Important things before and after you land in Germany || Nepali Student in Germany

“Students who are flying to Germany. This will be a worth read for you.”

"Have you ever wondered what would be the ideal job for a student in Germany? Job that you can add in your CV. What is the best Work for students in Germany? I try to answer these Question with this video. (ep1)"

 A) Before you land in Germany.

 1. Type of application process.

there are basically only 2 type of application process: 

1.     One would be applying to the university online like any other university. 

2.    Second would be through Uni-assist: Most of the university let a third party maintain the application standards. Uni-assist. Here you spend extra money to send a parcel to Uni-assist. This parcel will include all the attested copies of your university degree and other necessary documents. The core task is to assess international school and university certificates with regard to their equivalence to the German education system. Checking the individual entry requirements of the respective target universities is also part of services offered by uni-assist. you may also need to send the whole syllabus. Base line is you pay a certain amount of money to uni-assist to check your documents, convert the Percentage system (if so) to GPA and authenticate your document.

 2. Types of offer letter:

Different offer letters:

1.     1st one would be a normal offer letter, where you apply in a university for masters in English, with letter of motivation, your grades in GRE and TOEFL. However, this is different for Bachelors, there are hardly any university in Germany where you could study bachelors in English. So the application for bachelors is for Studienkollige (a kind of a bridge course that fills in the gaps regarding the language competency.) for this a prerequisite of B1 or B2 language is required. 

(Note: If you guys don’t know: Germany has this system of A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1, C2 levels of German proficiency.)

2.     Bridge Course: You need a decent amount (B1) of German knowledge to apply for a studienkollige this bridge course. Here in this bridge course you have some options. Like the courses like M Course T course and so on. They are specifically tailored to the degree you want to pursue. If you are planning to study engineering, then Physical terminology would be important and if you are studying medicine then biological terms are more relevant and important.

3.     Then comes the 3rd kind of application, where I also fall in. Offer letter for language institutes. So one can provide a decent level of German language proficiency and apply for a language course in Germany. Some of them are DSH, Göthe Zertifikat, TestDaf. and so on. So I applied in Friedrich schiller university, Jena. that is in central Germany. And I applied for a DSH course. This is generally a 2 semester course clocking to 1 year of time.

 3. Finance options.

 Here normally there is only one process, which is to create a blocked account. However, there is a second way.

 Let’s first talk about the most popular method that is a blocked account. So you deposit certain sum of money in a German bank and ask them to block it. This is usually done from Nepal, there are lot of options to do this online and send money from Nepal to German bank. This process may be a pre-requisite before your visa interview or not. Yes, this sounds stupid because you are sending money to German banks without an assurance that you will get a visa. But that was the case, at least when I applied in 2019. They may have improved. This money is your own money but they are blocked. That means, one gets the money as a salary month by month. So a student’s source of money is secured, at least for a year. (this is similar to giving your whole salary to mom and asking her to give you the money part by part) At first glance i found this method really amusing, but once i landed in Germany and I required this surge of money every month, I understood the idea. One is more calm and controlled when one has a steady flow of money every month.

But there is a second way. Sponsor letter. If you know someone rich in Germany, whose monthly salary is enough to finance another person. He could sign a letter promising he would be responsible for you as an applicant. This would relieve you from blocking an amount of roughly 8 lakhs at 2019. So this figures fluctuates as the living cost of student’s increase. At my application time it was around 600€ per month so roughly, 7200€ a year. Now I believe it has increased to 10k.

 

B After you land in Germany.

 1. Working Hours restrictions:

there are different rules according to the kind of visa you have. Basically everyone has a student visa. However, this also differs according to different places and different programs. For a studienkollige the bridge course thing there are restrictions to how much and when you can work. Likewise, also for a visa for Language institute. 

Bottom line is everyone travelling to Germany has a working hour limits set by the government. However, on top of that there are some additional rules for different programs.

For normal master or bachelor student there is a restriction of 20 hours a week. And in Semester breaks double of that. that is 40

However, for me as i travelled initially with Language visa. I was restricted to work only in Semester breaks. This rule is not uniform; this differs according to place where the university is located. I guess my university was more restrictive as I did come to know other students were in other states were free to work like a normal student even with a language visa.

 2. Kind of Work.

When you imagine working abroad as a student, there is always this picture of low end jobs. However, this should not always be the case. However, there is the mainstream of works that are quite popular in Germany. 

I would classify the works done by students here in Germany into 3:

1. Regular job: this includes works in McDonalds, KFC, Big burgers.

Pros:

1.     you can eat lot of junk foods in work.

2.     you get bonuses for night shifts and weekends.

3.     you get mugs, caps and coupons.

Cons:

1.     you get the minimum wage.

2.     physical stressful.

(Note: talking about a more strenuous job: this is DHL or amazon or even Lieferando. So you deliver packages either in a van or a bicycle. the pay is good, work is hard. )

2. Seasonal work: Here you work not in a regular basis but for a period of 1 to 3 months. So I have heard companies take in a lot of students in plantation projects, where you plant a lot of plants for research purposes and also strawberries picking is also quite popular.

Pros:

1.     you get a laid back work. (depending on the type)

2.     you get to gossip with friends while you work.

3.     You get paid better.

Cons:

1.     Depending on the kind of job can be physically demanding.

2.     You may have to skip some exams to earn.

(Note: Normally these works are student targeted, so the timing would be in semester breaks, so no affect to studies.)

And lastly the works in VW or Mercedes are the ones that are the most sought after, as the pay can be double the normal pay. A lot of my friends also do this and once you earn for a 3 months’ period you could relax for a year, if you are modest spender, that is. ;)

 3. HiWi’s: This is what I did throughout my studies. So Hi Wi- Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft, research assistant. You work under a PHD candidate and help him out with his research. It can be something experimental or something more tilted towards software. Personally I would suggest Software are the best. But yeah Experimental are good as well.  I have a better targeted video on HiWi, maybe that would help if you are more into research work.

3. Travel in Germany:

As you get a regular source of income, you could travel a lot of places using your TU card. The Semester fee includes the transportation cost for the whole state mostly. This may vary with different universities. However, do use this card and explore a little of Germany. I have a travel vlogs lined up maybe if you guys would like to know about the tips and tricks on travelling in Germany and Europe do consider the travel series.

Stay safe, stay healthy. See you in the next one. Aufwiedersehen.

 3 things to do before you land in Germany:

 3 things to do after you land in Germany: