All About Berlin
@allaboutberlin.bsky.social
Plain English guides for Berliners. - https://allaboutberlin.com
I am adding a field to my residence permit feedback form. This should give us hard data about which health insurance the LEA accepts. This is especially important for freelancers.
December 2, 2025 at 3:26 PM
I am adding a field to my residence permit feedback form. This should give us hard data about which health insurance the LEA accepts. This is especially important for freelancers.
The Berlin Senate is trying to close the loophole that allows landlords to charge extortionate rents. Wunderflats is encouraging its users to petition against it. Their version of the facts is... creative.
December 2, 2025 at 2:01 PM
The Berlin Senate is trying to close the loophole that allows landlords to charge extortionate rents. Wunderflats is encouraging its users to petition against it. Their version of the facts is... creative.
I have refreshed my Anmeldung appointment finder. What do you think of this design?
November 25, 2025 at 4:07 PM
I have refreshed my Anmeldung appointment finder. What do you think of this design?
Berlin.de's bot prevention algorithm was blocking clicks from All About Berlin. When clicking a link to book an appointment, you might see this error message. I have found the cause and I am deploying a fix.
November 25, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Berlin.de's bot prevention algorithm was blocking clicks from All About Berlin. When clicking a link to book an appointment, you might see this error message. I have found the cause and I am deploying a fix.
Residence permit feedback, before and after
November 18, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Residence permit feedback, before and after
When I started measuring immigration office wait times, I did not plan to get this many responses. I did not design for this at all. Just look at the pagination buttons!
November 17, 2025 at 2:57 PM
When I started measuring immigration office wait times, I did not plan to get this many responses. I did not design for this at all. Just look at the pagination buttons!
Citizenship after 3 years was officially abolished. In Berlin, it was only 1% of approved citizenship applications.
November 15, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Citizenship after 3 years was officially abolished. In Berlin, it was only 1% of approved citizenship applications.
Adi just got his driving licence and wrote about it. I'm stealing more and more advice from him. Give his job board and blog a visit.
www.arbeitnow.com/blog/drivers...
www.arbeitnow.com/blog/drivers...
How I got a driving license in Germany
www.arbeitnow.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:48 AM
Adi just got his driving licence and wrote about it. I'm stealing more and more advice from him. Give his job board and blog a visit.
www.arbeitnow.com/blog/drivers...
www.arbeitnow.com/blog/drivers...
I'm a big fan of the European Commission style guide. It answers all my little questions about how to write amounts, price ranges, dates...
commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-11/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf
I'm writing more and more tiny components to display things the same way everywhere.
commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-11/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf
I'm writing more and more tiny components to display things the same way everywhere.
commission.europa.eu
October 30, 2025 at 2:39 PM
I'm a big fan of the European Commission style guide. It answers all my little questions about how to write amounts, price ranges, dates...
commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-11/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf
I'm writing more and more tiny components to display things the same way everywhere.
commission.europa.eu/system/files/2023-11/styleguide_english_dgt_en.pdf
I'm writing more and more tiny components to display things the same way everywhere.
I'm adding instant, accurate private health insurance quotes to my calculator. No more "write an email to book a call to get a quote".
What do you think of the design?
What do you think of the design?
October 28, 2025 at 2:34 PM
I'm adding instant, accurate private health insurance quotes to my calculator. No more "write an email to book a call to get a quote".
What do you think of the design?
What do you think of the design?
The Berlin immigration office departments have changed. Make sure you submit your residence permit applications to the right place!
www.berlin.de/einwanderung...
www.berlin.de/einwanderung...
Contact to departments A, B, F and M (right of residence) - Berlin.de
Contact forms for departments A, B, F and M (right of residence) in the Berlin Immigration Office (Landesamt für Einwanderung)
www.berlin.de
October 1, 2025 at 12:56 PM
The Berlin immigration office departments have changed. Make sure you submit your residence permit applications to the right place!
www.berlin.de/einwanderung...
www.berlin.de/einwanderung...
My Bürgeramt appointment finder is back online!
The tool: allaboutberlin.com/tools/appoin...
The code change: github.com/All-About-Be...
The tool: allaboutberlin.com/tools/appoin...
The code change: github.com/All-About-Be...
Anmeldung appointment finder
Use this bot to find an Anmeldung appointment at the Bügeramt in Berlin.
allaboutberlin.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:50 AM
My Bürgeramt appointment finder is back online!
The tool: allaboutberlin.com/tools/appoin...
The code change: github.com/All-About-Be...
The tool: allaboutberlin.com/tools/appoin...
The code change: github.com/All-About-Be...
An update about my appointment finder: Berlin.de added new anti-bot measures in August. Their devs helped me figure out what's wrong. I will try a different approach, and hope it fixes the issue.
September 25, 2025 at 7:57 AM
An update about my appointment finder: Berlin.de added new anti-bot measures in August. Their devs helped me figure out what's wrong. I will try a different approach, and hope it fixes the issue.
All About Berlin is 8 years old!
September 22, 2025 at 8:45 AM
All About Berlin is 8 years old!
My Bürgeramt appointment finder is down since 6 August. I'm working to get it back online.
Two lessons:
1. I would have caught it earlier if I had proper error monitoring and alerting in place.
2. Don't build castles on quicksand.
Two lessons:
1. I would have caught it earlier if I had proper error monitoring and alerting in place.
2. Don't build castles on quicksand.
September 19, 2025 at 9:59 AM
My Bürgeramt appointment finder is down since 6 August. I'm working to get it back online.
Two lessons:
1. I would have caught it earlier if I had proper error monitoring and alerting in place.
2. Don't build castles on quicksand.
Two lessons:
1. I would have caught it earlier if I had proper error monitoring and alerting in place.
2. Don't build castles on quicksand.
Did you become a German citizen recently? I need your feedback! I created a page to measure wait times at the Berlin citizenship office. The more data we have, the more useful it will be.
allaboutberlin.com/guides/citiz...
allaboutberlin.com/guides/citiz...
Berlin citizenship wait times
See how long it takes to get German citizenship in Berlin.
allaboutberlin.com
September 16, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Did you become a German citizen recently? I need your feedback! I created a page to measure wait times at the Berlin citizenship office. The more data we have, the more useful it will be.
allaboutberlin.com/guides/citiz...
allaboutberlin.com/guides/citiz...
Should I add comments to All About Berlin? It has been on my mind for a few months now. I am picturing something similar to Reddit and Hacker News, with threaded comments and vote counts.
September 10, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Should I add comments to All About Berlin? It has been on my mind for a few months now. I am picturing something similar to Reddit and Hacker News, with threaded comments and vote counts.
I have (once again) rewritten my student health insurance guide. I followed a few communities for months, noting what confuses students and where the existing advice fails them. This update gives better guidance in a simpler format.
allaboutberlin.com/guides/germa...
allaboutberlin.com/guides/germa...
German health insurance for students
This guide explains how to choose the best German health insurance for students.
allaboutberlin.com
September 8, 2025 at 2:21 PM
I have (once again) rewritten my student health insurance guide. I followed a few communities for months, noting what confuses students and where the existing advice fails them. This update gives better guidance in a simpler format.
allaboutberlin.com/guides/germa...
allaboutberlin.com/guides/germa...
Happy Sexual Health Day! Like everything else in Berlin, getting tested for STIs is much harder than it should be. Doctors are hard to find, appointments are hard to get, and wait times are measured in weeks.
My updated STI testing guide should help: allaboutberlin.com/guides/std-t...
My updated STI testing guide should help: allaboutberlin.com/guides/std-t...
How to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases in Berlin
This is how you get tested for HIV, herpes, chlamydia and other STDs in Berlin.
allaboutberlin.com
September 5, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Happy Sexual Health Day! Like everything else in Berlin, getting tested for STIs is much harder than it should be. Doctors are hard to find, appointments are hard to get, and wait times are measured in weeks.
My updated STI testing guide should help: allaboutberlin.com/guides/std-t...
My updated STI testing guide should help: allaboutberlin.com/guides/std-t...
This tool helps you find English-language movies in Berlin. It's so clean and simple! - ov-berlin.info/movies/
August 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM
This tool helps you find English-language movies in Berlin. It's so clean and simple! - ov-berlin.info/movies/
The browser sends us the user's preferred language. I could use this to show language-specific placeholders. How about "Alex Mustermann" in German or "Wei Zhang" in Mandarin?
I already use this technique to recommend countries at the top of my country picker.
I already use this technique to recommend countries at the top of my country picker.
August 13, 2025 at 6:47 AM
The browser sends us the user's preferred language. I could use this to show language-specific placeholders. How about "Alex Mustermann" in German or "Wei Zhang" in Mandarin?
I already use this technique to recommend countries at the top of my country picker.
I already use this technique to recommend countries at the top of my country picker.
I have built a new letter generator to do your Abmeldung by email. As recommended by experts, it gives multiple fallback options for sending the deregistration certificate, because each Bürgeramt does it differently.
August 11, 2025 at 2:08 PM
I have built a new letter generator to do your Abmeldung by email. As recommended by experts, it gives multiple fallback options for sending the deregistration certificate, because each Bürgeramt does it differently.
I have made a series of small improvements to my resignation letter generator. I wrote a short blog post about it here: nicolasbouliane.com/blog/resigna...
August 11, 2025 at 10:27 AM
I have made a series of small improvements to my resignation letter generator. I wrote a short blog post about it here: nicolasbouliane.com/blog/resigna...
I am leaving Frankfurt with a few ideas of how to simplify health insurance for immigrants, and none of them involve AI, only good information, a smoother user experience and a few efficiency tweaks.
Step one: build the infrastructure to make it happen.
nicolasbouliane.com/blog/insuran...
Step one: build the infrastructure to make it happen.
nicolasbouliane.com/blog/insuran...
Building an insurance case tracker - Nicolas Bouliane
Our first step towards building an insurance business.
nicolasbouliane.com
August 7, 2025 at 1:55 PM
I am leaving Frankfurt with a few ideas of how to simplify health insurance for immigrants, and none of them involve AI, only good information, a smoother user experience and a few efficiency tweaks.
Step one: build the infrastructure to make it happen.
nicolasbouliane.com/blog/insuran...
Step one: build the infrastructure to make it happen.
nicolasbouliane.com/blog/insuran...