You have decided to study at a university in Austria or you would like to do so soon? You are already a little informed, but because of the bureaucratic matters and language deficits you feel really overwhelmed.
You just want to start your studies, but you don’t have that much idea about the admission to study, the right of residence or the administrative law.
We may be able to help you and close your knowledge gaps.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Before you have decided to attend university, you need to know what you want to study. In case you already know what to study, all the information can be found on the website of your university or at:
Please keep in mind that some fields of study have entrance exams, which are already in spring and are only offered once a year.
The next point is to apply for admission, i.e. to apply for a study course and it is necessary to know which documents you need for this step.
In order to be able to apply for admission, the following documents must be provided:
Proof of the university entrance qualification. This proof of study must apply to the very field of study to be studied in Austria.APPLIES ONLY TO THE FINAL EXAMINATIONS FROM THIRD STATES.
Also you need a passport, a photo and a proof of knowledge of German at A2 level (if there is no proof at A2 level, a pre-study course must be completed).
Once you have the green light from the university, you can apply for a residence permit for non-EU/EEA citizens or a registration certificate for EU/EEA nationals. The competences lie within the styrian provincial government. In the following link you will find all the necessary information
Attention. The documents must be submitted to an Austrian embassy, which will be sent to the Styrian state government after a review. On this website you will reach an Austrian representation in your country of origin:
https://www.bmeia.gv.at/botschaften-konsulate/suche-nach-oesterreichischen-vertretungen/
At the same time, a valid rental agreement or a confirmation from your landlord must be presented, which serves as confirmation that you are resident in Austria.
A suitable link to some dormitories can be found here:
Short info!
All documents that are not written in German or English have to be translated and certified. This can vary from country to country.
In the following, I will explain to you in which cases documents must be certified and what exceptions exist in Austria.
There are three options.
1. Full diplomatic certification
In this process, the documents must go through several stations. At first, the documents go through a national certification route (e.g. Ministry of Education) in their own country. The last station must be in any case the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the respective state. They can be additionally certified (over-certified) by an Austrian authority. The latter can be obtained from an Austrian embassy or consulate.
Full Diplomatic Certification is required for documents from the following countries.
Attention: Since January 2014, full certification also applies to all public documents issued in Kosovo.
2. Certification in the form of an apostille
Full diplomatic certification is not required if the country of origin has an agreement (Haager Certification Convention) for the exemption of foreign public documents. In this case, you only need an apostille. You can find out which countries have such an agreement on this website.
3. Exemption from certification
There is no need for certification if that state has a bilateral certification agreement with Austria.
These countries are:
Now you have the necessary knowledge and can start your studies in Austria step by step. However, if there are still questions left, you can contact us at any time on facebook or instagram. I wish you a lot of success and maybe we will see you soon at a university in Graz.
