Information for Ukrainian Students

1. Hamburg Welcome Center

Website with all important information:

https://welcome.hamburg.de/ukraine/

Hamburg Welcome Center (Приветственный центр Гамбурга) проводит онлайн-мероприятие на тему жизни в Гамбурге. Мероприятие проводится на русском языках. Мы предоставляем общую информацию по следующим
темам:

• Органы власти в Гамбурге,
• Жилье и сертификат на право его получения,
• Налоги,
• Открытие банковского счета,
• Здравоохранение,
• Условия труда

Contact information (legal):

Phone: (040) 428 39 - 5523/-5524
E-mail: auslaenderrecht@welcome.hamburg.de

Currently, consultations are offered via Skype or telephone here.

Contact information for new citizens:

Phone: (040) 428 39 - 5539/-5540

You can reach the general telephone hotline at (040) 42839-5555 during the telephone office hours:

Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday 9 a.m. to noon
Please send e-mail inquiries to: info@welcome.hamburg.de.

2. Consulting Offers

The Studierendenwerk Hamburg offers consulting, also via the phone. If financial issues arise, there is fund. More information will be enclosed after a consultation with them.

If you need help with you BAföG application, please do not hesitate to contact us: studentservices@the-klu.org.

3. Acommodation

See the other accommodation guide for a detailed offer.

Also, here you can make a request for a host family.

More information on accommodation by the German government here:

Housing Ukraine

The Housing Ukraine page offers accommodation in private homes for people who have fled Ukraine. If you are interested in such housing, you can register on the platform by providing some basic information about yourself and your needs. You will then be put in contact with suitable hosts.
Click on the link www.unterkunft-ukraine.de for the online form to enter your information and register for the placement process. Further information on placement can also be found on the Housing Ukraine page.

State-run initial reception centers

You can enter Germany with or without applying for asylum. Applying for asylum is not necessary because the European Union is implementing an admission procedure for war refugees from Ukraine in accordance with the EU Temporary Protection Directive. This means that admission to Germany is unbureaucratic in accordance with section 24 of the Residence Act, and displaced persons from Ukraine do not have to go through the asylum procedure. Border officials will refer you to the nearest state-run initial reception centre, where you will be given a place to sleep, food and assistance.

To take part in the reception programme for war refugees from Ukraine, you must apply for a residence permit for temporary protection in accordance with section 24 of the Residence Act. You can apply for this permit at your local foreigners authority, which you can find in the  BAMF-NAvI directory at bamf-navi.bamf.de .

Links

The websites wunderflats.com and host4ukraine.com also offer private accommodation for refugees from Ukraine.

The websitebooking.com has set up a special page for people fleeing Ukraine, where you can find free or inexpensive places to stay in many different European countries.

And German youth hostels offer accommodation for refugees too: jugendherberge.de

At gdw.de, the Wohnungswirtschaft Deutschland website offers information in Ukrainian for refugees, including an overview of accommodation available in all of Germany, organised by region.

4. Visa, Residence Permit

Entry, Residence Status and Return

Ukrainians are allowed to stay in the Schengen area for 90 days without a visa. All questions and answers can be found here.

Residence Permit

You may apply for the residence permit online.

People who are not citizens of the European Union or have the Icelandic, Liechtenstein, Norwegian, or Swiss nationality, normally need a permit to stay in Germany legally for a longer period of time. This permit is called a “residence permit”. In many cases, this permit must normally be obtained in advance before entry. A residence permit that has been issued before entry by an embassy or consulate general as a sticker in the passport, is called a “visa”. The residence permits must be applied for. They are not issued without an application by the person concerned. See Section 2 for more information regarding the terms.

Because of the special situation in Ukraine, an exception to these rules has been made. The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) has issued an ordinance for this purpose, temporarily exempting war refugees from Ukraine in the Federal territory from the requirement of a residence permit. It entered into force on March 9, 2022 and is retroactively applicable as of February 24, 2022.

The ordinance facilitates the entry and residence of the persons concerned and to give the refugees the possibility and the necessary time to obtain a residence permit in the Federal territory and thus to protect them from sliding into an unauthorized stay.

So for the time being, war refugees from Ukraine do not need a residence permit. However, this does not apply forever; the regulation is initially limited until August 31, 2022. Thereafter, war refugees will certainly need a residence permit. However, since the persons concerned have no influence on how long it will take the authorities to process an application, it is sufficient to submit an application within the period of time during which the applicant is legally residing in Germany without a residence permit. The application must therefore - according to the current status - be submitted to the local immigration authority by August 31, 2022 at the latest. Find out in time on the website of the city and/or the immigration authority whether you need to make an appointment for this purpose or whether you can submit the application for the residence permit online before the deadline. Once the application has been submitted, the status of “permitted residence” remains in effect until a decision is made on the application - even after August 31, 2022. A so-called fictional certificate is issued.

The rule that a visa must first be required before entering the country for long-term residence, does not apply to war refugees from Ukraine according to the aforementioned ordinance.

This means that within the period until - according to the current status - August 31, 2022, an application must be made to the competent immigration authority for the granting of a residence permit according to Section 24 of the German Residence Act.

Important: The initial registration, the assignment, registering at the registration authority, and the application for a residence permit are separate processes. Sometimes they are processed together, but this ultimately depends on the local organization. In case of doubt, please ask.

For further information on the procedure in Germany and applying for a residence permit, please read Section 5 and the related terms in Section 2.

5. Info Session Presentation

Please find the PDF here. It is a bit more of a summary what to expect and what to do when you arrive up to financial support possibilities.

You can find a rough translation into English of the BAföG form here. This is just to serve as a guide to filling out the required form in German.