Handbook

This document is intended to help the new comers. Most of the things are based on
personal experience and observations.

MVG of Munich can be found at http://www.mvv-muenchen.de/de/netz-

bahnhoefe/bahnhofsinformation/index.html

1- First Hand Information about Munich

Typical day in Munich starts from 7 am in the morning and ends at 8 pm. Shops like
Penny, Lidl, Norma, Edeka open at 7 am and close at 8 pm. Sunday shopping is not
an option in Germany. You have to buy grocery till Saturday 8 pm. All the hustle and
bustle of the city is around the city center where the central station and Marienplatz is
located. Main campus of TUM (U2 Theresienstraße) is 2 stops from the central
station Hauptbahnof.

Weather in Munich is cold most of the times of a year. Summer time is normally from
April to August. Weather can drop to as low as -16C and go as high as 35C. There
are no fans or ACs here so in summer, small pedestal fans can be bought from here.

Transportation network of Munich consist of the Underground Lines (U-Bahn), the

suburban trains (S-Bahn), the Bus network and the Tram network. U-Bahns, Buses
and Trams can be found till 1 or 2 am. After that, night lines (buses) run from specific
locations and cover most of the locations in the city. You can locate the route to your
destination through the website www.mvv-muenchen.de. Plus you can also download
MVG Application via Playstore.

It’s better if you can find someone for help but don’t solely rely on it. Help yourself
and try to solve issues independently. You can use the U-Bahn network map and the
city map to locate the way to your destination. You can also ask the people on streets
and they are very much willing to help. If you don’t know German, you can also find
someone who speaks English (very common in Munich)

2- Arrival
So now you are all done with the packing and all set to come to Munich. Upon arrival
on Munich airport, the authorities may ask for your admission letter so make sure you
carry the relevant docs in your hand carry and at a visible location. The suitable time
for arrival is last week of September. As soon as you land on the Munich airport, you
will look for the person coming to pick you up. Normally, the person is already waiting
for you but make sure you have his contact details in case he is late and you need to
contact him. The person will help you in carrying your luggage and drop you to your
destination. You have two options. One if you have already done the enrollment you
can buy the ticket from the machine but you must carry the MVG small pass ( You
can download from TUM Online under Print documents. The name of the document
is Confirmation of Enrolment for MVV). Otherwise if enrollment is not done. You have
to buy a "one day ticket" for using the transportation network or the 3-day ticket from
the airport. Relax a bit when you reach your destination, inform your relatives of your
safe arrival and take rest for the day.
 DAY 1
Next day, wake up early in the morning and get ready for the work. You will have to
buy a 3-day ticket (or if you already have one) and you can sort out the initial things
to be done.

a- KVR city registration

The first thing to do is to register you at the KVR office which is also called "city
registration". The office is located at "Poccistraẞe" which is a U6/U3 station. You
have to take your passport with you, contract of residence and the registration
process is quite simple. The registration paper is just a paper with all your personal
and Munich contact details. Don’t forget to change the address when you get a room
of your own.

b- University enrolment
For university enrollment, you need to present the missing documents for e.g. the
degree and the health insurance.

i- TK/AOK are the 2 companies providing health insurance which is required for
enrolment. The representatives of these companies sit in the main campus of TUM
daily so it is very easy for the students to get the insurance immediately and get
enrolled. Required docs are city registration and passport. You sign a 2 year contract
and submit the copy to the admission office. Insurance card and other related docs
will reach your address by post. Don’t forget to change your address by emailing the
relevant insurance authorities, when you get your own room. If you want to do
insurance from Pakistan, you can email them. They will send you a form. After filling
the form they will send document which you can upload on TUM online and your
enrollment can be done after paying the fees. After coming to Munich you have to
contact them and provide the missing documents to get insurance card.

ii- If your degree or final semester transcript were also not present at the time of
admission, you need to present the attested copies for enrollment. It’s better to bring
the attested copies with you. In case you don’t have time for that OR Pakistani notary
attestation is not accepted by them, you have to attest the copies from a German
notary (which is expensive) or a church (which is cheap). In both cases, you need to
know the location of the German notary or the church beforehand. When you hand
over the missing documents to the admission office, you will get enrolled and the
status will be updated on your online portal the next day. Don’t forget to collect the
useful documents from the enrollment office like city map, transport network map etc.
go home and rest for the day or explore Munich if you want to.

DAY 2
wake up early in the morning and get ready for the next step

c- Enrolment certificate/MVV semester pass and DB account activation

After successful enrolment, the enrolment certificate and the MVV pass will appear
on your portal in "print documents" section. Save a pdf of these docs in your usb and
get a print out of these docs. You will get to know where to take a print out or if you
can’t find someone near to your house, go to the university to get the prints. Now
take these prints and the city registration paper, your passport and a photograph to
the central station (hauptbahnhof or Hbf). There you can make a MVV pass for the
semester which will entitle you to use the MVV network for the whole semester. Don’t
forget to buy the ISAR semester ticket which will be available from standing
machines in the Hbf. use cash for buying ticket. This ticket will be valid from 1st
October. But after the expiry of the 3-day ticket, if you want to travel, you can
purchase a weekly ticket on the basis of your student tariff control number for the
remaining days of September or else you can choose to stay home till 1st October
when the ISAR semester ticket is activated.
You can locate a DB branch near your house and get the account activated from
there. The closest to TUM is at Barer Str. 62. For this you will need to present your
passport, the bank statement which you gave for the visa (not necessary but its
better to take it) and your city registration. All the necessary documents (ATM card,
PIN code, TAN list etc) will then reach the address mentioned on the city registration
or the address that you provide.

Next set of necessary tasks

Now relax for the time being as the most important tasks are done. Your friends will
be arriving or would have arrived already. So you have the semester ticket with you
and you can go hangout with your classmates or other Pakistani friends.

1- Applying for residence permit

The next most important task is to apply for the residence permit. This will be done
from the KVR office. Make sure you reach there early in the morning as there is a
long queue for the same. Required docs are application form (available from the KVR
office), photograph, passport, city registration, enrolment, bank account details,
health insurance, and 100+ euro visa extension fees (dont remember exactly). To
reach the location for residence permit, take a right turn from the information desk
near the entrance of the building and go to the 2nd floor. Stand in the queue and
present the form and the docs to the counter. Then you have to get a receipt of the
visa fee from another location. Then you have to wait for the security clearance
interview. It will take a whole working day for this so reach there as early as possible
in the morning. It is also possible that the office hours are over by the time of your
turn at the security clearance so you have to appear for it the next day. After all that
process, you are now free. You can collect your residence permit card after 6 weeks
from the same location. The residence permit award from KVR can also be of 1 year
but normally they award a 2 year residence permit. In the former case, you can
arrange the finances from your friends and get the permit for the next year. Later, you
return the money to your friends as it is not blocked the 2 nd year like it was in the 1st
year.

2- Finding room
Studenenwerk Munich waiting times:
http://www.studentenwerk-muenchen.de/en/student-accommodation/rent-waiting-
times-housing/
Since now you are in Munich, you can put your efforts in finding a room if you don’t
have it uptil now. First of all, you can inquire your waiting number for the student
dorm to get the idea when you will be able to get the room. The studentenwerk office
at stiftsbogen (U6 haderner stern) manages the stiftsbogen, heigelhof and the nearby
dorms. The studentenwerk office at studentenstadt (U6 studentenstadt) also
manages a lot of dorms. You can also look for private apartments and rooms.
Studentenwerk offers emergency rooms and the room is awarded on first come first
serve basis (zou have to be alert for this date and reach the location before as many
of students come there for the room).
 Exploring Munich

Now you are done with the necessary tasks and you are completely free. The best
way to spend this time is to explore Munich till the classes start from late October.
What you need is a camera, the ticket and few friends and you are all set to explore
the city. There are many places to visit in Munich. You can visit the specific places or
simply roam around using the MVV transport network. places to visit are Olympia
park, Marienplatz, Englischer garten, Alte pinakothek, Hauptbahnhof, BMW
showroom, Nymphemburg castle, Isar river, Ammer see, Starnberger see, Deutsches
museum etc. the world famous Oktoberfest will be going on in October so you can
also visit the place. Moreover, there are numerous celebrations for New Year,
Christmas, Halloween, and Easter and so on. The ESN TUMi also arranges
international events, trips, stamtisch (foreign dishes party), snowball fight and other
entertaining events.
University and studies
1- Campus visiting
Officially the semester starts from 1st October but the classes start from late October.
Meanwhile, if you want, you can visit the main campus of TUM (located near
Theresienstrasse U2 stop) and the garching campus (located at garching
forchungszentrum U6 last stop).

2- Course registration
The important task to do before 15th October is the course registration. Once you are
enrolled, you will have access to all the institutes and the courses offered by them at
TUM Online. You can browse through the institutes and the courses offered by them.
Some courses have limited seats, so you have to register yourself to be able to
attend it. For e.g. the German language courses and lab courses have limited seats
so you have to look for the starting date of course registration and immediately
register when the time starts. The lectures and tutorials from your curriculum have no
limited seats so you can register for it afterwards. By registering for the courses and
tutorials, you will have access to the slide notes and pdf files at www.moodle.tum.de
which is an online platform for information sharing. You can use your TUM email
address (abc.xyz@tum.de) to log in. you will also get a timetable for the courses you
have registered, in TUM Online.

3- University internet
You can use the free internet service at both the campuses. For this you have to
download some software and then log in with your TUM email address.

Finding jobs
Most people choose Germany because of low expenses of education. But for visa,
8000 euro is required, arranging which, is not an easy task for all of the students
coming here. Some people take loans from relatives etc to manage the initial
expenses and have to pay back their dues. So, almost everyone is concerned about
the student jobs and about how to bear the expenses on own self. Fortunately, there
are abundant jobs available in Munich for the students. In fact, People and students
from other cities come here during the semester break for jobs. So for those, who are
concerned about the loans, can easily pay back their loans within the span of 2
years. Even if you come with a sound financial background and you are not worried
about the expenses, doing some job is good to keep yourself rolling.
a- HiWi
HiWi refers to student job at the university. For getting a student job at uni, you need
to know some software relevant to your area of education. For e.g. mechanical
engineers having a sound knowledge of MATLAB, CATIA, and ANSYS can easily get
a job at the uni. Electrical, electronics and telecom engineers having knowledge of
MATLAB, SIMULINK, LABVIEW, and C++ can easily get a job. Computer and
software engineers are most likely to get a job as most of the student jobs here are
related to software, programming and IT.
Similarly, you can get a student job at a company (known as werkstudent) if you have
some previous relevant industrial experience. Students get jobs in Infineon, Intel,
Rohde & Schwarz and other companies.

b- Odd jobs
For those students, who are not well versed with software or do not have a past
experience, student jobs at restaurants or stores are also available. If you can speak
German, you have more options. Students get jobs in restaurants like burger king,
McDonalds, KFC, Allianz arena, Olympia Park and stores like Abercrombie & Fitch,
Zara etc.

c- Job documents
For all jobs, you need to present a tax card which can be made from the tax office at
Deroystrasse near hauptbahnhof. Moreover, you need to get a social security card
from your insurance provider. You can apply for this by visiting the insurance office,
once you get your insurance card.

Tax class does not depend on being a student or not. Tax class I is for single,
divorced or married people whose spouse isn’t living with them (e.g. separated or
living abroad). If you are doing two jobs, then you have Tax class VI for 2nd job. for
married people (also including students), the tax class is III if both partners are living
in Germany.

Usually if one works up to 20 hrs/wk, there is no income tax (Lohnsteuer) deducted.

What is deducted above €450 is Rentenversicherung (RV). this you cannot get back.
if tax has been deducted, its mentioned on the Lohnsteuerbescheinigung which one
gets at the end of the year in Number 4.

Overcoming homesickness / Being social

Adjusting in the new environment, away from family and relatives becomes very
tough esp. when you have not been through such times before. Home sickness is
natural in such conditions resulting in skipping classes and staying home. It also
depends on one's own nature that how you feel around new people and new
environment. Some people are introvert and do not easily mix with people. Such
people are likely to remain stressed for quite a long time. Extrovert people, on the
other hand, can easily mix and cope up with the situation within 2, 3 months.

Here are some tips to get rid of the feeling of homesickness and loneliness
- have a chat with your friends in Pakistan
- voice chat with family, relatives in Pakistan
- arrange self sponsored lunch and dinner parties with classmates and friends
- attend the eid gatherings and cultural programs
- hangout with classmates
- visit to sightseeing places in BAYERN with friends
Etc

Food expenses & cooking

a- Food type and Expenses
Food expenses can range from 50 euro to 100 euro per month depending on your
consumption qty and what type of food you like to eat. If you are spending most of
the day in uni, you can have a rich breakfast and then dinner after coming home. If
you are not used to having breakfast in the morning, you can prepare something and
take it with you. If you are used to having 3 meals per day, one option is to have
breakfast in the morning, take something prepared for lunch with you and then cook
dinner after coming home. But normally it’s very difficult to take something for lunch,
so you can try something veggie at the university cafe or if you are at main campus,
you can have Doner/Durum.

b- Initial cooking
It’s better if you learn a little bit cooking before coming here. If you have arrived here
and don’t know cooking then initially you can make easy to cook dishes. Cooking
seems tough initially, but it becomes fun when you have learned a little bit. Recipes of
each and every type of food is available on websites with videos and text. You can
make nihari, qorma, biryani, karahi and other traditional dishes easily and post the
pictures to show your friends and family. Shan masalay are available in Indian and
Pakistani shops near hauptbahnhof. Regarding Halal chicken, at Edeka, you can find
a whole chicken from “Wiesenhof” with a halal stamp on it. It’s best if you want to
prepare something from boneless chicken. It is relatively cheaper from the one sold
at Iraqi shops at Hbf. Total boneless chicken is also available from a Pakistani shop
near Frottmaning (U6 stop). Minced meat (qeema), beef and mutton are normally
bought from the Iraqi shops.

c- Easy dishes
Noodles/spaghetti with chicken/tun fish and vegetables, mix fried vegetables,
veggie/margarita pizza with custom tun fish/qeema/chicken topping, tuna fish cans,
chicken curry, masala rice, lentils, chickpeas, potato onion curry, egg potato curry

d- Breakfast
fried eggs, bread, butter, jam, baguette (garlic bread loaf), juices, chocolate spread,
fruit yoghurt, fruits, smoothies (you need a blender for this. A 400W Philips can be
bought from Saturn for 20 euro).