We will update further information soon.

Visa & Work Permit

EU Member Countries

For internships in EU member countries, you won't need a Visa or a special work permit but you may have to register locally. This will vary from country to country. In order to find out how and where to register or whether it might be necessary to send documents in advance, please, use the information provided on the European Job Mobility Portal (EURES).

You may find the required information in the section under Country Information > Living & Working, or you can also try to contact one of the registered EURES advisors. Please, consult as well DAAD's country information website.

UK

Students wishing to do an internship in the UK will now need a Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange visa (T5). You will need to obtain a certificate of sponsorship in order to apply for this. The certificate alone takes 3 weeks to obtain. Please contact Sarah Neumann from the TUHH international office ahead of time, if you plan to do this.

Countries outside the EU

For countries outside the EU, you will need either a specific student entry visa or even a student internship visa. Please take a look at the websites of the embassies and consulates of the specific country! Please keep in mind that for several countries the visa application process may take a while. Make sure to apply early.

Please, also consult the website of the German Federal Foreign Office to look up travel warnings and vaccination recommendations early on, as well as DAAD's country information website.

Insurance

Before leaving for an internship abroad and before signing the internship contract with your employer, make sure you have sufficient insurance coverage.

International Health Insurance

If you are a member of a German public health insurance, the backside of your health insurance card shows the EHIC - european health insurance card. It guarantees that you will be covered in almost all EU member states. However, the extent of the coverage will vary as only the German rates will be paid. The Federal Ministry of Health provides useful information on health insurance coverage with a German health insurance abroad. Also, the German Liason Agency Health Insurance Abroad (scroll down to the section "Praktikum im Ausland") has relevant information, as well as the independent info portal Krankenkassen.Deutschland.

Accident Insurance (private & professional) & Liability Insurance

For Erasmus traineeships both a professional accident and a professional liability insurance is mandatory, a private insurance is highly recommended. We strongly recommend making sure you have both private and professional accident and liability insurance while interning overseas.

Some countries may require the employer by national law to provide professional accident insurance to employees, some may not. You will have to find out in advance whether there is such a regulation in place and whether this extends to student interns as well. Please, ask your supervisor or the HR department of your prospective employer. You may also ask a EURES advisor or try to find out about this on the EURES website (for EU countries).

DAAD Group Insurance & Private Insurance

Students receiving Erasmus traineeship, PROMOS or any other kind of public German internship funding have the option of taking out the DAAD Group Insurance which is offered by the insurance department of the German Academic Exchange Service. It costs about 35€ per month and covers travel health, accident and liability insurance.

However, as a student you may still be covered by already existing family insurances of your parents. In many cases these insurances do not automatically cover stays abroad. Please, enquire whether you may be able to temporarily extent any pre-existing insurance coveradge to include your stay abroad. You will need to explicitly mention that you will continue to be a registered student at your home university while you do an internship in a company or an organisation (and may receive an internship compensation). Often such an extension of a pre-existing insurance coverage may be cheaper than the DAAD Group Insurance. On the downside, this may take a while to find out and it may also take a while to find the matching insurance coverage extension.

Wage Regulations

A number of EU and overseas countries have minimum wage regulations for employees. Some also have regulations for student interns. As a starting point to find out about this, We recommend using Wikipedia's List of Minimum Wages by Country. This will give you information on minimum wages for regular employers. You may have to look a little further to find out whether the same minimum wages regulation or a separate one applies to interns (student interns). Again, for EU countries, you may be able to find this information on the EURES platform or through contacting an EURES advisor.

Please, keep in mind that EU citizens have the same rights in all other EU member states as the respective national EU country citizens. Your worker's rights, minimum wage regulations, etc may be different for foreigners in NON-EU countries.