Getting organised

Keeping your own checklist while you are preparing for your internship will help you to organise things and plan your stay abroad – particularly to keep track of time and not forget any important arrangements. You will need to:

• Check your travel documents (passport, driving licence, etc.): What is required, and are these documents valid for long enough?
• Is a visa required – if so, have you applied for it?
• Insurance abroad (health, accident, liability)?
• If applicable, international drivers’ licence
• If applicable, International Student Identity Card
• Will you need a bank account abroad?
• Have you arranged to sub-let your accommodation here?
• Cancel landline here while you’re away?
• Find out about tariffs for phoning abroad using mobile phone or internet in your host country.
• You might need to re-enrol at Kempten UAS from abroad – what will you need for that?
• At the moment: current Covid-19 situation and regulations in your host country
• ...Extras...

If you are likely to want to drive abroad (your own car or a rental), you should check in advance whether the plastic EU drivers’ licence card suffices, or if you will need an international driving permit by contacting the relevant road traffic authority / driver licensing agency.

An international student ID qualifies you for discounts in many countries and even on some flights. Find out more here: ISIC.

Click here to apply for an ISIC card online.

You will generally require a passport for travel outside the EU. The application process takes a while, up to three months. Within the EU, you will generally only need your national ID card. Your travel documents must be valid for the entire duration of your stay abroad. Some countries even require the expiry date to be at least 6 months after your departure date.

It is therefore important to check how much time you have left on your documents – and, if necessary, apply to renew your passport (at your local residents’ registration office) in good time.

If you would like to sub-let your room / apartment in Kempten while you are abroad, then the International Office can help put you in touch with incoming exchange students, for example.

If you are going to take up an internship abroad, you will need health, accident and liability insurance, so it is very important to ascertain whether you will also be covered by your existing insurance in your host country. Even if so, it might be worthwhile arranging additional protection, as German health insurance only covers the standard domestic rates. The same applies to accident and liability insurance. You might have to take out additional insurance to cover the time you spend abroad as an intern.

Students undertaking obligatory internships on the Erasmus+ programme qualify for the special rate offered by the insurance department at the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD).

Additional information about health insurance for students can also be found on various consumer websites (e.g. 1AKrankenversicherung).

The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD) offers interns, students and academics travelling abroad affordable combined health, accident and personal liability insurance via its group arrangement. Erasmus internships are covered by the insurance tariff 720, but there other insurance models also exist. To find out more, visit DAAD.

You don’t need a visa for countries in the European Union, but you will often require one for studying outside the EU (e.g. United States, Australia). The embassy or consulate of your destination country is the sole authority for issuing visas. The Federal Foreign Office website provides details of embassies.

It’s important to apply for your visa as soon as possible after securing an internship with a company, as the process can take quite some time, depending on the country in question.
 

NEW: Internship abroad in the United Kingdom: T-5 visa

Post-Brexit, anyone intending to undertake an internship in the United Kingdom requires a “temporary worker” visa.

How do you apply?

1. As soon as the host company has confirmed your internship, before doing anything else, please get in touch with Mr Holzhauser in the International Office. This ensures we can tackle any issues as quickly as possible.
    
2. Before applying for the visa, you need to obtain a “Certificate of Sponsorship”. The International Office at Kempten University of Applied Sciences has to apply to the British Council for the certificate, which generates the reference number that you need to cite in your visa application to the British General Consulate.

Applying for a Certificate of Sponsorship

You will require the following documents and evidence to obtain your Certificate of Sponsorship:

• Fully completed T5 CoS application form
   
• Confirmation letter from Kempten University of Applied Sciences citing the start and end date of the internship and the level of Erasmus+ funding.
  The letter must be printed on the university’s headed paper and signed, dated and stamped.
   
• Acceptance letter from the organisation hosting the internship, citing the start and end date and listing the roles and duties to be performed by the participant. This letter also needs to be printed on the company’s headed paper and then signed, dated and stamped.
   
• Fully completed Erasmus+ Learning Agreement for Traineeship, which must be signed by yourself, the university’s internship officer and the responsible party at the organisation hosting the internship.
   
• Your transcript of records, presented in English.
   
• Complete copy of your passport “including all ID details e.g. biometric page and leave stamps”. All pages must be fully legible. Your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond the end date of your internship.

• If necessary, a criminal record check, presented in English. You can check whether you require one with the UK Goverment. German citizens probably only require a certificate of conduct issued by the police – although neither the DAAD in Germany nor its office in London could confirm this for certain. 
   
• You will only have to submit a copy of the signed and dated internship contract if you are being paid by the organisation hosting the internship.
   

Important!

• All documents must be provided in English.
   
• Please email PDFs of all your documents to the International Office in one go – not individually, piece by piece, but only once you have everything ready to attach to a single email. 
   
• Please start gathering everything that you need well in advance. It can take up to three or four weeks for the British Council to issue the Certificate of Sponsorship – and it will only do so when your documents have been submitted correctly in full.
   

Once you have the Certificate of Sponsorship, please apply online, citing the reference number, for your T5 visa (temporary worker). It can take up to 8 weeks to get the visa – thus, as pointed out above, you should start lining this up as soon as possible.

You can find further up-to-date information on applying for a visa to study or undertake an internship in the UK on the DAAD website .