Student Applicant Visa

[neon harness]

Hi everyone, to give some background, I'm a non-EU citizen with a school-leaving certificate that's not equivalent to the Abitur. I'm looking to pursue my bachelors degree in Germany. I would appreciate some advice!

Initially I wanted to spend a year in Germany to study the language with the language course visa, then I came across the student applicant visa.

I checked the requirements for a student applicant visa in my country's German embassy, and it says they require "Proof of your entrance qualification for a German University", but how is this possible to obtain in my situation? I currently don't have any education that will qualify me for HZB (Hochschulzugangsberechtigung) and will need to possess B1 in German to attend Studienkolleg and eventually take the exam (Feststellungsprüfung) that will allow me to study in Germany. But that's not possible without a visa obviously.

Is there something I'm missing?

[vital fable]

Are you sure you need B1 to obtain HZB? Because me myself i wanna study in germany and i searched for the HZB and it just said , for The HZB u need a certificate to prove u graduated out of high school

[obtuse summit]

If you want to go with a language visa first, you'll have to get a language visa obv and then later on change it to student visa. You can do so while being in Germany. If you're in studienkolleg, it counts as "preparation for studies", and you'll get a regular student visa for that purpose. I assume your country just did not consider this possibility of preparatory courses

[neon harness]

Hi, apparently language course visas are not convertible to student visas unfortunately. It is only the student applicant/study preparation visa that can be converted. I'm currently not enrolled in Studienkolleg, nor even have the language requirements for it. I'm confused how one will be able to apply for the student applicant visa if one can't enter Germany to attend a German course and obtain HZB, because it is a requirement for the student applicant visa

[neon harness]

Yes, but apparently my country's high school diploma is not sufficient. Still need to take a preparatory course

[obtuse summit]

Yeah basically language knowledge // studying are two different things. My mistake, language visa can not be converted to student visa, unless it's a language course directly related to studies like a preparatory DSH course. Then I guess your best bet is to learn German one way or another first, whether here or there, and then go for studienkolleg. Until then a sprachkursvisum is the right thing, not the student visa. The studienkolleg doesn't teach german from 0 either. They'll put you in a full German course to learn physics, history, economics... Again, just so you get this very specific German terminology

[neon harness]

Thanks! Applying for a long-term language course visa is my original plan. It's ok to state in my motivation letter that my intention to study German is to pursue higher education in Germany? And I acknowledge that I will have to return to my home country to then apply for the student visa

For the language course visa, it states that I cannot apply to universities. I'm guessing that means I will have to apply for them online from home and receive their admission letter for the study preparation visa?

[obtuse summit]

Yep. Basically the visa can't be changed, once it's "over" it's over and you do have to go back. The language visa and student visa are absolutely separate from one another, and I don't think writing about your plans would affect it at all