Visa, Travel, and Insurance
Obtaining your visa
The German Embassy in your home country will inform you whether or not you need a visa in order to participate an International Short-Term Program. Corrispondingly, you can find contact information for the German Embassy on the German Foreign Office website. Additionally, the German Foreign Office has compiled a list of countries and their respective visa requirements: Visa requirements - List of countries.
In case you do need a visa, your visa application will require a “Letter of Invitation” from Osnabrück University. We will send you a “Letter of Invitation” as soon as you have registered and paid the registration fee. Please note: if you require a visa, remember to cover the entire period of the International Short Term Program. If you plan to travel within Europe before, during or after the International Short Term Programme, please make sure you apply for the correct entry visa to Germany.
Health and liability insurance
You are obliged to take out valid health insurance for Germany prior to your arrival.
We recommend private liability insurance as well as accident insurance. Amongst others, the following companies offer fairly cheap insurance:
Arriving in Osnabrück
The international airports closest to Osnabrück are Münster/Osnabrück, Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Hamburg. Due to the amount of available connections, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Amsterdam (Schiphol) are viable and cost-efficient alternatives.
Generally, both the German railway service Deutsche Bahn and Flixbus offer good connections to Osnabrück from these airports. You can either purchase your train ticket online prior to departure (while this option may be cheaper, you will be limited to the specific train connection you chose), or directly at one of the German railway travel center (DB Reisezentrum).
For more detailed information on how to get to Osnabrück from these airports, see Arriving in Germany.