Visa Department Requirements
The Foreigners' Office (Ausländeramt or Ausländerbehörde) is well known to all students who come to study at a German university. It is here that they must renew their visa for further stay in the country. The main requirement for obtaining a student visa is a certificate of admission to study at one of the German universities. The university can be either public or private, but must have state accreditation.
In addition, as Deutsche Welle notes, the student must prove that they have sufficient financial resources for living. For example, they can present a certificate of parental income, a financial guarantee, or a bank statement showing about 8,000 euros. And, of course, a health insurance certificate will be needed.
Make an appointment!
As a rule, students first receive a three-month visa at the German embassy in their home country. After arriving in Germany, the residence permit must be extended. "Within a week, the student must register their place of residence. They do not actually need to go to the Foreigners' Office as long as their visa is valid. But I would advise not to put it off and immediately find out how the office operates," says Katja Drawe, an employee of the visa extension department at the Bochum Foreigners' Office.
In Bochum, for example, visitors are mainly seen by appointment (Termin). If you decide to come spontaneously, you may be sent home. You can make an appointment in advance by email, briefly explaining your situation and specifying the visa expiration date. In some cities, there is a special form on the city website for this purpose.
The waiting time for an appointment is from two weeks and longer. In some cities, according to Drawe, it can be up to three months. Therefore, the earlier you start dealing with this issue, the better your chances of extending your visa on time. You should also find out in advance where to go. Sometimes functions are divided between offices: if the student lives in a village, they may register there, but visa documents must be submitted to the district center.
As a visa insert in the passport, visas are now rarely pasted in. For example, as the Bochum office employee explains, if a researcher received a three-month visa but the research project is extended for another month. As a rule, students are issued an electronic card (cost: 50 euros). It takes time to process. If you contact the Foreigners' Office too late (say, the day before the visa expires), you will be issued a temporary document allowing you to stay in the country (Fiktionsbescheinigung). But for such a document, you will have to pay an additional 20 euros.
Such different officials
For attending a language course, you can get a visa in Bochum for one year. If a student has started studying at a university, in this city it is issued for a maximum of two years. But it all depends on factors such as funding for stay, insurance, passport validity. Then the visa must be renewed periodically. And here a lot depends on the goodwill of the employees of the Foreigners' Office who process students' documents.
"At first, my cases were handled by a woman who was quite meticulous in performing her duties and issued me a visa each time for only nine months. Considering the time it takes to process documents, I had to go to this office almost every six months," recalls Yulia from Belarus, a former student of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences. "Then she was replaced by another employee. On his first visit, he extended my visa for two years at once without asking any additional questions."
Changes or delays – visa difficulties
Queues in the corridors and unpredictable officials are not the only obstacles. To successfully extend your visa, you need to consider a number of nuances. The Foreigners' Offices want to know about students' academic progress. "We send the first request to the university between the fifth and seventh semesters, and then every two years," says Katja Drawe. "But if the student or doctoral candidate has the opportunity to get a certificate from the dean's office stating that they can complete their studies within the allotted time, it is better to bring such a document when going to extend the visa."
Ten years are allotted for staying in Germany for study purposes. Bachelor's students should complete their studies in about eight semesters, master's students in five. Three additional semesters are added for foreigners considering the need for adaptation and language learning. If you decide to change your major, it is possible that difficulties may arise. Ideally, this should be done within the first 18 months.
A student can easily switch to a related or similar major, for example, from Romance studies to Germanic studies or from electrical engineering to mechanical engineering. There will be more questions if they completely change direction, for example, studied medicine and then applied for Romance studies, but in this case, the Foreigners' Office employees are lenient.
"Of course, if someone decides to change direction after waiting until the 12th semester, problems are inevitable," Drawe emphasizes. It is better to stick to the ten-year limit, she adds. If studies are delayed by a year or a year and a half, it is not a problem. But if it is clear in advance that after changing majors the student will need much more time, the visa extension may be refused. A solution could be a major where some of the already studied subjects are recognized, or a major with a shorter duration of study.
Work within the permitted limits
Under a student visa, it is now allowed to work 120 days (8-hour shift) or 240 half-days (4-hour shift) per year, which is stipulated in the residence permit that the student receives. The number of days is set by law, and as Katja Drewe, the employee processing the application, emphasizes, she is not entitled to reduce it. An unlimited number of working days is provided for work as an assistant at a university or in a student organization. However, for other types of activities, if the workload exceeds 120 days, a special permit from the Office for Foreigners and the Federal Employment Agency will be required, which is difficult to obtain.
It is important to note that students who have come to Germany to attend language courses or a preparatory college are allowed to work only if the Office for Foreigners has given its consent and only during vacations. With a change in study status, of course, other rules come into effect.