Study in Germany from Vietnam: APS Hanoi, Costs & Scholarships

The APS office in Hanoi decides your timeline. Vietnam is one of only three countries with an APS at all, and a German visa cannot be issued without a certificate verifying your school and university records. Book APS first, then choose programmes while you wait.

The compensation is that Vietnamese applicants start further ahead than almost anyone else. German is taught seriously in Vietnamese schools through PASCH and DAAD-supported programmes, so a real share of Vietnamese students arrive able to sit a German-taught degree and to work in German afterwards. That is the part most international students spend their first year fixing.

APS Vietnam, and why it goes first

The APS is a joint institution of the German embassy and the DAAD, and it exists in exactly three countries: China, Vietnam and India. The Hanoi office checks the authenticity of your educational biography and the certificates behind it, and issues a certificate if the result is positive. For Vietnam it is a requirement for applying to a German university, not only for the visa.

One scope rule catches people who studied abroad. If you completed university study in Vietnam, the Hanoi office has to check it regardless of your citizenship, and regardless of whether you also hold a degree from another country. A Vietnamese bachelor's plus an exchange year in Singapore still goes through Hanoi. The process works as in our walkthrough of APS verification, run through Hanoi rather than the Indian office.

TestAS is compulsory if you have no degree yet

This is the Vietnam-specific step that surprises school-leavers, and g.a.s.t., the organisation that runs the test, states it plainly: in Vietnam, TestAS is mandatory for prospective students without a university degree in the APS procedure. Finished a bachelor's already? You do not need it. Applying straight out of school? You do.

Two things follow. Results are not instant: g.a.s.t. puts evaluation at about three weeks for the digital TestAS and about four for the paper-based version, and tells candidates to pick a date that lands the result before their university deadlines. And if your APS certificate came through the TestAS route, uni-assist requires the TestAS result to be verified inside your My assist account, separately from the certificate. Miss that and your file is incomplete even though you sat the test.

The documents Vietnamese applicants get wrong

Uni-assist publishes a Vietnam-specific list, and three items on it cause most of the rejections.

The APS certificate must be the original or the digitally certified online version; a scan of a paper copy is not the same document. The second trap is the school leaving certificate: the provisional certificate from the examination authorities, the giay chung nhan (tam thoi), is accepted for one semester after graduation only. After that you must submit the full Bang Tot Nghiep Trung Hoc Pho Thong, and an application resting on an expired provisional certificate fails on a formality rather than on merit. Third, your national upper-school exam results, the Ky Thi Tot Nghiep Trung Hoc Pho Thong Quoc Gia, are a separate required document.

If you went through a DSD school, add the KMK German Language Diploma at level I or II and the original written attestation from your DSD coordinator confirming your identity. Uni-assist will not take a copy of that in place of the original.

What each Vietnamese qualification is actually worth

The KMK's Central Office for Foreign Education records, in anabin, exactly what your certificate opens. A Cu Nhan gives direct access to all subjects if the degree ran at least four years at a recognised institution and as a rule full-time; a Ky Su needs at least five. A Cao Dang sends you to a Studienkolleg in your own subject stream, unless you also hold an entrance examination that would put you directly into the fifth semester of a regular Dai Hoc bachelor's, which converts it into subject-bound direct access.

Straight from school, the Bang Tot Nghiep Trung Hoc Pho Thong plus a national exam result with the right subject profile routes you to a Studienkolleg. Two completed years of a Vietnamese bachelor's give direct subject-bound access to that field and neighbouring ones; two years followed by a change of subject sends you back to the Studienkolleg. Every one of those paths lists the APS certificate alongside the school papers.

German or English: pick deliberately

For English-taught programmes you need IELTS 6.0-7.0. For German-taught ones, TestDaF TDN 4 or Goethe B2 to C1. Vietnamese students are unusually well placed to choose the German route, and it is worth thinking about: a German-taught degree puts you in front of employers who never advertise in English. If you go the English route, see the English-taught master's catalogue.

DAAD funding is unusually accessible from Vietnam

The bilateral relationship shows up in the scholarship budgets. DAAD runs several programmes and exchanges aimed at Vietnam, and a fully funded award does more than pay your rent: it replaces the blocked account in your visa file, because the scholarship itself proves your financing. Read what DAAD panels look for in an application before you write yours.

The blocked account, if you are self-funding

Without a scholarship you show 11,904 euros in a blocked account, released to you at 992 euros a month after you arrive. It is your own money coming back in instalments, not a fee anyone keeps. See how the blocked account is opened and released.

Sending the application

Some universities take you through uni-assist, at EUR 75 for the first chosen course of study and EUR 30 for each further one in the same semester; others take you directly. Uni-assist puts the evaluation result at four to six weeks, so work backwards from the university's deadline. With an APS certificate in hand, several universities accept it instead of a separate VPD, another reason to have it early. See how uni-assist processes an application.

Universities set their own submission rule for the certificate. TUM wants the digitally signed APS certificate uploaded up to five weeks after the start of lectures for a bachelor's or master's, but before the application deadline for a Studienkolleg. Those two deadlines sit months apart, so read the enrolment page of each university you accept.

The visa at the embassy in Hanoi

Apply at the German embassy in Hanoi for a national (type D) student visa, with your admission letter, blocked account or scholarship award, health insurance, APS certificate and passport. The fee is EUR 75. Processing takes several weeks and the appointment queue adds more, so book early. See the student visa document checklist.

Working during and after the degree

Non-EU students may work 140 full days or 280 half days a year, or 20 hours a week in term, at the 13.90 euros an hour minimum wage. Which contract you sign matters more than most arrivals realise. A minijob is capped at EUR 603 a month and EUR 7,236 a year. A short-term contract, the kurzfristige Beschaeftigung, has no earnings cap at all but must be limited from the outset to three months or 70 working days in the calendar year, which makes it the right shape for a summer job. A Werkstudent contract is regular employment at up to 20 hours a week during the lecture period. See how the day limit is counted.

After graduating you get an 18-month job-seeker visa, then a work permit, with permanent residence in about 4 years and citizenship at 5 years. Germany allows dual nationality. See what the job-seeker permit lets you do.

Sources

• Uni-assist: documents for Vietnam
• anabin, Central Office for Foreign Education: Vietnamese qualifications
• g.a.s.t.: TestAS dates and registration
• TUM: APS certificate requirements
• DAAD
• German Embassy Hanoi

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