German Student Visa Fee: 75 Euros and All Other Costs
TL;DR: The German national visa costs EUR 75, or 8,400 INR at an Indian mission, and EUR 37.50 for applicants under 18. It is not refunded if you are refused. The number that decides whether you can apply at all is the 11,904 euros blocked account, and if your university charges tuition, the first two semesters have to be paid before the visa is issued.
EUR 75 is the smallest number on this page, and it is the one everyone plans for. The embassy is not really asking whether you can pay a processing fee. It is asking whether you can live in Germany for a year, and that question has a much larger answer.
The fee itself, and what it is in rupees
A German national visa costs EUR 75 for adult applicants. The German missions in India publish it as 8,400 INR for applicants over 18 and 4,200 INR, or EUR 37.50, for applicants under 18, payable in rupees at the exchange rate applying on the day of your on-site appointment. It is a processing fee: it is not reimbursed if your visa is refused or if you withdraw the application. Accepted payment methods differ between the embassy and each consulate, so check the one you are actually attending.
The service centre surcharge
If your mission routes applications through an outsourced partner, the missions state only that the external service provider charges an additional service fee on top of the visa fee. The amount is set by the provider and published on its own site, so look it up for your city rather than budgeting a number you read on a forum. What it buys is appointment handling, biometrics collection and passport return, not a faster decision. Which channel applies to you is covered in where you actually file: embassy, consulate or VFS Global.
The blocked account is the real cost
The blocked account currently holds 11,904 euros per year, released to you at roughly 992 euros a month once you arrive. It has to be deposited before you apply, and the provider charges a setup fee on top.
Three rules from the missions' own student FAQ decide whether your financing file works. A scholarship counts: if a stipend already covers the required monthly amount, you do not need a blocked account at all, but if it only covers tuition you still have to show a blocked account or an official German sponsorship declaration. An education loan is additional to the blocked account rather than a substitute for it, and the missions set no minimum loan amount. And the Indian affidavit of support is not accepted in place of a blocked account or a sponsorship declaration; it is an extra document, not an alternative. The missions also decline to recommend blocked-account providers, so any agent claiming a preferred one is selling you something. See what a blocked account costs to open and run.
Tuition, paid before you fly
This is the line that wrecks budgets. Because the visa section has to satisfy itself that you can finance a year, the German missions in India require that the first two semesters of tuition fees have been paid where your university charges them. On a Baden-Wuerttemberg programme at 1,500 euros a semester that is 3,000 euros; at a private business school it can be a five-figure transfer before you have booked a flight. Public universities that charge nothing but a semester contribution are unaffected.
| Cost | Typical amount |
|---|---|
| Visa fee (18 and over) | EUR 75 / 8,400 INR |
| Visa fee (under 18) | EUR 37.50 / 4,200 INR |
| Service centre fee | Set by the provider, on top |
| Blocked account (year) | 11,904 euros |
| First two semesters of tuition | Where the university charges it |
| Health insurance | ~EUR 120/month |
| uni-assist | EUR 75 first course, EUR 30 each further one |
| APS (India) | 18,000 INR |
Insurance, and the date it starts
You need health insurance both for the visa and to enrol, and public student cover runs about EUR 120-135 a month. There is a trap in the start date that costs people flights. To issue a national visa the mission has to check that your insurance covers the date the visa begins, so if your policy starts later than your intended travel date, the visa is issued with the later start date. Buy the cover to match the day you actually want to land. Details in student health insurance in Germany.
Applications, translations and the APS
Before the visa there is the application layer. Where a university uses uni-assist, the handling fee is EUR 75 for the first course of study in a semester and EUR 30 for each further one, non-refundable whatever the outcome. Applicants from India, China, Vietnam and Mongolia also need the APS certificate: 18,000 INR in India, 2,500 RMB for the standard Chinese procedure, 250 USD for the Vietnamese postgraduate one. See what APS costs and how long it takes in each country.
One cost you can avoid entirely: attestation and apostille of Indian documents are not recognised by German authorities and are not required for visa purposes. What the missions do require is originals, or copies certified by a German authority; certifications by Indian notaries are not accepted. Documents that are already in English do not need to be notarised.
Spend in the right order
Fund the blocked account first, because it is the slowest and the largest. Then the tuition instalment if your university charges one, then insurance dated to your travel plan, then translations and the APS, then the fee itself on the day. Working in that order means nothing is outstanding when your appointment slot arrives.
Where the fee is paid, and the step before it
At the Indian missions most national visas, including the study category, now start in the Consular Services Portal. Where the portal covers your visa type, using it is compulsory, and only after you complete the application and its pre-check does the system give you a link to book the on-site appointment. Booking an appointment first and uploading nothing means your application is not accepted at the counter, and you cannot change the category of a booked appointment: you cancel and rebook, at the back of the queue.
You also cannot pick a convenient city. For national visas you apply at the mission responsible for the state or district where you live, and the relaxation that lets Schengen applicants use any centre does not apply. Students who need an APS certificate for a German bachelor's or master's are routed through VFS; applicants heading to institutions awarding non-German degrees go to the embassy or a consulate.
What comes after the visa
Flights, the first month's rent, a deposit that is often several months of rent, and living costs that start immediately. Keep a cash cushion outside the blocked account, because the blocked money is released monthly and will not cover a lump-sum deposit. Budget for a wait, too: the missions warn that processing a national visa may take several months, and that status enquiries are not answered in the first three months. The full picture is in what a year in Germany costs, converted to rupees.
Sources
- German Missions in India: National Visa
- German Missions in India: National Visa FAQs
- uni-assist handling fees
- Auswaertiges Amt
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