Kindergeld is €259 a month for every child in 2026, but a newcomer doesn't qualify just by registering an address. If you're an EU, EEA or Swiss national, you generally wait three months after moving unless you're already earning here. If you're from anywhere else, it turns on the residence permit you hold, not on how long you've lived in Germany. Either way, the Familienkasse only pays the six months before the month you apply, so working out which rule fits you is worth doing early.
1. Who can claim, in outline
Kindergeld (child benefit) goes to a parent with a residence (Wohnsitz) or habitual abode (gewöhnlicher Aufenthalt) in Germany, or who is treated as fully taxable here even without one (§ 62(1) EStG). That much is the same for everyone. What differs for a newcomer is an extra test layered on top of it: EU, EEA and Swiss citizens face a waiting period; citizens of other countries face a test tied to their residence permit. Both parent and child need a German tax ID (Steuer-ID, § 139b AO) before the Familienkasse pays, but a claim can be filed first and backdated once the ID arrives.
2. EU, EEA and Swiss citizens: the three-month rule
A national of another EU state or of an EEA state (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) has no Kindergeld claim for the first three months after setting up a residence or habitual abode in Germany, unless they can already show German-source income from work, self-employment, letting or capital, rather than, chiefly, ordinary wages taxed under the standard payroll rule (§ 62(1a) sentences 1–2 EStG). Once the three months have passed, the claim stands unless the person no longer has a right of free movement under § 2(2) or (3) FreizügG/EU — broadly, being an employed or self-employed person, a jobseeker who has actually worked here before, a student or other person with enough means and cover, or a family member of one of them. A jobseeker who has never worked in Germany doesn't count on that ground alone (§ 62(1a) sentence 3 EStG). The Familienkasse decides this itself, and tells the Ausländerbehörde if it refuses a claim or finds forged documents.
Switzerland isn't an EU or EEA state, so it sits outside the wording above. Swiss nationals have their own residence rights in Germany under the EU–Switzerland free movement agreement, and the Familienkasse treats a Swiss claim by the same free-movement test; ask them directly how the three-month rule applies to your dates, since the published text of § 62(1a) EStG names only EU and EEA states.
The three-month rule has been argued over in court. The Bundesfinanzhof has held that the rule denying a claim after the three months, for someone who later loses their free-movement right, doesn't breach EU law, and the Finanzgericht Münster reached the same view on the rule as a whole in 2025. If your claim is refused on this ground and you think it shouldn't be, that is exactly the kind of case worth taking to a tax or EU-law specialist rather than reading as settled either way.
3. Everyone else: it depends on your permit
For a citizen of any other country, Kindergeld follows the residence permit, not time spent in Germany (§ 62(2) EStG). Three broad groups:
- Settled permits qualify straight away: a Niederlassungserlaubnis or an EU long-term residence permit (Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU).
- A permit for employment of six months or more qualifies too: a Blue Card EU, an ICT or Mobile ICT card, or any residence permit that allows gainful employment for at least six months. Permits for training, an au pair placement, seasonal work, a European voluntary service, or a stay to look for work or recognition of a qualification don't count on their own; nor does a student permit or a permit to look for work after study, unless the holder is actually employed, on parental leave, or drawing SGB III unemployment benefit.
- A humanitarian permit qualifies once you're established, not from day one: someone with a permit granted for war in their home country, for other humanitarian reasons, or on specific family or hardship grounds qualifies once they are lawfully employed, on parental leave or drawing SGB III benefit, or, failing that, once they have been lawfully present, permitted or tolerated (geduldet) in Germany for at least 15 months. A permit to work while a deportation is suspended (Beschäftigungsduldung) qualifies on its own.
This rule has been questioned too: courts have asked whether tying Kindergeld to the permit type, for people otherwise in the same position, sits well with the Grundgesetz's equal treatment guarantee. Until that is settled for a particular case, the permit-based rule is what the Familienkasse applies.
4. How much, and which children count
Kindergeld is €259 a child a month in 2026, the same for every child with no tiering by birth order (§ 66(1) EStG). It runs to a child's 18th birthday, and can continue to 25 while the child is in school, training, study, an approved gap of up to four months between two stages of training, or a recognised voluntary year, and without any age limit if a disability that leaves the child unable to support themselves began before 25 (§ 63(1) EStG with § 32(4), (5) EStG). A child who has moved with you, or who is still abroad while you settle in first, counts the same way; what changes case by case is the proof the Familienkasse asks for, such as a translated birth certificate.
5. Applying, and the six-month limit
Apply online or by post to the Familienkasse of the Bundesagentur für Arbeit for the place you live, with your own and the child's tax ID, proof of your residence permit or free-movement status, and the child's birth certificate (translated, if it's foreign). You can apply before your tax ID arrives; the Familienkasse processes the claim once it does, and can pay out for months already passed. That backdating stops at six months before the month you actually apply, whatever the reason for the delay (§ 70(1) EStG) — so a newcomer who waits to "get settled first" before applying loses real money. If you're expecting a baby here rather than bringing one with you, our money checklist for a baby in Germany goes through the rest of the first weeks, Elterngeld included.
6. When a financial planner can help
Kindergeld is one line in a bigger picture when you've just arrived: a first payslip, a new tax class, cover to arrange, and now a child benefit claim with its own waiting period. A financial planner who works in English can go through all of it with you in one sitting and set out what to do first. They agree their fee with you before they start. Ask for a financial planner who works in English. Our guide to your first year in Germany covers the rest of what to set up early on.
Primary sources checked on 3 November 2026: the statutes, decisions and official pages linked above.