Moving to Germany

Your ESMT degree program application must be approved and accepted. Once you confirm attendance to ESMT, our Student Services Team will give you advice for any necessary visas to enter Germany. Please check with your German consulate if you need a visa to enter Germany for study purposes.

As a general rule, all foreigners staying in Germany for more than 90 days wanting to work or study in Germany need a visa before entering Germany, however there are several exceptions.

Nationals of Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the United States may apply for the necessary permit after arrival in Germany. The same applies for nationals of Andorra, Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras, Monaco and San Marino who do not intend to take up employment.

Admitted students from some countries will need to apply in person at the German embassy to receive a visa. Only once a visa is obtained can these students board a plane to Berlin. Visa processing from the local German embassy typically takes six to eight weeks.

ESMT’s Student Services will provide you with information on how to find housing in Germany. A wide variety of accommodation is available in Berlin for your needs. Typically, our students are able to find an apartment in Berlin before, or during the first weeks, of the program.

ESMT’s Student Services also provides support for all students when registering their address with authorities, and (for non-EU citizens) when acquiring a German residence permit. Full details of these procedures are provided at orientation sessions during the first week of class.

Students who wish to stay in Germany after graduation are strongly encouraged to learn German.

For Master's in Management students, learning German is part of the curriculum and a requirement for graduation.

For MBA candidates, ESMT offers different options to learn German. ESMT partners with GLS to offer an optional, intensive language courses to interested MBA students before the program begins in January. These students move to Berlin in September and attend daily German lessons to quickly gain language competency. Interested students should apply to the ESMT MBA no later than July 1.

During the intensive one-year MBA program students will have the opportunity to study German for a few hours each week. This is generally enough for beginners to reach basic conversational level by the end of the year. For students at intermediate and advanced levels the lessons are particularly useful to practice interviewing in German, writing inquiry letters, and developing conversational mastery. Students receive details about the MBA German courses during orientation.

Almost 90% of ESMT graduates stay in Germany after graduation. Most of these students are non-Germans hired by local German startups, small companies, and multinational firms who need valuable international business expertise in their industries.

After graduation, students can extend their residence permit and stay in Germany for up to 18 months while looking for a job. During the job search phase, graduates are allowed to work without a work permit in any job without restriction. Once a suitable employment is secured, graduates are advised to apply for a work permit.

ESMT graduates also enjoy significant benefits in obtaining a work permit in Germany. German companies are incentivized to hire foreign talent with a degree from a German school through fewer HR constraints. This allows ESMT graduates to be competitive players when applying to jobs in Germany.