For a Vietnamese student, the dream of studying in Germany, often tuition-free, world-respected degrees, runs straight into a four-letter gatekeeper most applicants have never heard of: APS. Before any visa, before the embassy will even consider you, APS Vietnam must verify your documents, and its queue does not care about your intake deadline. Start late, and the dream slips a semester.
The Vietnam-to-Germany path is well-trodden but sequenced strictly: APS first, then admission, then money, then the visa. Knowing the order and starting the slow steps early is the difference between making your intake and missing it. Here is the path.
APS Vietnam comes first
Vietnam is one of the countries where the APS certificate is mandatory for a German student visa. APS (Akademische Prüfstelle) verifies that your academic documents are authentic, and the embassy will not issue the visa without it.
Because APS is slow and gates everything, it is the first thing to start, ideally before you have even finalised your program choices, since the certificate is reusable across applications. The full mechanics, what APS checks, the documents, the timeline, are in our APS certificate guide; for Vietnamese applicants the key fact is simply: no APS, no visa, so begin it immediately.
Treat the APS as the slowest item on your critical path and remove it from the bottleneck first.
The financial proof
Like all student applicants, Vietnamese students must show financial proof of €11,904 for one year (€992 per month as of 2025), usually via a blocked account (Sperrkonto).
The full rules, accepted proof types, the timing trap, scholarship substitutes, are in our financial proof guide. For Vietnam, confirm the current amount with the German mission before depositing (the figure rises periodically), fund the account with enough lead time so the money looks credibly available, and keep a clean paper trail for the source of funds.
After you arrive, the account releases €992 monthly, so plan accessible cash for the gap between landing and the first release.
Admission via uni-assist
Most German universities process international applications through uni-assist, which verifies documents, converts grades, and forwards eligible applications to the university.
For Vietnamese applicants, run uni-assist in parallel with the APS where possible, since both take weeks and stacking them sequentially wastes time you may not have before your intake. Check each target university individually, some use uni-assist for all international applicants, some only for certain programs, and some take direct applications or want a VPD instead.
Have your transcripts and certified translations ready, since an incomplete file is the main cause of delay at this stage.
Studienkolleg: do you need it?
Whether you can enter a degree directly depends on how your Vietnamese qualification maps to the German Abitur. Some qualifications grant indirect entry, which means a Studienkolleg preparatory year and the Feststellungsprüfung exam before you can start the degree itself.
Uni-assist or the university flags this when assessing your documents. If you need it, factor the extra year into your plan and choose the correct course stream (T, M, W, G, or S) for your intended degree. If your qualification grants direct entry, you skip this step entirely.
Find out your entry status early, because it changes your whole timeline and budget.
The timeline and working while studying
Timeline: plan for several months overall. APS Vietnam (weeks) → admission via uni-assist (weeks more) → financial proof → visa appointment (which itself queues). These stack, so the single most important move is to start the APS as early as possible and run admission in parallel.
A workable sequence: begin APS immediately, gather and translate documents, apply via uni-assist while APS processes, secure admission, arrange the blocked account, then book the visa appointment (book the slot early too, as appointments can be scarce).
Working while studying: once enrolled, Vietnamese students get the standard allowance, 120 full days or 240 half days per calendar year without permission, plus Werkstudent roles during the semester. This supplements your funds but does not replace the upfront financial proof, which the visa requires regardless. The full rules are in our student job guide.
What to do this week
- Start APS Vietnam now, it is mandatory and gates the visa, so removing it from your critical path first is the single highest-value move.
- Confirm the current financial-proof amount with the German mission and open a blocked account with lead time, keeping the source-of-funds paper trail.
- Find out whether your qualification needs a Studienkolleg, and run your uni-assist application in parallel with the APS to protect your intake date.
