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Everything you need to know as an Indian student moving to Germany

More and more Indian students are choosing to come to Germany for their bachelor's or master's degrees. Here's what you need to know if you're one of them.

Published: 1 April 2021 17:59 CEST

Everything you need to know as an Indian student moving to Germany

Archive photo shows Indian students at the TU Chemnitz, which has over 500 enrolled. Photo: DPA

Given its growing international population and free tuition in public universities, Germany is an attractive place for young people to pursue their education. Here’s what you’ll need and what you can expect, moving to Germany as an Indian student:

Increasingly more Indian students are choosing Germany over the US or the UK for higher education. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, there was a 20 percent increase in Indian students in Germany in 2019.

Indians are also the second-largest national group of international students registered at German universities.

While there has been a dip in the number of Indian students travelling to Germany in the past year, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) claims that the interest in Indian students to study in Germany has been relatively unaffected by the pandemic.

Where Indians in Germany Study: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Technische Universität Chemnitz, and Free University of Berlin are the three most popular universities for Indian students. Studying in Germany has laid out the requirements for Indian students to get admission to a German university on their website.

Travelling to Germany during the pandemic: Indians can currently travel to Germany under some conditions. Visa Facilitation Services Global has a detailed article on what these travel guidelines are

German study visa and residence permit: To apply for a visa, you will need a list of documents including an admission letter from your university, proof of English language and a valid passport. The German Embassy has listed the full list of documents needed to apply for a German study visa on its website.

Although the average waiting time for visas to be issued is 25 days, it may take up to 3 months for your visa application to get approved. There are several consulates accepting visa applications during the pandemic. For more information, visit the Indian Embassy’s website.

Once in Germany, you must prove that you are a student by presenting your enrolment letter and registering your residence within two weeks after arrival, although this deadline has been extended to six weeks due to the pandemic.

Here’s more information on doing your ‘Anmeldung’ (registration). Study in Germany has more information on how to provide proof of enrollment and get a residence permit on their website.

Another important process is signing up for health insurance and providing proof that you are insured. If you are a student under the age of 30 enrolled in a degree programme at a German university, you can choose to register with a public health insurance provider so you can benefit from the statutory health insurance scheme.

Bikes parked in front of the University of Bonn. Photo: DPA

Students over 30-years-old, language and preparatory course students, PhD students, and guest scientists, however, only have the possibility of getting private health insurance. Germanvisa.org has some detailed information on how to get health insurance in Germany as an international student.

Finding a flat: Finding an apartment to rent in Germany can be difficult, and so the number one tip is to start looking for one as early as possible. An affordable option is to apply for public student housing. These are called ‘halls of residence’ and are run by a state-run NGO called Studentenwerk.

They offer residence to students all over Germany and house close to 40 percent of Germany’s international student population. Click out Studentenwerk’s website for more information on how to apply.

If you’re looking for private accommodation instead, wg-gesucht, Immobilienscout24, and immowelt are among the most popular websites to find apartments for rent. Another place to look is German eBay, which has a special local feature called Kleinanzeigen.

Here, you can find many different deals from apartments to cars to jobs and services. This website is essentially the German version of Craigslist.

On eBay Kleinanzeigen, you will find listings from current tenants rather than professional brokers. This is a popular site to post offers as it’s free for both the vendors and buyers (tenants), in comparison to ImmobilienScout24 where landlords need to pay a fee.

Another, slightly less explored place to look for housing is in Facebook groups. One such group is Indians in Germany, where Indian students occasionally make posts looking for other Indians to share an apartment with, etc. There are also Facebook groups exclusively for people looking to rent apartments in almost every German city. You can easily find them by entering keywords like ‘housing’ followed by the city name on the search bar.

Adapting to student life in Germany: Most websites and blogs that help international students make the move don’t touch on the emotional labour of moving to a different continent and into a different culture. It can be daunting at first to adjust to a new environment.

Thankfully, Germany has seen a surge in international students over the past few years and most universities have a diverse student body, so you will at least be surrounded by students who are also adjusting.

Most German universities have a student life department, meant to help students with various advice and suggestions, from academic to personal.

It’s important to keep your mental health in check after going through such a big shift. While German universities generally do not provide medical services (including mental health services), you can seek help depending on the kind of health insurance you have. Check out this article to find out more about mental health resources in Germany for international students.

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10 essential tips for avoiding rental scams in Germany

When it comes to settling in Germany, one of the most stressful and difficult tasks you’re likely to face is finding a place to live.

With the country in the grip of an ever-worsening housing shortage, there aren’t enough rental properties to meet the high demand – especially in big cities like Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt – and the flats that are available can often stretch even the most healthy of budgets.

With renters desperate to find affordable homes, crafty scammers have seized the chance to place fake ads on the market, often in dream locations with lower-than-average rents.

While some of these scams may be easy to spot, others can be highly sophisticated, with fraudsters setting up professional-looking websites and even allowing hopeful tenants to view their properties in person.

Recently The Local reported on a Polish couple who lost around €7,000 through a rental scam in Berlin. The scammers had sublet a beautiful Altbau apartment in the popular district of Neukölln and created an advert for it via a fake letting agent website, then arranged for people to use a key box to view the property while the real tenants were away.

Despite checking the contract over with legal experts from their local tenants’ association, nobody saw anything out of the ordinary – that is, until they tried to access the apartment and found a family already living there.

So, how do you protect your hard-earned savings and steer clear of scammers while looking for a new home?

Here are 10 important ways to protect yourself from rental scams.

1. Be alert to suspicious signs

The key to avoiding scammers in Germany is to be fully clued up on the warning signs. Was the listing for the property uploaded in the middle of the night, is the advert thin on details or written in bad German or English, and does the offer feel too good to be true?

Though it would be nice to believe there are still cheap flats to be found, finding an attractive property at an overly reasonable price is usually a red flag.

Hamburg

Modern apartments in Hamburg. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Daniel Bockwoldt

If someone claiming to be a landlord contacts you out of the blue, that’s also your cue to run a mile. With so many people looking for housing, most letting agents and landlords will have more than people looking to rent their properties without needing to get in touch with people themselves. Anyone who does is more than likely to be a scammer.

2. Rule out landlords who say they live abroad

One of the major warning signs to look out for is a landlord who claims to be renting the property from abroad, or who says they are out of the country for other reasons, like a last-minute business trip.

That’s usually a scammer’s way of excusing the fact that they won’t be able to meet you personally or even show you the property before you rent it.

“When the country the landlord lives in appears then I would say there’s a really big chance this is a scam,” said Kuba Rudzinski, one of the victims of the Berlin-Neukölln rental fraud.

Even if the excuse seems plausible, your best bet is to ignore anyone who tries to sell you a story about living abroad and simply move on with your house hunt.

3. Do your research online

Before committing to anything, take time to do some thorough research to scope out the property, landlord and letting agent.

Running the pictures and text used in apartment listings through a search engine like Google will help you quickly identify stock photos and text stolen from other listings. For pictures, this is known as a reverse image search.

A laptop

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash

It’s also worth checking that any websites you’re sent to are fully functional and not copies of other letting agent sites, and that any email addresses match the website domain.

4. Visit the property and ask around

Never agree to rent a property without seeing it in person first. Arrange a viewing and take the opportunity to ask questions about the property and the neighbourhood.

Kuba also recommends speaking with the neighbours in the building to check if the property is genuinely being rented.

“Go to the place before and ask the neighbours, is this flat really for rent? Because these people generally know,” he said. “You’ll need to convince yourself to do it of course, but just ask in the building, ask on the floor where the flat is.”

5. Don’t transfer the full deposit in advance

Advance payments for anything, whether it’s furniture, a deposit or getting a chance to view the property, should be considered a major red flag.

Under German law, you are usually only expected to pay the deposit by the start of the agreed rental contract – and certainly not several months in advance.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table.

Euro notes lie next to some house keys on a table. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Andrea Warnecke

You are also legally entitled to pay your three months’ deposit in three instalments on top of your first three months’ rent after moving in, so definitely be cautious of landlords that place pressure on you to transfer a large lump sum.

If you’re really concerned, look into alternatives for paying your deposit, such as Kautionversicherung (deposit insurance) or a Mietkautionssparbuch, where you open a bank account and pledge the amount to the landlord, rather than transferring the money directly.

6. Insist on meeting the landlord or letting agent in person

If a landlord or letting agent refuses to meet you in person or insists on conducting all communication online, they’re probably not who they say they are.

Insist on meeting face-to-face to verify their identity and ensure they have a legitimate connection to the property.

7. Avoid sending documents straight away

Not all rental scams are about getting money from you directly: many scammers are simply after your personal details for the purposes of identity theft.

Be wary of providing personal documents or sensitive information before you’ve verified the legitimacy of the rental agreement, especially when it comes to things like passport scans or other forms of ID.

8. Seek legal advice from experts

If you’re unsure about any aspect of the rental agreement or if something seems suspicious, seek advice from legal experts or tenants’ associations.

However, be aware that this isn’t always a cast-iron guarantee that a tenancy is legitmate. Over the past few years, fraudsters have become increasingly sophisticated, even down to producing water-tight rental contracts for would-be tenants.

An estate agent hands over keys to an apartment. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-tmn | Christin Klose

According to civil lawyer Emilia Tintelnot, becoming a member of a tenants’ association can be a good way to get affordable legal advice, and it can also be helpful to set up legal insurance to ensure you can access help when you need it without having to pay lawyers’ fees up front.

9. Be wary of stereotypes

Avoid making assumptions based on stereotypes or preconceived notions about someone’s gender or nationality, as this may cause you to overlook things you might otherwise see as warning signs.

In Kuba’s case, the fact that the fraudsters were German made them appear more legitimate in his eyes, as Polish people tend to see Germans as law-abiding and trustworthy.

Be aware that scammers can come from any cultural background and may use a variety of tactics to deceive unsuspecting renters.

10. Keep an extensive paper trail

Document all communication, agreements, and transactions related to the rental process, including phone numbers and any bank details provided.

According to the Berlin police, this type of evidence can be crucial for an investigation if you do suspect a scammer.

While evidence can differ across cases, “pictures, contact details used by the perpetrators, original documents, bank details with payment receipts” are particularly helpful for investigators, and could help the police stop the scammers for good.

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