = KRP (Kinderreisepass, children's passport); kinderausweis = KA (Kinderausweis, older children's ID); ankunftsnachweis = AKN (Ankunftsnachweis, asylum-seeker's arrival certificate). other = a national passport, replacement travel document, or residence-title document held by a non-German national, which the in-person Bürgeramt process accepts but which does not appear as a distinct code on the Munich form.

    enum: personalausweis | reisepass | kinderreisepass | kinderausweis | ankunftsnachweis | other
  • identityDocumentIssuingAuthority string required

    The authority (Ausstellungsbehörde) that issued the identity document.

    length: 0–150
  • identityDocumentSerialNumber string required

    Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data.

    length: 0–30
  • identityDocumentIssueDate date required

    YYYY-MM-DD.

  • identityDocumentExpiryDate date required

    YYYY-MM-DD. Must be valid ("gültiger Personalausweis/Reisepass").

Channel and supporting documents

  • channel enum required

    online_ewa = the federal Elektronische Wohnsitzanmeldung (EWA) service, restricted to registrants aged 18+ who are German or EU citizens, moving within Germany, and hold a BundID account plus an eID-enabled Personalausweis/eID card and PIN; in_person = an appointment at the Bürgeramt/Einwohnermeldeamt, open to any nationality from age 16 (a legal guardian registers a child under 16). The EWA online channel is offered for municipalities to adopt (the federal Einer-für-alle/Nachnutzung principle) and is rolling out municipality by municipality, so it is not yet uniformly available everywhere.

    enum: online_ewa | in_person
  • landlordConfirmationProvided boolean optional

    Required when the registrant rents; the landlord/housing provider (Wohnungsgeber) must confirm the move-in in writing within two weeks, stating their name and address (and the owner's, if different), the move-in date, the dwelling's address, and the names of everyone registering. A tenancy agreement (Mietvertrag) does not substitute for this confirmation. Not applicable to an owner-occupier.

  • representativeAuthorization boolean optional

    Required (in_person channel only) when someone other than the registrant submits the form on their behalf: a written power of attorney plus the form, signed by the registrant themself, must be brought. Not available for the online channel except within a family unit already registered at the same address.

  • minorGuardianConsentProvided boolean optional

    Required when parents with joint custody live together but only one registers a minor child's move (a written statement of consent from the absent parent), or when separated parents with joint custody move a minor child's main residence between them (the "Einverständniserklärung der Sorgeberechtigten" form). Not applicable to an adult registrant.

Verification record

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice. It documents the provenance of the published fields and flow and states the current verification claim honestly.

Current claim

  • status: verified
  • verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
  • verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-02

A full field-by-field comparison (manual-source-review-v1 → Procedure step 2) is now complete. No field, type, requiredness, or flow discrepancy was found against the sources examined; no data change was needed. This is a PATCH per VERSIONING.md ("a re-verification that finds the source unchanged ... refreshes verification.lastVerifiedAt [and] status to verified").

Sources examined (re-fetched directly this pass)

  • https://service.berlin.de/dienstleistung/120686/ — unchanged from the v1.0.0 reading: 14-day deadline, no fee, the alleinige/Haupt/Nebenwohnung distinction, the online (BundID/eID, 18+, German/EU citizenship) vs. in-person (16+, any nationality, guardian for under-16) channel split, Wohnungsgeberbestätigung and guardian-consent requirements, and the same BMG section citations (§17, §21 Abs. 4, §23, §23a, §24 Abs. 1, §27).
  • https://wohnsitzanmeldung.gov.de/die-elektronische-wohnsitzanmeldung-schritt-fuer-schritt-642992 — unchanged: BundID + eID/AusweisApp + 6-digit PIN requirement, and the three-phase flow (data entry/family co-registration → authority review and email confirmation → digital Meldebestätigung plus a Bundesdruckerei-mailed ID-card address sticker). Still publishes no machine-readable per-municipality EWA-availability list.
  • New this pass — a third, independent, primary-adjacent field-level source: the Freie Universität Berlin welcome-service's hosted blank Berlin Meldeschein PDF (fu-berlin.de/en/sites/abt-1/referate/pe/welcome-service/_medien/downloads/anmeldung_bei_der_meldebehoerde.pdf, fetched directly, HTTP 200). Its pdf-lib-extracted AcroForm field names (52 fields) and pdfjs-dist-extracted page text are a genuine Berlin registration-form specimen, distinct from the Munich Meldeschein already cited in v1.0.0 — not another expat-guide transcription.

Why this closes the v1.0.0/v1.1.0 open gap

v1.0.0's VERIFICATION.md flagged: "The full new-dwelling / previous-dwelling / personal-details / document-details field groups ... were not individually itemised on the Berlin.de service page ... reconstructed from two independent expat-guide field transcriptions ... not a direct read of the live Berlin form's field list." The FU Berlin PDF is a direct read of a genuine Berlin-in-use Meldeschein, and its field names match this schema's field set 1:1:

| FU Berlin PDF field | Schema field | |---|---| | "Die neue Wohnung ist alleinige/Haupt/Nebenwohnung" | residenceType | | "Neue Wohnung Tag des Einzugs" | moveInDate | | "Neue Wohnung ... Postleitzahl Gemeinde Ortsteil" / "Straße Hausnummer Zusätze" | newAddressPostalCode/newAddressMunicipality/newAddressDistrict/newAddressStreet/newAddressHouseNumber | | "Die (letzte) bisherige Wohnung ... war alleinige/Haupt/Nebenwohnung" | previousResidenceType | | "Bisherige Wohnung ... Postleitzahl Gemeinde Kreis Land" / "Straße Hausnummer Zusätze" | previousAddress* | | "Bei Zuzug aus dem Ausland Staat" | previousAddressCountry | | "Wird die bisherige Wohnung beibehalten? Nein / Ja, und zwar als Haupt-/Nebenwohnung", annotated "Wenn ja, siehe Beiblatt!" | keepingPreviousResidence (boolean; the tri-state declaration is confirmed out of scope, routed to the separate Beiblatt, matching this schema's existing scope note) | | "Haben [...] noch weitere Wohnungen in Deutschland? Nein/Ja" | additionalResidencesInGermany | | "Person 1 Familienname, ggf. Doktorgrad, Passname" | lastName | | "Person 1 Vornamen (Rufnamen unterstreichen)" | firstNames | | "Person 1 Geburtsname" | birthName | | "Person 1 Geschlecht" | gender | | "Person 1 Tag, Ort, Land der Geburt" | dateOfBirth + placeOfBirth + countryOfBirth (schema splits this single combined form field into three typed sub-fields — a modeling decision, not a discrepancy) | | "Person 1 Religionsgesellschaft" | religiousAffiliation | | "Person 1 Staatsangehörigkeiten" | nationality | | "Person 1 Ordens-/Künstlername" | religiousOrArtisticName | | "Familienstand (1oder 1 und 2)" | maritalStatus | | "Dokument 1 Art / Ausstellungsbehörde / Seriennummer / Datum / gültig bis" | identityDocumentType/identityDocumentIssuingAuthority/identityDocumentSerialNumber/identityDocumentIssueDate/identityDocumentExpiryDate |

The form also confirms this schema's single-registrant scope decision is a deliberate simplification, not an oversight: the live form has a second person block ("Person 2 ...") for co-registering a family member, explicitly out of scope per this document's existing scope notes.

One structural note, not a discrepancy: this specific FU-Berlin-hosted specimen prints an abbreviated 3-code key ("PA = Personalausweise, RP = Reisepässe, KP = Kinderreisepass") next to the identity-document fields, narrower than the Munich AcroForm's full 5-code /TU-tooltip enumeration (adding KA/Kinderausweis and AKN/Ankunftsnachweis) already confirmed in v1.0.0/v1.1.0. This is treated as an artifact of this particular specimen's printed instruction line being abbreviated, not evidence the wider Munich code set is wrong — consistent with this document's existing "Berlin and Munich as representative exemplars, not proof every Land's template is byte-identical" scope note; the Munich source remains the more complete enumeration and is unchanged.

What remains a documented scope decision, not a discrepancy (unchanged from v1.0.0)

  • Cross-Land template uniformity (Berlin/Munich/FU-Berlin specimens treated as representative exemplars of a federally-set data model, not proof every Land's template is byte-identical).
  • EWA per-municipality rollout coverage (no published machine-readable list; channel remains a flat enum).
  • Postal-code and other string length limits remain GovSchema conventions.

Noted aside, not fixed this pass (out of scope for this review)

Several fields whose description already says "Personal identifier; handle as sensitive data" (e.g. newAddressPostalCode, lastName, firstNames, nationality) do not carry the optional classification: sensitive-pii member that this registry's GSP-0006 backfill (see GOV-396/GOV-574) applied to identifier-shaped fields like dateOfBirth elsewhere in this same document. This is a pre-existing gap from before this document joined the registry's classification backfill scope, not something this verification pass's practice (field/type/requiredness/validation/flow accuracy) covers; flagged for whoever next runs a classification-backfill pass over this document, same pattern as the SS-4 dangling-reference aside in GOV-603.

Re-verification

Per the practice's Cadence, nextReviewBy is set to 2027-01-01 (6 months), unchanged. Re-check the source on or before that date and on any source.url change.

View the raw record (VERIFICATION.md)

Version history

Independent and non-affiliated

GovSchema is an independent, open-source project. This reference is not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by Meldebehörde (local residents' registration office, e.g. Bürgeramt/Einwohnermeldeamt), under the Bundesmeldegesetz (Federal Registration Act) and the federal Elektronische Wohnsitzanmeldung service co-run by the Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat or any government. The authoritative source is always the live government form and its official instructions.