MIBAS - Visa

Good afternoon!

My name is Mariia Kleshina and I was recently accepted to the Master programme MIBAS as an international student.

I have a question in regard to my Visa. I come from Moscow, Russia. There is currently only 1 German Foreign Affairs Office/Embassy (Auswärtiges Amt) in Russia working with all Visa applications from the whole country. Therefore, the time gap in which my Visa should be ready was increased. I sent in the online form to the Embassy asking for an Appointment (to hand in all the documents required for my Visa) on July 3rd. However, I still haven't received a reply with an invitation. It can take up to several months for the Embassy to process the request. Judging by the time of Visa registration of other students from Moscow this year, I could be late for my studies. I am trying to find a way to make the process quicker, but there is not much I can do as all of the German Embassies in Russia (except one in Moscow) were shut down and now there aren't enough employees to process all of the requests fast. The queue is really long here. And the Winter Semester starts on the 1st of October 2023.

I would like to know how late for the studies I can be without losing my place at the University?

I would also like to find out if there have been other cases like mine and if there is any way to accelerate the process (maybe some of the students had already faced such problems and you could know of some way to make it a little bit faster)?

Thank you!

Dear markleshnina,

Unfortunately, Uni Hamburg does not have any influence in work processing time of German embassies.
In case you could not arrive in time for your studies because of visa issues, please contact the academic office of your program and ask if there are any possibilities to start the studies from abroad.

Best regards,
BK

Dear BK,

Thank you for your reply!

Would it be possible to start studying with Schengen Visa in October, then return to my home country in a couple of weeks/months for a day or two to receive national Visa required for the studies and come back to Hamburg with it)? Or is studying with this kind of Visa forbidden, even if it's only for the first 1-2 months?

Thank you!

Kind regards,
Mariia

Dear Mariia,

Information about visa issues can be found at https://www.uni-hamburg.de/en/campuscen ... visum.html.

Best regard,
BK