Study in Austria [Detailed Guide for Nigerian students]

Austria is one of the cheapest destinations in Europe for studies (€1,455 per year). If you are a Nigerian who is interested in studying in Austria, this thread is a detailed overview of the processes involved.

Follow the steps in this thread and you will be fine.

The first thing to do is to know the Austrian university you intend to apply to. List of Austrian universities are here.

After familiarising yourself with the documents required by your chosen school, take note whether the school requires you to LEGALIZE your documents before applying to them.

Most Austria schools only accept legalized documents from prospective non-EU students (Nigerians). Only few Austrians schools like Graz University of Technology will accept your applications without you having legalized your documents. So how do you legalize?

If applying from Nigeria, Legalization of your documents for Austrian schools is a three-way process – you must authenticate your documents at the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs before verifying and legalizing them at the Embassy of Austria. All in Abuja.

You must begin by authenticating your academic certificates at the Ministry of Education (they do only Mondays – Thursday) and authentication per document is about N300.00 and it can all be done in a day if you go early.

After doing this, you will proceed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to authenticate documents like your academic documents and other certificates like your birth certificates and others.

After this, book an appointment for legalization with the Austrian embassy here. The Austrian embassy is located in 9. Usuma Street Maitama, Abuja. The same building houses the Embassy of Belgium (Belgium does legalization for Luxembourg).

On the day of the appointment you will be asked to pay N200k cash for the embassy to do its own verification to check the genuineness of documents you submitted. This process takes 2- 3 months.

The checklist of documents to be legalized in the Austrian embassy can be found here Here.

The Austrian embassy will then get a lawyer who will do a thorough investigation and verify the authenticity of all the documents you have submitted. The lawyer might even go as far as even visiting your village to confirm things for him or herself.

The lawyer might also interview you and your parents and ask your house neighbours questions too.
If the embassy is satisfied with the feedback from the lawyer’s investigation, you will be contacted for the legalization of your documents.

The legalization will take just a day and you will pay N32k per document for the legalization. With this, you can start applying to Austrian universities of your choice.

After getting admitted into an Austrian university, to get your visa, You have to prove sufficient financial means to finance your stay: students less than 24 years of age have to prove that they have at least 515,30 Euros per month ;

And students of 24 years of age or older have to prove that they have at least 933,06 Euros per month [as of 2018] – these amounts have to be proved for a maximum of 12 months – e.g. by means of a savings account or a bank account (the account has to be accessible from Austria);

Or you can get a Declaration of Guarantee from a person living in Austria; proof of purchase of traveller’s cheques for the necessary amount; or a confirmation of the award of a scholarship/grant.

If the costs for accommodation exceed 294,65 euros/month, you will have to prove additional funds.

Hopefully, you will find these tips helpful.

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