Student Visa

That being said, I just visited the German Consulate in Miami, FL, USA, which is where I live and found out the requirements for a student visa, which I will be sharing with you here.

Also, let it be known that as a US Citizen you can enter and remain in Germany for up to 90 days without a visa. (This also applies to Citizens of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the Republic of Korea and the EU.)
Ok, first and foremost, are the obvious requirements.

A valid US Passport, which won't expire while you are there and would be valid for at least 3 months after the conclusion of your studies. That passport needs to have at least two blank pages for the visa. Also, the passport must have been issued within the last 10 years.

You obviously need to be accepted into a German University/College/Language School/etc., and show the acceptance/enrollment letter.

You need to complete the application form.

Two passport photographs, which have strict requirements, so wherever you go, try to find a professional place that deals with international photos and would know the requirements. Let them know you need them for a German visa. (Fortunately, in Miami there is a photo place in the same building as the German consulate and they are used to the picture requirements.)

The Visa Fee, which as of July 2013, it is $92.00.

Here are the most tedious requirements:

You need to have mandatory health insurance coverage.

You need to have sufficient funds to support yourself while living in Germany. The way to prove this is to open an account with a German bank. (Deutsche Bank has some sort of program where you can open the account while in the US and they mail you some forms which then have to be signed, sealed and stamped by the Vice Chancellor at the Consulate. I believe the fee for this is â¬30.) Then you'll have to wire about $10,000.00 into the account since the current monthly requirement is â¬635. All that has to be in the account and then the bank/government will release â¬635 to you every month. This is a ridiculous requirement in my opinion. Here is the link to the bank and the account for international students: www.deutsche-bank.de

Those are the requirements for a one year visa. My program is two years, and in order to apply for a two-year visa, I'd probably have to deposit $20,000.00 into that account, which is just insane. I would then have to apply for another year of the visa, and meet all the requirements again next year.

The money is obviously the biggest hurdle because school is very inexpensive in Germany, but not many people have all that money all at once.

I am fortunate enough to have the money available at the moment, and even then I will not be applying in the States. The lady that helped me at the consulate was very nice and warned me that even then, the German government would probably only grant me a 90 day visa (which is the same amount of time I could spend in Germany without a visa) and then would have to apply for the full year visa while in Germany. This means that I would have to pay the processing fee again and would basically be wasting my time applying for it while in the States. She explained that they are reluctant to just provide such a long visa without them knowing you are already settled in the country.

I will be applying while in Germany and would probably suggest you do as well. But I hope the info above helps you decide what is best for you.