Visa extension in Germany or more precisely, residence card registration is a form of legally extending the time of living and working here. As an international student, after being granted a Visa from the German Embassy in Vietnam, you are allowed to enter and stay in Germany for 3 – 6 months. After that, you must go to the Foreign Affairs Office of the City where you reside to apply for a Visa extension as soon as possible.
So how to extend Visa in Germany? Let’s find out about this with My Career !
1. How long can you stay after extending your Visa in Germany?
Depending on the city where you reside and your purpose of studying abroad, you will receive a Visa extension in Germany from 1 to 2 years. Specifically:
For those who study vocational training, after renewing your visa in Germany for the first time, you will usually be granted a residence card for about 1 year depending on the city. They can give you 2 years, for example, the city of Halle in East Germany.
For international students preparing for entrance exams or studying in a university preparatory program, you can also get an extension of 1 or 2 years.
For those who are studying for a bachelor’s or master’s degree, they are almost all granted a 2-year residence permit. Such a long permit period allows you to study with peace of mind and not be affected by the issue of renewing your visa in Germany multiple times.
And after completing this visa extension step, you can “eat well and sleep well” and focus completely on your work and studies. But every time your residence period is about to end, you have to go to the Immigration Office to continue to extend your residence period.
2. Visa extension procedure in Germany
Step 1: Prepare Visa extension application
Application for Visa extension in Germany includes the following documents:
Application form, with 3.5×4.5 passport photo. You should use photos according to German standards.
Passport/Visa valid in Germany.
Visa valid in Germany.
Rental contracts can be purchased at bookstores or printing shops and filled out and given to the landlord to sign.
Confirm temporary registration.
Insurance.
Financial proof – A type of bank document to provide proof of funds in the account, does not need to be certified and can be printed from an ATM. (Need 2 copies, 1 original, 1 photocopy).
Apprenticeship contract (For international students, admission letter is required) (In some cases, it is required – otherwise, just a student card and a language learning contract are enough).
With this Visa extension issue, as long as you have complete and transparent documents, you will quickly be granted a residence card. If not, they will notify you that you need to provide additional necessary documents.
For the next renewal, if you are still in that city, the Foreign Affairs Department may automatically send you a visa renewal appointment along with the required documents via email 1-2 months in advance (before the expiration date of your residence card). So you need to pay attention and check your email daily.
Step 2: Make an appointment with the Immigration Office
After preparing all the necessary documents to extend your Visa in Germany such as rental contract, temporary residence registration, admission documents, bank proof, then you need to extend your Visa at the Immigration Office.
The Ausländerbehörder is the place to extend visas and grant residence permits to non-German residents, foreign students coming to Germany to study, foreigners coming to Germany to live and work, and asylum seekers in Germany. Here, the documents will be reviewed and verified to be correct and valid before granting a residence permit for the next period.
To apply for a visa extension in Germany, go to the Ausländerbehörder website or search on Google with the keyword: ( Ausländerbehörder + Name of the city you are living in) to make an appointment or go directly to the Immigration Office to make an appointment.
Step 3: Fill out the visa extension application form in Germany and pay the fee
When it is your turn, you present your Visa extension application and provide the necessary documents for the extension procedure. They will then give you a form to fill out (you can also get this form online and fill it out in advance and send it to them). They will ask you some questions about the documents for verification and fingerprinting. In addition, when you first arrive and feel confused, you can ask your friends who have met you for guidance.
Then you will have to pay the fee at an automatic machine and then you come back to give the receipt back to the staff. Then you go home and wait for the email to notify you to provide additional documents or get a residence card.
Visa extension fee is 110 Euro (first time), subsequent times are 100 Euro.
Attached sheet to residence card: permission to work part-time
3. Time to receive notice of new residence card
If your documents are complete and there are no problems, you will wait for about 3-4 weeks to get your new residence card. During the waiting time, you will receive a confirmation letter and appointment to pick up the card from the Immigration Department sent to your home, including a date for you to pick it up and another paper, an electronic residence card, which will be useful in case you lose your main residence card.
On the appointment day, you just need to bring the appointment paper and passport to get the card and also the documents allowing you to work part-time. After successfully renewing, you can rest assured to continue focusing on studying without worrying about anything.
4. Valuable experiences
Prepare all required documents and Visa extension fee of 60 Euro
Book 1 month in advance
Because the time to receive a Visa extension in Germany is up to 3? 4 weeks and the Immigration Office gives priority to those who make an appointment in advance. So don’t forget this!
Find out the Immigration Office’s hours of operation and arrive early.
You should carefully research the working hours of the immigration office and arrive early, 30 minutes before your appointment.
In case you do not have an appointment and come to get a number: There are many international students renewing their visas in Germany, so if you arrive late, you will see a line of people waiting to get a number. Therefore, the advice for you is to go early, many people even go from dawn to wait for the first number. The Immigration Office starts working very early, opening at 6am and about 40 minutes later, they start getting numbers for everyone.
If you have an appointment and arrive late: the appointment may be cancelled (as Germans place great importance on punctuality), and at the same time it will be very difficult to request an extension of your appointment later.
In case you want to cancel an appointment, due to suitable reasons: exam schedule conflict, class schedule conflict…: you will have to write an email or call the person who has an appointment with you on the extension date.
Note
Temporary residence card in Germany has the same effect as CCCD as in Vietnam, so you should always carry it with you to ensure when necessary!
Prepare well for common questions during visa renewal interviews in Germany
Below are some frequently asked questions when extending a German student visa that you need to remember:
Why choose Germany as a study abroad destination?
Plan and purpose of studying here?
Have you received your admission letter yet?
Do you have a rental contract and temporary residence registration?
What are you majoring in at school?
How long do you plan to stay in Germany to study? What are your plans for the future after graduation?
Do you intend to continue working in Germany or return to your home country? Why did you choose that?
You should prepare answers to these questions and practice answering them in front of a mirror or have someone pretend to be the interviewer. This will help you give more convincing and convincing answers in front of the Immigration Office staff.
So, the procedure for extending a visa in Germany is not too difficult for those who have lived and worked here for several months. Be confident, consider the interview as a comfortable conversation and come to the best result for both of you.
To learn more about German culture as well as vocational training in Germany, you can refer to the German study abroad program with My Career here!
