FAQ Section

If you are an EU citizen, a valid identity card is sufficient for application. Students coming from a non EU-country need a valid passport to apply. 

In your application, the offical semester dates are provisionally put in as your dates of arrival and departure. They will be adapted when you personally (un-)register with the University after your arrival and shortly before your departure.

A Learning Agreement sets out a plan of study that you will undertake abroad as part of an Erasmus or CIVIS exchange. It contains a list of the courses/classes/lectures you would like to attend. Your home university will usually provide a Learning Agreement form.
Once you have selected your courses, the Learning Agreement must be signed by the student, the academic advisor of Tübingen University and the home university. All three signatures are required, otherwise the Learning Agreement is not complete.

Students of Natural Sciences and Medicine: You need a Learning Agreement already in the application process. Please read this FAQ as well.

A study plan is a list that states the courses you want to attend. Only students from partner universities in overseas (not Erasmus or CIVIS ) who  want to study at the Faculty of Science or Medicine need this doucment for their application and admission. They receive a form for the study plan in their applicants' account. The plan must be confirmed by the applicable academic advisor and uploaded as part of the application process in the Mobility Online database. Please see also our next FAQ.

Learning Agreement: Applicants of a natural science or medicine subject who participate in an Erasmus or CIVIS exchange need a Learning Agreement for their application.

• It must be signed in triplicate: by you, by the home university and by the academic advisor for your study field at Tübingen University. Without signatures the document is not valid.
• The Learning Agreement is a required document in the application process and must be uploaded with all three signatures within the application deadline.

Study Plan: Students of a natural science or medicine subject from a partner university in overseas (not Erasmus or CIVIS!) need a study plan with a course list for their application.It has to be approved by Tübingen University.

• Contact the responsible academic advisor of your study field for confirmation and agree on a course list
• The Study Plan is a required document within the application process and must be uploaded with the confirmation of the academic advisor within the application deadline.

Please name one of the members of the Incoming Team as contact person for the visa application. The names and the exact contact data can be found on our team page. If the visa form asks for the date of birth or nationality of the contact person, please leave these fields blank: this information is not available for data protection reasons.

The wording in our Letter of Admission concerning the language requirements generally works as sufficent proof for visa applications. Therefore, the International Office does not issue extra language confirmation documents.If you tried submitting the Letter of Admission and receive written confirmation that the embassy/consulate does not accept the letter or definitely need a language confirmation, please forward this written confirmation of the embassy/consulate to the Incoming Team at incomingspam prevention@zv.uni-tuebingen.de.

If you left Ukraine after the start of the war, you can apply in Germany for a residence permit for humanitarian reasons based on section 24 of the German Residence Act as an alternative to a residence permit/visa for study purposes (section 16). It is not necessary to apply for a visa for study purposes before coming to Germany. The residence permit for humanitarian reasons based on section 24 is more flexible than the residence permit/visa for study purposes and we therefore recommend it. More information on this residence permit and details on entry to Germany for Ukrainians here:

• https://www.germany4ukraine.de/hilfeportal-en/entry-residence-and-return/entry
• https://www.germany4ukraine.de/hilfeportal-en/entry-residence-and-return/registration-residence-permit-and-asylum

Information on applying for a residence permit in Tübingen can be found in step 5 of the next steps after your arrival.

Status: 6/12/2023

If you can enter Germany without a visa but need in general a residence title for your stay in Germany, you have the following options:

1. You apply for a visa for a study stay in Germany in advance at the German embassy/consulate in your home country. If the visa is granted for the entire duration of your studies/stay in Germany, you do not need to apply for an extension of it in Tübingen.
    
2. You apply for a residence permit within 90 days of your arrival in Germany and after you have registered with the City of Tübingen as resident in person: After registering as a resident you can submit an online application for a residence permit at the Foreigners' Office Tübingen. For more information see our next steps no. 4. and 5. after your arrival.

If you are not registered in Tübingen, another foreigners' office is responsible for you:

• Rottenburg Foreigners' Office: You are registered in Rottenburg.
• Foreigners' Office of the Tübingen District Office: You are registered in a municipality of the district of Tübingen other than Rottenburg or Tübingen.
• Reutlingen Foreigners' Registration Office: You are registered in Reutlingen
• Metzingen Foreigners' Registration Office: You are registered in Metzingen
• Foreigners' Registration Office of the District Office of Reutlingen: You are registered in a municipality of the district of Reutlingen other than Reutlingen or Metzingen

The Incoming Team of the International Office / Division V takes care of regular Erasmus exchange students. Division IV is responsible for double degree students. Double degree students with questions regarding application and enrolment should contact the colleagues in Division IV directly at study.masterspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de.

For double degree students with an Erasmus scholarship, the Incoming Team of Division V is only responsible for confirming the duration of your stay in Tübingen, signing your Erasmus Certificate of Arrival / Attendance or Departure respectivly - in case you have been nominated in our database as an Erasmus student. If your home university requires such a certificate, please book a personal  appointment for double degree students with Erasmus funding of the Incoming Team.

We can confirm arrival dates up to 5 days after your actual arrival and departure dates up to 5 days before your actual departure.

The forms for the certificates are provided by and available at your home university, if it requires such certificates. The Incoming Team of the International Office Tübingen confirms and signs the forms.

The access data for Ilias and Moddle are identical to your official student login data, which you will receive at your personal check-in after your arrival. If you need the access data to Ilias / Moodle for course registration before your arrival, please proceed as follows: Contact directly by e-mail the lecturer who is responsible for the course and ask for registration.

• In this e-mail, state that you are an exchange student and give your matriculation number.
• Mention that you will receive your login data for Ilias or Moodle only after your arrival in Tübingen.

If you receive by the lecturer an e-mail stating that you cannot register without login data, please forward the e-mail of the lecturer to incomingspam prevention@zv.uni-tuebingen.de.

• If you receive an error message when paying with your student ID card and the card is blocked for further use, you can find an explanation of the various error codes and instructions for unblocking the card in the FAQ of the Studierendenwerk.
   
• If you have lost your student ID card, you can check with the university's lost and found offices or at the library information / circulation desks to see if it has been found.
  If this is not the case, you must fill out a so-called "declaration of loss" (Verlusterklärung) and submit it to the student administration. Only by this can the old student ID be blocked and a new one issued by the student administration. The form for the declaration of loss (currently only in German) and further information can be found on the website of the student administration.

You can download your enrollment certificate in the ALMA database: alma > My Studies > Student Service > Requested Reports/Reports > Immatrikulationsbescheinigung.
You find a screenshot guide for ALMA here.

If you are an exchange student, have Ukrainian citizenship and a residence permit according to section 24 of the German Residence Act, you are in principle entitled to citizen's benefit (= Bürgergeld), see here: https://www.daad-ukraine.org/en/studying-in-germany/funding. Please proceed as follows:

1. apply for citizen's benefits (Bürgergeld) = financial means to secure your livelihood according to SGB II at the Jobcenter. If you are registered in Tübingen or in the district of Tübingen, the Jobcenter Tübingen is responsible. You can apply digitally at https://jobcenter-tuebingen.de/digital. Be sure to mention the following information so that your application is not rejected immediately:

•  Your residence permit according to §24 and your Ukrainian nationality
•  Your status as an exchange student: that you are studying temporarily at Tübingen University and are not pursuing a degree at the university
•  Rejection notice from the Bafög office: needs to be submitted to the Jobcenter for a successful application for citizen's benefits
  • submit the rejection notice from the Bafög office to the Jobcenter if you already have it, or
  • inform the Jobcenter that you will submit the Bafög rejection notice later, see point 2.

Citizen's benefit (Bürgergeld) can only be paid from the month in which the application is received by the Jobcenter: If, for example, you no longer have any funding from April, but only submit your application for citizen's benefit in May, citizen's benefit can be paid from May at the earliest - provided the application for it is successful.

If the Jobcenter informs you that you as a student are generally not entitled to citizen's benefit, even though you have provided the Jobcenter with the above information regarding your Ukrainian refugee status, please inform the Incoming Team at incomingspam prevention@zv.uni-tuebingen.de .

2. A rejection notice from the Bafög office is necessary for a successful application for citizen's benefit (Bürgergeld): You should therefore submit your application for Bafög to the Bafög office of the Studierendenwerk Tübingen- Hohenheim at the latest at the same time as you apply for Bürgergeld. Since Ukrainian exchange students with §24 are not eligible for Bafög (because they are not seeking a degree in Germany), a simplified procedure applies. Please submit the following documents/information:

• Form 1: https://www.my-stuwe.de/bafoeg/formulare
  • Proof of income or assets on pages 3 and 4 of form1 do not have to be submitted, but the form fields must be filled in truthfully
  • If you have assets of less than €10,000, you can submit the form Vereinfachte Vermögensfeststellung (https://www.my-stuwe.de/bafoeg/formulare) and leave page 4 of form 1 blank
• Certificate of enrollment according to §9 Bafög
• additionally mention in writing to the Bafög office that you
  • are an Ukrainian exchange student with a residence permit according to §24
  • submit the Bafög application because you need a rejection notice from the Bafög office for your application for citizen's benefit (Bürgergeld) at the Jobcenter Tübingen.

As soon as you have received the rejection notice of your Bafög application, submit it to the Jobcenter for your application for citizen's benefit (Bürgergeld), see point 1.

Status: 2/2024