German Student Visa process and selection of Universities Blog

2011-12-21T22:25:00.001+01:00

Hello it is me again after more than one year. this time i thought i should share my personal experience of being here in Germany regarding Educational,social and professional life.

For those who come here and study in English language, i would say life is not easy. if you want to live a good life i..e to integrate, to mix socially you must learn German and with already so much to study , it is nearly impossible to learn new language. already in international programs there are no Germans so it becomes very difficult to be friends with them unless you speak their language or live with them. Germans are also not very open people. they get time to be your friends. they are not like Italians,Spaniards or east Europeans who easy to mingle and be friends with. if you don't learn language , you will realize that you are living a life of ghetto. so it is hard work to learn the language as well as get good grades in your studies. Education here is not easy. in professional life also , you need to speak and communicate in German. your prospects of getting job increases by many folds once you know German. i would strongly advice all of you to please learn this language, it will help you in your studies,in your social life and in your professional life as well. Germans are crazy about work, they are hard working, for those who are coming to Germany for Msc in Electrical power engineering, you must have a very strong background in power engineering and in programming. Strong theoritical background is very important if you want to enter in the Job market and be successful. in the end i would say if i get another chance, i would learn German language and then come to Germany

Dedication

2010-11-24T22:39:00.005+01:00

To my friends who kept my moral high and helped me when i was alone and was almost done with my life.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

Sorry to post this here lol but i hope you people also enjoy his while reading my blog :)

2010-11-12T11:59:00.000+01:00

Assalam o alaykum,

Dear readers of the Blog, i want to give you some very useful information about accommodation in Aachen.
Aachen is not a very big city and it has around 33000 students here so it is very very hard to get accommodation. (possible only if you are German or you are Erasmus or exchange student) other wise it is nearly impossible to get into student hostels. you have to apply one year before you start your studies in Aachen. finding accommodation is very hard if you cant speak German or if you are not European. so forget about it. the biggest problem one faces when he comes to new city is of accommodation. the international office is of no help here. they wont provide you with the accommodation. they can suggest you that apply here or apply there but already you don't speak German and you are not European so no chance that you get any room in private homes.to get into into student hostels you have to apply one year before you start your studies, for foreigners the waiting period is long so better be prepared for it.
so be mentally prepared for these things . this is a generalization , some cases may be exception.

Leave your comments if you don't agree or want more information

2010-11-10T21:18:00.004+01:00

RWTH Aachen University - International

Office

2010-11-03T22:11:00.004+01:00

Welcome Slides from International office RWTH Aachen

Information slides for EPE students (RWTH Aachen)

2010-10-24T22:56:00.002+02:00

ADVICE TO ALL

2010-05-24T12:30:00.001+02:00

Asslam o alaykum,

Dear applicants of the electrical power engineering in German universities, there an advice and new info for you all..

1 , Technical university of Munich has also started the power engineering program but this one is more related to mechanical and chemical engineering. i.e. more emphasize is on process and Generation of power.you can check out the program contents.power engineering program in TUM
P.S. TUM is ranked amongst the best engineering universities in the World.
2. for those interested in electrical power engineering , my sincere advice is that try to get admission either in RWTH Aachen or TU darmstadt (both ranked amongst the best engineering universities in Germany).

for RWTH Aachen the deadline is 1st of mrach while for TU darmstadt it is 30th of June..

note, try not to get admission in TU Cottbus ( this is for those having bachelors in Electrical power engineering). but if you dont have background in power engineering and you want to do power engineering in any way from Germany then TU Cottbus is best for you. ( 'coz no other university will admit you in power engineering) ..

for any info you need reagrding power engineering in Germany, just leave comment..

have a nice day.

2010-01-24T14:24:00.005+01:00

asslam o alaikum

i successfully got Visa within 3 weeks after my application...

the emotions were mixed, didnt know what to do?

either be happy or sad, i was doing a very good job, i abandoned it and opted for higher studies,

For few days i was very sad, leaving family and friends behind for a long time is not easy..

moreover it was the love for pakistan, the long drives, the outing with friends, the maoj masti, hungamas , all things were running in my mind..

my best friends with whom i spent many years,everything was flashing back in my mind. last night in Pakistan was very hard for me,i called some friends , all were congratulating, yeah it was a big success..

at Jinnah international airport , at around 4 am i reached, and waited for the flight to Berlin Tegel.

i had carriage weighing more than 31 kg as compared to 20 kg allowed..

i thought there would be problem. but all went well, the boarding officer was friendly enough when i told him that i was a student..

Immigration was also no problem , but i forgot the university extension letter, so the lady who knew my native language at first made jokes with me then let me go..

I reached Doha international airport in morning.

from there i got a seat with German couple in plan bound for the Berlin tegel but as soon as i sat with them , they immediately called the steward and asked him that they wanted to change the seats. i understood why and probably you too :)

it took almost 6:30 hours that plane reached Berlin Tegel , i was the only person in the plane whose luggage was checked extensively and was interrogated.. :)

All went well as i am sharif bacha , there my friends stood and i reached my destination..

comments are welcome..

cheers see you again.

2009-09-23T19:05:00.008+02:00

Part-3

now that you have got the visa, next step is do the preparations for the departure to Germany.
Generally everything is available in Germany, but to cut the initial cost you may carry most important items with you to Germany.

here is the list compiled by the PSA-RWTH-Aachen , you can download it , click the link

Estimation of Monthly Expenses

Monthly expenses vary from city to city. Large cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Munich etc are more
expensive than smaller cities. The major expense is of accommodation. In big cities, the cost for a room starts generally above €250. The other major expense is health insurance which costs about €65 a month. Transport is expensive in bigger cities (about €40 50) whereas in smaller cities, it might be included in the fees and does not cost anything extra. Food and other items cost less than a €100. To sum it up, monthly expenses may range from €350 – 400 for smaller cities and €400 – 500 for larger cities. I would like to mention that this is an estimate and the actual expenses might be lesser or higher according to your living style but some expenses are fixed and you cannot cut down on those.

Student Jobs in Germany

One other thing most students are interested in knowing about are student jobs. These are called Hilfswissenschaftler (HiWi) here which literally means Assistant Scientist but is commonly used for parttime working students as student assistants or research assistants.
Students are allowed to work upto 20 hrs/week in Germany. Also, there is a condition on the number of days you may work during an year. This is limited to 90 full days or 180 half days.
Almost all student jobs available in Germany are related to programming. So if you intend to work here to bear your expenses, you should be good in atleast one programming language like C/C++, Java, Python etc. There are some jobs for VHDL as well (Verilog is not used here).
You may work either a university institute or at a company. Both have some pros and cons. At a
company, you get paid higher but the working hours are strict. At university institutes, the pay rates are slightly lower but the advantages are great: flexible working hours, can work from home (which you may also do on weekends), easy to stop working before exams (university supervisors will never say no if you need time for studies before exams). One other great advantage is that the work you do at a university institute does not deduct your 90 full (180 half) days allowed per year.

University notice boards usually host student job postings. Almost all notices are in German. But this is not that big an issue even if you don't know German. With a little bit help from the internet, you can understand them. Note the requirements and email addresses of the contact person(s) and send them your CV by email. Try to keep the length of the CV restricted to one page. Include only relevant information.
Student job advertisements are also there on university institutes' websites. You may also contact people by email before arriving to Germany and meet them when you are here so that you may have a job as

quickly as possible (although this is not possible in all cases). If you intend to start your job as soon as possible, you should apply for residence permit as soon as you can since this is one of the requirements for student jobs.
Finding a student job may take some time. It also depends on their availability on the German city where you are coming for studies. In some cities, students find jobs quickly within the first few months while in others, it might take more than one semester. Availability of student jobs is one factor to consider when choosing a university if you cannot fulfill your expenses without them.

Disclaimer:-

The author of this Blog is not responsible for any loss caused to anyone from information
contained in this blog. The student visa process might change and it is the responsibility of the applicant to be aware of the most recent requirements. For this, consult the website of the German consulate/embassy when applying for student visa.

Special Thanks

Farish Kagalwala -MCE Student in TUM Germany. (last two paragraphs are borrowed from him)
orkut community of "Pakistani students in Germany".
PSA-RWTH-Aachen.
yahoo group of [Pakistanischegemeinde].
and many friends who gave their suggestions.

2009-09-23T18:23:00.009+02:00

Part-2

Once you have details, now you can transfer your amount into your account. You can transfer your amount if any of your relatives has foreign currency account. or via money exchangers. Remember that money exchanger will charge you Rs.2.5 per euro to be sent to Germany besides its fees normally Rs. 1000. Amount is transferred within two days. Addition to the €7,716, an amount of € 20-30 will be deducted as account opening fees. so keep that margin also. even if u don't keep, it doesn't matter.3-4 days after you transfer the money, you will get the balance statement via email. f you don't have much time, you can apply for visa with the receipt of the money exchanger and swift statement, the consulate accepts this, they themselves will verify the amount in your account.

Remember:-
The amount you transfer will be blocked for one year and neither can it be drawn it once nor can be transferred any where else. You can only draw €643 per month .

you can download the visa requirements and visa application forms from following websites:

German Consulate in Karachi (for Sindh and Baluchistan residents)

http://www.karachi.diplo.de/Vertretung/karachi/en/01/Visabestimmungen/seite__visa__student.html

German Embassy in Islamabad (for Punjab and NWFP residents)

http://www.islamabad.diplo.de/Vertretung/islamabad/en/01/Visabestimmungen/Arten__von__visa__und__voraussetzungen.htm

Check the Visa Requirements. Fill in the application forms. you may find it difficult to fill the application form. You can download the filled application form from this link.

there is no appointment system at German Consulate in Karachi, where as you need to take appointment at German Embassy in Islamabad if your applying for Winter Semester, in summer semester there is no appointment in German embassy in Islamabad ( my friend didn't take appointment when he applied for summer semester). please reach there on time as they process only 22 applications per day including student visa.

The student visa fees if €60. This can be paid in Pakistani Rupees.
the interview is usually held on the same day, if not the the other day. The interview is not at all difficult, just simple questions, why Germany, Why this university, about family members, if not fresh, work experience, what will you do after completing the studies. My suggestion is that never let them assume that you will be staying there after completing your studies. You can collect your passport back after 7 days, they give you the date. If not, no problem. It might take about 1.5 months or more for visa clearance, but usually one gets visa with 3 weeks if all the requirements are fulfilled you have good luck :).

If they want to reject your visa application, than they do it after investigation and process in Pakistan. If you got the passport back with a stamp of Antrag Erhalten (Request for), that means your application along with your documents has been sent to Germany for further inquiry. If that happens, then applicant have 99% chance to get visa within a month.

The consulate will call you when they get the clearance, or you can call and inquire. When the clearance has been done, they will ask you to bring back your passport (if you had taken it back earlier) along with a ticket and travel insurance.( at khi consulate insurance is mandatory, about embassy in Islamabad i am not sure, because my friend didn't provide with them the insurance and he got the visa).

This insurance is just for your travel period and different than the health insurance which you have to get here in Germany after your arrival. Usually they ask for one months travel insurance. The insurance can be had from one of the companies listed on the consulate's/embassy's website:

ACE
Adamjee
AIG
New Hampshire
EFU
IGI
PICIC
UIC
Takaful Pakistan.

Note:
Book your ticket in advance, i.e. your intended day of departure. one gets ticket easily but on safe side do booking as booking costs nothing.

After you provide them with insurance and ticket.They might ask you to come back after 2 0r 3 days to take your passport back with the student visa stamped.

If your classes are starting early then you may ask the visa officer to speed up the process or ask your international office person or course coordinator to ask them to process the visa faster so that you may make it within time.

The student visa granted is for 3 months. After coming to Germany, you have to apply for residence permit. The rejection ratio of student visas is very low for Germany and if you fulfill all the requirements, you can be pretty sure you will get the visa.

Good luck for your studies in GERMANY.

2009-09-23T14:42:00.011+02:00

Part-1

Hello Friends,

Let's Start..
The reason why most people choose Germany for education is because of its very low tuition fees, good quality of education and higher availability of student jobs as compared to other countries. There are two type of Institutes of higher education in Germany.

Universities ( one can do PhD or Research after doing masters from these Universities)
Universities of Applied Sciences ( Fachhochschule) ( one can't do PhD after getting masters's degree from these universities, they are more practical oriented).

Germany is best if you want to do Masters or PhD. For Doing Bachelors i won't Recommend as there are very few programs available in English. The best way to search your Desired program and university is to go to DAAD website. www.daad.de . DAAD is acronym of (German Academic Exchange Service). It helps foreign and German students in studying abroad.
The Direct Link to find your desired program is this one.

http://www.daad.de/deutschland/studienangebote/internationalprogrammes/
07535.en.html.

Keep in mind that before applying to any university in Germany , you will have to keep almost € 7,716 ready as will be required for the visa processing. with out that money you can't apply for visa, and remember there are very few student grants available. if you don't have that much money, no need to apply for admission.

Getting Admission.

Many German universities neither require IELTS nor GRE. but IELTS is mandatory in Visa application, without it your visa can't be processed (for English Programs). here i will talk about Electrical Power Engineering.

There are 4 Universities in Germany which offer Masters in EPE in English Language.

RWTH Aachen ( www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/bdz/)
TU Darmstadt (www.tu-darmstdat.de/index.en.html)
BTU Cottbus (www.tu-Cottbus.de)
TU-Munich (TU-Munich)

Aachen and Darmstdat and Munich are in Western Germany, are very old universties, TU Darmstdat is considered as Mother of electrical Engineering and both are part of TU9 [ excellence in engineering in Germany] , Big Cities,around € 650 tuition fees for RWTH-Aachen and €500 for TU Darmstdat,can find part time jobs easily,more expensive. TU Munich is ranked as best engineering university , but it's power engineering program is some what related to mechanical and process engineering , you can say they will teach you as to what happens behind the generator, where as the other three universites teach you as to what happens after the generator. Munich is very expensive city .where as BTU is in Eastern Germany, it is relatively new university i.e.established in 1991 after German Reunification,small city,no tuition fees,part time jobs are rare,less expensive, the city is full of nationalists.

All four Provide online Application forms. mostly english programs start in Winter Semeters. you can find the deadlines, required documents,application processing fess and all related info on both the universities respective website and on Daad Website. There is also CHE ranking system of all universties .
But Ranking Doesn't Bother Much in Germany. The Link is this one http://www.daad.de/deutschland/hochschulen/hochschulranking/06543.en.html . however it doesn't matter which university you get in, you can transfer your credit hours lately in any university you want, but the credit points may be higher if you transferring from a low ranked university.

once you get the admission letter , you can now process the visa.

PS: My advice; as soon as you get the admission, you also apply for the accommodation in that city where to be university is situated, usually studetenwerk deals with the accomodation .(university has nothing to do with studentenwerk). it is a students body, you can find the web page of the required studentenwerk of your desired city by goggling studentenwerk following the name of the city. do it at least 3 months prior to commencing the studies.

German Student Visa Process.

Before getting the admission letter, one thing that you can do is to arrange your finances,as of now (23rd September 2009) , you need to deposit €7,716 in a bank account in Germany in your name. As soon as you get your admission letter, the first thing you should do is to go to Deutsche Bank branch in your city with the admission letter, your passport and NIC, the timing of student account Dealing is 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm in Karachi during Winter semester. They will ask you to fill in a form send it to the branch of Deutsche Bank in Hamburg which deals with all student accounts. it is better to send it via TCS or DHL as it takes less time and assured to be delivered there. it takes three waorking days for your form to reach there. as soon as it reaches there, within 4 days you will get account confirmation letter through your email ( you l must provide email in account opening form).

intro

2009-09-22T23:55:00.002+02:00

hi, all

this a blog by me,

keep visiting for the updates.
thanks.