National German Visa - Study at German universities

Germany welcomes talented and motivated internationals students to study at German universities. You have to obtain the necessary visa prior to entry (current exceptions: AUS, CAN, ISR, JAP, NZL, KOR, USA) into Germany from the German mission/visa office at your usual place of residence. A visa can only be issued after the relevant authorities in Germany whom we need to involve in the processing have informed us about their approval of your individual application.
Before filling out the application form and booking the appointment for applying for the visa, please prepare all of the following documentation completely and carefully:

(Please make sure to submit all documents listed below as we cannot process incomplete applications. If you fail to submit a complete application at your appointment, the visa process will be severely delayed and the visa may be denied.)

o Valid passport (issued within the last 10 years, signed personally, with at least 2 blank pages);
o Completely filled out and signed application form,
o Copy of the data page of your passport,
o 2 current, identical and biometric passport pictures (not older than 3 months);
o For non-Taiwanese: ARC/APRC, original plus 1 copy
o Admission letter from your university in Germany
Exchange students must additionally submit:
- Certification of Enrolment from your university in Taiwan
- Transcript of Academic Record
o *** not applicable for exchange students ***
Proof of proficiency in the course/study language
for German: DSH, Goethe-Zertifikat, TestDaF; for English: IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC;
o Proof of finance (for the first 12 months / exchange students: for the total number of months in Germany) in the amount of at least 992 € per month:
- blocked account (“Sperrkonto”) in Germany in your name with a minimum account balance of 11904,- € (= 12 x 992 €) and confirmation that the account holder can only dispose of max. 992,- € per month; or
- formal scholarship letter by a recognized organisation (e.g. from DAAD)
o *** not applicable for exchange students ***
Previous university degree / high-school diploma / vocational training diploma or other formal qualification relevant for your studies, in original plus 1 copy
In case you are already studying but have not yet graduated:
Certification of Enrolment and Transcript of Academic Record
o Motivation letter,
In German or English language, please describe your reasons for your studies in Germany and how this fits into your future professional career

o On request, shortly before the visa is issued:
- intended date of entry
- Proof of travel health-insurance coverage for Germany

Please do NOT staple any documents!
In case documents cannot be presented in English or German, a relevant translation has to be enclosed.

Please make sure to submit all documents listed above as we cannot process incomplete applications. If you fail to submit a complete application at your appointment the visa process will be severely delayed and the visa may be denied. Each visa application will be checked individually. You may be required to provide additional documents and/or information at any stage of the processing. Incomplete documents/information may result in rejection of the application. Submitting all documents and information does not, however, guarantee that your visa application will be approved.

Proof of finance: When applying for a student visa, you need to provide evidence that you are able to meet your living costs in Germany by opening a blocked account. You have free choice of a provider. A list of providers in Germany that offer this service is available here.

As you need your passport for applying for a blocked account you should complete this step prior to your visa interview at our office. To ensure quick processing of your visa application, you should submit the proof of your blocked account during your visa interview.

The visa processing fee is 75,- € payable in NT$ at the time of your visa interview. After receiving an application, we cannot refund any visa processing fees irrespective of the decision taken on your visa application.

The processing time for a complete student visa application is usually about five weeks; in individual cases the processing may take longer. We cannot influence the processing time at the local alien authority (“Ausländerbehörde”) in Germany and cannot speed-up the process in any way. Thus, please refrain from status inquiries, they do not help your case in any way. We will inform you promptly when a decision on your visa application has been made.

You should arrange your mandatory health insurance coverage from a German statutory or private health insurance provider (gesetzliche oder private Krankenversicherung) as you must present proof of coverage at the time of enrolment at the German university. A (German or foreign) travel health insurance is not sufficient for enrolment! Address the question of health insurance early on, insurance providers offer special rates for students. Make sure that your health insurance coverage starts from your date of entry into Germany. You should preferably obtain a so-called Incoming-Health Insurance Package that protects you in case of illness from the moment you arrive in Germany and continues, without interruption, as statutory or private health insurance at special student rates.

Depending on the individual approval notice from Germany we will issue the student visa for an initial period of 90 days or 6 months. After arrival in Germany, please exchange your visa for a residence permit (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) at the local alien authority. For exchange students, we are in most cases able to issue the student visas for the whole duration of their exchange studies (1 or 2 semesters). Anyone who lives in Germany is required to register with the local authorities (“Bürgeramt/Einwohnermeldeamt”). You should do this no later than two weeks after moving into accommodation. If you move again, please re-register.

Does a student visa allow me to work in Germany during my studies?
Yes, after enrolment at your university in Germany, the student visa/residence permit for students allows you to take up employment for up to 120 days or 240 half-days per year, and to take up spare-time student employment. This does not apply during a stay for the purpose of preparatory measures for a course of study (e.g. language course). The alien authority may set additional conditions or restrictions such as employment being allowed during semester breaks only.

Procedure for groups of student participating in an exchange program

We offer special group appointments students participating in a university exchange program. This helps to make to make the visa interviews and visa processing easier.
Condition: All participants/group members must come from the same university in Taiwan and participate in an exchange program with the same university in Germany.
Group size: minimum three persons, maximum five persons (Larger groups should organize themselves into smaller groups of 3-5 members each.)
Interviews Dates: Monday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and Thursday afternoon

Please follow these steps:
Step 1: Determine one contact person for your group of exchange students who will be the contact point for the German Institute Taipei. This contact person will be in charge of booking the group appointment and will be contacted by us in case of any questions. The contact person can also be an assistant from the university or a faculty member. This person also has to be present during the appointment.
Step 2: The contact person contacts us to request a group appointment. During the appointment all group members (3 to 5 persons) must be present in person. The request must be sent by e-mail in English or German to our email address. Please mention several possible dates in your email. We will check in our system whether the requested date is available. We will then send out a confirmation e-mail via the electronic booking system to confirm the successful booking.
Step 3: All applicants prepare their own sets of applications as described above. Please make sure you hand in a complete application so that we can process your application without delay.
Step 4: Please show up on time to your appointment. All group members will be called one after the other to the interview counter. Every visa application will receive a unique case number (see visa fee receipt).

Notice:
We have to process each visa application individually despite similarities of the cases among group members. The local immigration authorities (Ausländerbehörden) in Germany also decide on each case separately and let us know their decision on each case in the electronic processing system. Accordingly, it may happen that the processing time of visa applications of members of a group whose visa interviews took place on the same date may be different. This is normal and no reason for concern. We will inform every applicant promptly when a decision on her/his visa application has been made.

Disclaimer: Although the information in this check list has been prepared with utmost care, we cannot accept any responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. The applicable laws and regulations may change at any time.