tyboss:
Happy new year nairaland family, wishing you all the best this year has to offer and actualization of all our goals and dreams this year.
This forum has given a lot to me and I believe it is time for me to give back to the community. Unfortunately this forum isn's as active as it used to be, so some of the information here are outdated. I intended to write this article a long time ago but procrastination  .
I strongly believe everything we do in life is in stages, and no matter who you are or where you are, you will belong to a particular stage. Some people will be at a former stage and some at a latter stage, it is therefore my hope that someone can learn from my experience and avoid a lot of common pitfalls, as I also did and learnt from others before me on this platform.
[NB: this was my process for my[b] MASTER'S STUDIES [/b]NOT UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES]
I will walk through my journey from the start up till when I got my visa. Almost 2 years in the making, not for the faint hearted.
STAGE 1: This stage actually isn't compulsory but it can make your journey much easier. (NOVEMBER 2021) I had just finished my undergraduate studies, and instead of going directly for my youth service, I enrolled in a 6 month programme to learn german from a german learning institute in Lagos, as of this time the appointment/visa process took 6 months. It was quite tough learning the language, the language proficiency level ranges through (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2) with C2, being the highest and A1 being the lowest. For most Universities in Germany particularly for (engineering courses) you will need a minimum of B1 to apply for admission. For more reserved courses like medicine you will probably need a higher language proficiency requirement B2 or C1. Moving on, after 6months I wrote B1 certification exam at the goethe institute (this is where you should always take the certification not anywhere else) similar to IELTS but german. Needless to say I didn't make it on the first try. I decided to retake and waited for another 5 months, this is because goethe only conducts it's certification exams a certain number of times in a year like 4 to 5 times (as of 2022).
During this 5 months I went for my NYSC and started personal study in preparation for the exams, while I was serving I retook the exams and passed all the papers.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
1. Learn the language if you have the time, it saved the me a lot of stress down the line.
2. I advise you enroll in goethe if you want to learn the language, as there are a lot of benefit, as compared to other private establishments (cheaper fees, familiarization with the exam systems, ONLINE CLASSES, materials and so much more). Unfortunately I learnt this the hard way.
3.Do not take the exams if you are not adequately prepared but because you want to meet a certain exam date. you will waste money!!
4. Get your certification from goethe they are the most recognized in germany.
5. As of November 2022, B1 exams cost #48,000
6. MOST IMPORTANT. I regret not having applied for my appointment during this period. Always apply for your appointment as early as possible even if you are just starting.
STAGE 2: I applied for an appointment for a masters visa (category B) on the 7th of APRIL 2022. Make sure you find out which category you fall under either (CAT A, OR CAT B) and apply accordingly. As of this point I didn't know I would have to wait for 18 months for my interview, beacause during that period the waiting time was still 8-9months.
One has to be careful during this stage beacause you have to plan your admission carefully around possible expected visa date.
KEY TAKE AWAY:
[/b]1. Make sure you apply for the right category, with the correct details. I had an incidence of someone at the embassy sent back because of incorrect details.
2. No matter what, even if you are getting frustrated do not cancel your appointment except you have decided to change your plans.
3. Be patient and keep in mind it might take a long time.
4. German embassy visa application: [url]https://nigeria.diplo.de/ng-en/service/visa
[/url]
[b]STAGE 3: During this period of waiting for your appointment you have the following goals:
a. Gather all you necessary documents for both visa and admission purposes.
this will help for the visa requirements: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/nigeria/germany/student-visa/
b. Get an admission before your appointment date. VERY IMPORTANT. It doesnt matter if the shool would have resumed or not.
c. Get your blocked account or sponsorshipl letter(SL) ready. This will make your process faster
While I was waiting I gathered all my necessary documents for my admission:
waec, university certificate, unofficial-transcript, statement of purpose, reference letter, IELTS cert, German cert from goethe.
with this, I opened an account with uni-assist and sent copies of all my original certified documents to uni-assist (NB: Cerification can be done by any notary public, it doesnt have to be at a court).
With this I was the able to apply to any number of schools I wanted without having to send my documents multiple times (NB: not all schools use uni-assist so few may still require you send your documents).
The fees ranged between 75euro - 30euro per application. At this point I made crucial mistakes and lost some money, I unfortunately applied to 2 schools which resumed very early while I was still waiting for my appointment, so I had to forfeit my admission since I was not ready to pay semester fees for schools I knew I wouldn't be able to resume in time for, so plan wisely.
I aslo opened a blocked account with expatrio to block a sum of 11,208 euros, which is the amount required by law, the advantages of using expatrio is that it comes with both health insurance for admission purposes and travel insurance for visa purposes. I can't over emphasize how this saved me a lot of stress down the line. Getting the required amount was by no means an easy feat, fortunately for me this was before the floating of the naira so the exchange rate was lower then compared to now. And the easiest way to get this was "black market" if you want it done quickly. It might be frustrating to block such huge amount while waiting for a long time but it saves you in the long run agains the fluctuating exchange rate, If I had waited till late 2023 to block the account, I would have had to pay almost 2million naira extra, so be wise if you are using a blocked account.
so in summary during this stage of waiting, I gathered my document, applied for admission, and prepared my blocked account.
and you should have the following additional key documents if everything is done right:
1.A blocked account confirmation/ SL - (for the embassy)
2. Admission letter and if possible an erollment certificate - (for the embassy)
3. Travel insurance - (for the embassy after visa approval)
4. Health insursance - (for the school)
And lastly, make sure you are engaged doing something, fortunately form me afer serving, I was retained and kept on working while waiting for my visa, it was also during this time I took the IELTS to help boost my chances of getting an admission. While waiting, on august 2023 I applied to a school in cottbus via uni-assist for a fee of 30euros and got an offer on(after 3 months) october 2023. It was this offer that I used before the arrival of my interview on december 2023.
KEY TAKE AWAY:
1. Use uni-assist and DAAD to search for suitable schools and apply, it will save you money and time:
uni-assist: https://my.uni-assist.de/login
daad: [url]https://www.daad.de/en/
[/url]
2. Apply for admission strategically, since you may not know your exact possible interview date due to the fact that it is always changing (as of now 18+ months, when I started it was 8-9 months). Do not apply too far or too near, it doesn't matter if you can't resume on time, the most important thing is to have an admission on hand on or before your interview date, do not risk it.
3. If you are using a blocked account use expatrio, it is fast and will save you a lot of stress (they provide health and travel insurance which you will need for your admission and travelling respectively)
expatrio: https://www.expatrio.com/
4. Make sure you are engaged in something, 18+ months is a long time to wait doing nothing, you can take IELTS, learn German or continue working while you wait. So do something!!.
STAGE 4:
I received my appointment mail on the 3rd November 2023. After waiting for 18 months from the 7 April 2022 - 3 Nov 2023, I receive a mail. to come in 1 month time for my interview (1 dec 2023).
I will talk about my interview experiece and things you can do to avoid pitfalls, and also the follow up to the interview.
After cross-checking my documents and making sure I was prepared I headed to VI-LAGOS for the interview.
1. Make sure you print all your documents from home the boys at the embassy areas are animals and will try to rip you off,
2. Do not worry about arranging your documents, that will be done for you at the embassy, just make sure you have everything on the checklist.
3.You have to get a prepaid envelope before heading to the embassy for your documents to be returned in.
4.Make sure you carry at least 2 copies of every original documents like certificates. follow the visa checklist link I posted very stringently.
5.Be very time cautious they are very strict with time at the embassy make sure you get there before your interview time.
6. The visa fee is not the same for all visa categories. I paid 65,000 for study visa, that of travelling visa is different and so on.... so make sure you confirm,
7. Make sure you print out your email invitation very important.
8.Bring your money from home, you will be ripped off by the animals around the embassy.
9.I honestly believe if you do everything right the only business you should have at the business centre around the embassy should be to keep your bag incase you are carrying one, and to purchase a prepaid envelope. One of them tried to convince me that my passport picture is not the right size for the german embassy and I should come and take a new set of passport for 10,000 meanwhile it was perfectly fine, so be careful and wary of those boys.
10.Be wary of the man who collects/arranges document at the entrance and gives you your gatepass, listen to all he says and don't argue with him, let me just say he is a very unfriendly person, even the cranky securities are better than him, so just be careful.
(when he call you up to bring your ducuments do not take along the prepaid envelope you brought).
11.After he arranges your document, and everything is satisfactory he will usher you in (not into the building to my suprise) just beside the security post, my interview was conducted by a lady across me in an office opposite the security post, It took me almost 2 minutes to realize I had started my interview  lol, I thought it was just another security checkpoint.
12 This was where the benefit of learning german paid the most for me, she was impressed I could speak and converse a little bit. She asked for my perosnal info name .e.t.c, the school I was going to, what course I was going to study, just some basic questions and lastly why germany and not any other country, in about 20-25min the interview was over.
13. I was given back my international passport, and If need be they will ask for me to send it to the embassy (I guess she meant if the visa is approved), she also explained that it is beacause of the long process they no longer hold peoples passport.
Fast forward, exactly 4 weeks later, I got an apporval mail and was told to bring my PASSPORT AND TRAVEL INSURANCE to the embassy.
I hope my little article helps someone who needs it, wishing everyone a wonderful year ahead, and by God's grace those who have been waiting for their inretview/visa will get it speedily. Do not give up, I almost did, but you guys here encouraged me to be patient. Goodluck all. Please I just applied today what's the next step for me? |
Travel › Re: General-german-student-visa-enquiries Part 8 by OforguEC: 11:33am On Mar 31
