A few notes on Zivildienst

Photo by Mateusz Dach from Pexels

From a contact considering naturalisation, but who is below the cut-off age for military service or alternative civilian service (Zivildienst), I have received some information about civilian service. He has enquired whether whether teaching jobs can be considered as performing alternative civilian service, since many kindergartens use the services of Zivildiener (our kindergarten is one such example).

Unfortunately it can’t. Furthermore, unless the school(s) you teach at keep(s) you nominally on the staff lists for a couple of hours, you may not be able to retain your position at the school, due to the fact the Zivildienst is for the equivalent of a full-time position. The duration of Zivildienst is nine months, although there is a possibility to voluntarily extend it for a further three months. In this case the extra months are paid better than the normal Zivildienst pay.

The monthly pay for a Zivildiener as of 01.01.2020 is EUR 346.70 per month. However there is Verpflegungsgeld, to ensure that you have enough money for food, if Naturalverpflegung (i.e. meals provided is not offered). Naturalverpflegung consists of breakfast and one hot meal and one cold meal (with the hot meal as either lunch or dinner).

In some cases you are provided with accommodation too (i.e. residential /live-in jobs) on otherwise you can apply for financial assistance towards accommodation costs. In cases of financial support being required, this extends to spouses (i.e. by marriage or a civil partnership) as well as children, but not say a girlfriend/boyfriend.

Further information in German: https://www.zivildienst.gv.at/103/start.aspx

Note: h/t Friedrich Bruckner for reminding me that employers are obliged to keep your old job open for you for up to one month after the end of Zivildienst (and military service).

The final steps on the road to Austrian citizenship

As this post is published, I will be seeing my case officer to finish off the naturalisation process for me and my young son. My case officer called last Monday and has requested that I come with my British passport, as well as my son’s and my Bescheinigung des Daueraufenthalts and my son’s Anmeldebescheinigung. We will be required to surrender these documents (since our circumstances have changed and we will no longer be UK citizens) and our Staatsbürgerschaftsnachweise will then be issued, and we can arrange for passports and Personalausweise to be issued, for which we again enlisted the services of Bildermacher on Tuchlauben (they are great with babies and toddlers) to sort us out with a new set of passport photos (once again the photos need to be recent (i.e. under six months old)). In addition, I have to bring just shy of EUR 1,500 to MA35 (in cash, hence why I delayed this post so will not be carrying the cash on me by the time this post goes online) to cover the costs of our naturalisation, in what I hope should be the final Behördenweg (in February 2017, when asked about Austria as a hub for business and what could be the pitfalls of trying to do business here, I mentioned the lengthy Behördenwege. The quote ended up on the national news, coupled with a rebuttal by the then Minister of Finance). Continue reading “The final steps on the road to Austrian citizenship”

Completing the jigsaw puzzle – Nachweis über Exekutionen und Pfändungen

Entrance to the Bezirksgericht Döbling

Entrance to the Bezirksgericht Döbling
Entrance to the Bezirksgericht Döbling

I came out of my application submission appointment in late October with a date for my citizenship test, which I have next week along with the request to submit a few final pieces of paperwork. Most importantly of course, I have a case number and my application was made with the UK still in the EU.

I’ll still not be convinced that I have submitted everything until I get a formal confirmation through to that effect – given my wife’s experience where her application was held for a year untouched, maybe my unease is somewhat justified, especially as once submitted by my case officer, my paperwork will be passed on to a colleague of the case officer for reviewing.

Continue reading “Completing the jigsaw puzzle – Nachweis über Exekutionen und Pfändungen”