How to Apply for Youth Mobility Visa in Germany
You’ve decided to move to Germany from Canada. You start looking online for visa and residency information. You soon come across the Youth Mobility or Working Holiday visa. All the information online says to apply from within your home country, but did you know it’s also possible to apply after you’ve already arrived in Germany? I was able to do this despite the official information stating otherwise. Here I’ll walk you through the steps to starting your expat life in Germany with the Youth Mobility visa.
What is the Youth Mobility visa?
The Youth Mobility Visa is similar to the Working Holiday visa; it’s the equivalent, but for Canadian applicants. It allows Canadian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 to live and work in Germany for up to 12 months. It cannot be renewed, but after 12 months you can apply again in a different category for another 12 months, for a total of 2 years.
Citizens from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Uruguay can apply for the Working Holiday Visa, but not the Youth Mobility Visa. Applicants must be between 18 and 30 years old, and may have country specific requirements, including applying in the home country instead of in Germany. Because of this, this blog post will be most helpful to Canadians looking to apply to the Youth Mobility Visa in Germany.
What You’ll Need to Apply to the Youth Mobility Visa
Valid passport
1 current biometric photo
Proof of funds of at least 2,000 Euros
Proof of registered address in Germany (Anmeldung)
Health Insurance
100 Euro fee
Application Form
Letter corresponding to the category you choose
Why apply from within Germany?
The application from within Germany is in my opinion much more simple. The only difficulty is that you need to already have a registered address in Germany, known as Anmeldung, that can be notoriously difficult to get since there is a housing supply shortage in many German cities. When you apply for the Youth Mobility Visa in Canada, you need to attend multiple appointments in Canada and Germany and send your passport via post to the embassy. Applying in Canada also means you must already have a flight booked. This can be tricky since the visa cannot be awarded more than three months before your departure date, and processing can take 2-4 weeks. If your visa application is rejected, it will take even longer.
When you apply in Germany, you take your passport and all your printed documents with you to the appointment, and are granted the visa on the spot as long as your application is complete. You receive a tax ID number, and your photo ID card with residence permit will arrive in the mail in the coming weeks.
How to register your address
See here for how to register your address in Germany. Bring printed proof of your registered address.
Official Website
This is the official website for the youth mobility visa in Germany. This is the application form in German, English, French and Italian. Fill this application form and bring it to your appointment.
Which Category?
The Youth Mobility Visa has four categories you can apply to. Depending which category you choose, you may need prior confirmation from the company involved and different supplemental documents.
A: Employment:
Obtain further training under a contract of employment and increase knowledge of the German language, culture and society.
B: Internship:
Work placement in a business in Germany as part of studies or training.
C: Academic Vacation:
Occupational activity during an academic vacation.
D: Working Holiday:
Stay in Germany for tourism and cultural discovery purposes.
Health Insurance
Health insurance is mandatory in Germany. You will need to sign up for health insurance before coming to Germany and applying for your Youth Mobility Visa. Not all insurances are approved for visa applications, so make sure you read each option carefully.
The insurance can be Canadian or German, must be valid for the entire stay in Germany and have a minimum coverage of 30.000,00 EUR (approx. 50,000.00 CAD). The included document must include the name of insured person, length of coverage, insurance sum and repatriation coverage. Health insurance coverage by credit card is not valid unless you present a letter from the credit card company with these specific details of coverage of your trip.
Feather is a great option for the first few years living in Germany. It satisfies the requirements of most visas, the website and service is in English, and the staff is dedicated to processing your refunds. When going to doctors in Germany, you will be considered a self-payer or on private health insurance. This gives you priority in accessing care, but means you must pay up front for your services and submit the receipts to Feather afterwards to receive your refunds. Feather is the cheapest per month insurance that satisfies visa requirements.
Passport Photo
You need a photo that fits these requirements. There are many photo studios in Germany who can provide you with photos that will be accepted. For a cheaper option look for a Fotoautomat or photo booth in main train stations or malls.
Signed Letter
Depending which category you apply to, you will need to include different additional documents. You can write in English if you don’t speak German. If you want to, you can use DeepL to translate the letter into German and include that in the letter, but make it clear that you used a machine translation along with the original English text. All categories require a signed later stating which category you are applying to, plus the following:
A) Employment contract from the German company in your field of education and
your university degree or similar and letter of motivation regarding the cultural
aspect of your year abroad
B) Internship contract of the German company you will intern with and confirmation of your
university that the internship is part of your studies
C) Enrolment letter of your Canadian university
D) Letter of motivation. Write about yourself, why you want to spend a year in Germany and which areas you will stay in or visit.
Proof of Funds
You need to provide proof of having at least 2,000 Euro to support your stay in Germany. This can be a printed bank statement. If you don’t plan to open a Germany bank account, you can show your Canadian bank account with a conversion rate written on it.
If you do want to open a German bank account or plan to be living in Europe for awhile, I highly recommend joining N26. You can join online after a short process of verifying your passport, registered German address and phone number. Many expats use N26, so settling up with friends is very convenient with the Moneybeam feature of instant transactions.
Book your Appointment
Try to book an appointment as far in advance as possible, so you can quickly receive your visa after arriving in Germany. It can be very difficult to find an appointment slot, so you will need to refresh the page many times a day until you can find one. Go here to book an appointment.
Select the following: Book an appointment-> Canadian citizenship-> apply for a residence title -> economic activity -> Residence permit to participate in the Working-Holiday or Youth-Mobility-Program (sect. 19c para. 1). After clicking next, choose a day and time on the calendar if it is displaying one, and processed to book the appointment. If no calendar is shown, or a calendar is shown without any blue days of availability, there are currently no available appointments. Keep refreshing the page at different times of day until an appointment is shown.
If you cannot book an appointment online and you have already been in Germany almost three months with the Schengen visa, email your documents in full to the office and request an appointment. Do not leave the country or travel if your visa is about to expire.
At the Appointment
Show up to your appointment at the correct address on your appointment confirmation. Show your printed confirmation to the employee outside. They will direct you to the right building/line up/floor. Once there, wait in the waiting room. Your appointment number will be shown on a TV screen. This number is printed on your appointment confirmation. The TV will also show which room to go to. Once you’re called, proceed to that room.
If all your documents are printed and filled out correctly, the appointment itself will be quite simple. The officer may speak English fluently, or hardly. You can always bring a German friend or translator if needed. You could also reference a translator app on your phone. When I attended my appointment, I hardly spoke any German, but the process was simple enough that I didn’t need to. The officer will review your documents. For some reason I needed to fill out my application form again on the spot by hand. You will be asked to sign some forms acknowledging the application is filled out honestly, and about how they will process your information.
Then you will be told to pay the fee of the visa, usually 100 Euros paid by credit card. Proceed back down the hallway to a small ATM-like machine. It will usually take Giro card, Mastercard and Visa. Generally American Express is not accepted in Germany. Insert the Kassenkarte given to you by the officer and pay the fee. The machine will print you a receipt which you return to the officer. They will save it and return whatever documents they no longer need (after making copies of them).
Enjoy Your Year in Germany!
Now that you’ve received a Youth Mobility Visa in Germany, I hope you really enjoy it! Living in a foreign country can be both the most challenging and rewarding thing you can do for yourself. Whether you spend one year and return to your home country, or this is just the beginning of your immigration journey, enjoy the differences a new country offers you. Find temporary accommodation here with Booking.com.
