Pre-departure information

All IiVP students who are not citizens of EU or EEA member states are required to obtain an Austrian Visa D for their semester abroad in Vienna. A Visa D is valid for a stay from 91 to a maximum of 180 days. A Visa D also entitles you to spend up to 90 days of the maximum total of 180 days in other Schengen countries. 

IiVP academic-year students are required to apply for an Austrian residence Permit (Aufenthaltstitel – Student), which is valid for one year and can be renewed. 

Students who are citizens of countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (i.e. are not required to possess a visa to enter Austria for tourism purposes), for example citizens of the U.S.,  apply for their residence permit on-site in Vienna. IiVP staff will help you prepare and submit your application. 

 WHERE?

Students who are citizens of countries that do not participate in the Visa Waiver Program, for example citizens of the People's Republic of China, and thus must possess a valid visa to enter Austria, must apply for their visa pre-departure at the Austrian consulate that is responsible for their jurisdiction (for Illinois residents: Austrian Consulate in New York City). Students also may submit their applications for residence permits at the Chicago Consular Days held by the Austrian Consulate in New York, which generally take place in November/December and May. Please be aware, however, that residence permit applications are processed exclusively in Vienna. If you apply for a residence permit in the United States or elsewhere, the Austrian Consulate will merely forward the application to Vienna for further processing. For this reason, residence permit applications submitted outside of Austria require a minimum of three months for processing.

Please also note that students, who are not citizens of a country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program, will not receive their residence permit until they arrive in Austria. After the application has been approved by the authorities in Vienna, students must apply for an additional Visa D to enter Austria and pick up their residence permits. For this reason, students from non-Visa Waiver countries must begin planning their academic year in Vienna considerably earlier than most other students.