Some Useful Links
For accommodation easily accessible for students.
General tips for what to do before and after arriving in Vienna.
Before Arrival
Get an appointment at the Austrian visa centre (in your home-country) and apply for the VISA D (information from the OAED can be found here)
Ask your supervisor to connect you with the visa service (project-serive) office of university of Vienna, if possible.
Get the hosting agreement (Job contract).
Book accommodation. Also there are facebook groups like Vienna housing (be careful of scammers — make sure to see the place before handing over money!), wg zimmer, wg-gesucht.de/.
Gather the documents mentioned in the link. Some precisions:
You will need the Visa D (Apostille and if needed german translation).
Filled and signed application form (explanation of the application form) and additionally show only the originals:
- Valid travel document.
- Passport-sized photograph according to the ICAO criteria (colour photograph, size 3.5 x 4.5 cm) not older than 6 months.
- Accommodation in Austria for a minimum of 3 months (e.g. rental agreement, accommodation agreement [“Wohnrechtsvereinbarung”].
- Copy of the passport (all pages).
- Birth certificate or equivalent document (legalised and afterwards translated).
- Police clearance certificate from your country of residence (in individual cases also from your country of origin) not older than 3 months at the time of application (legalised and afterwards translated).
- certificate of doctoral degree/PhD or a university degree with which you can have access to doctoral/PhD programmes.
- Hosting Agreement of a certified research institution or a research institution that does not require certification.
- Proof of a travel health insurance.
Full documents list can be found here.
You might want to apply for the relocation Grant: you must apply before you travel to Vienna.
After Arrival
Meldezettel: Register your accommodation within three days of your arrival in your district. You’ll need: passport, home contract, filled form. See here for info and there for more info.
Residence Permit
Book instantly an appointment at the MA35!
If you have got a Job agreement (Aufnahmevereinbarung) by the University
of Vienna and a contract of employment in a doctoral program, you can
apply for a residence permit for researcher.
Book your appointment right away here.
For “researcher”, book your appointment in the “Referat 1.3”
(appointments booked for a wrong unit will not be redirected and
therefore not considered!)
What You Will Need
Multiple checklists will tell you what you need. You can find one by the University of Vienna, by the Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation, or by the Austrian official offices (only in German).
Concretely:
- The filled-out form for “Niederlassungsbewilligung für Forscher”.
Check the form (in german), and its explanation in English.
- Valid travel document: Your passport plus copy of your passport (with
all relevant pages!)
- Passport-sized photograph according to the ICAO criteria (colour
photograph, size 3.5 x 4.5 cm) not older than 6 months
- If you are employed at University of Vienna, you should have a contract of employment which indicates your (sufficient; according to
the amount mentioned above) salary. The contract of employment also covers the health insurance, since it
comes automatically with it.
- Job agreement (Aufnahmevereinbarung), issued by University of Vienna
(you got that already for your Visum).
- Registration of residence (the “Meldezettel”)
- Birth certificate (legalised translation)
- Police clearance certificate from your previous country of residence
– not older than 3 months at the time of application ! (in english!)
- Certificate of your university degree with which you got access to
doctoral/PhD programmes. Take also your “Zulassung” (admission) at University of Vienna with
you, if you already got that!
In general, have copies of every document available, when you have your
appointment!
Everything that is not issued in English must have a notarized (Apostille)
translation.
Recommended to apply at least three months before Visa D expires. You need to take appointment, can go to this below link. Verify the checklist of documents. If possible get a German speaker colleague with you, not absolutely necessary.
Miscellaneous
Open the bank account in bank like bank Austria, Erste bank, N26 many more. Banks have offer if you are under 26.
Get the metro card, they have offices in different metro station. If you are Under 26 and student they have cheaper semester card, with your proof of admission. (You can apply for ucard from uspace website).
5-month viennese Public transport ticket for students.
Viennese Annual pass for non-students or students above 26.
Annual pass for all trains in Austria: www.klimaticket.at
Bike rental (in german), bike fleamarket.
Online ads (craiglist style) for housing, second hand items, etc.: willhaben.at. Flat sharing: willhaben or wg-gesucht.de or facebook groups: group 1, group 2.
Handysignature (for signing in heathcare online account, and many other official accounts): you can activate it with a post.at account, or by going to a cellphone shop.
Register your covid vaccine in the Austrian social security through elga: at the moment they have an office in the Vienna International Centre. You need the batch number of your shots + some kind of certificate. this will get you the QR code.
Online comparator for electricity/internet/insurance contracts: durchblicker.at
There is train coming directly to Vienna city, S7 tickets can be booked here. Also you can download Oebb App.
Take a look here at Arrival in Vienna – Where? section.
Supermarkets have different sim-cards like lycamobile, Drei, Hot many more. (Also is mobile-shops)
Take some cash exchanged in Euros. If not you can do it at airport, probably.
Would be nice, if you can download english-german translation vice versa offline in google translate, helps a lot! Or ask a german-speaking colleague to join you at the MA35, this can make a big difference.
Get your E-Card (A paper with your social security number is needed for residence permit). You need to get a passport picture done in Austria, for example in a photobooth, then take it to a police station.
Tuition Fees for the non-EU/EEA citizens
The information on tuition fees for non-EU/EEA students from the University of Vienna can be found here.
To avoid paying tuition fees (747.92 Euro) make sure you fulfill the requirements for remission, reimbursement or Equal Status with EU/EEA citizens before you register as student!
Rules for remission – the most relevant one for most PhD students is ‘Employment at the University of Vienna for at least 90 days during the previous semester.’*
Certain visas (for example the ‘Researcher’-Visa) provide equal status with EU/EEA citizens.
* In the future, any employee of the University of Vienna should not have to pay tuition fees. As long as the information on the official sites states the requirement of employment in the previous semester, we would recommend only applying as a student once you fulfill this requirement.
General tips
Apply for the maximum length you can (up to 6 months), and apply for a residence permit ASAP. If you think the residence permit process might go beyond the duration of your visa, leaving you in limbo, you can write to the ministry (Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, Dept. IV.2 — Information center for visa, settlement, and residence permit matters, infoiv2@bmeia.gv.at) to request an emergency extension of your visa. They might grant it; they did for me, who originally had a 4-month trial work contract and a 4-month visa. Technically, they granted me a new visa beginning the day after the old one expired.