You cannot find your question answered here? Then your BAföG consultants will be happy to help you.
Last revised: May 7, 2025
Under certain conditions, foreign students are entitled to BAföG payments. If you have a valid residence permit in accordance with § 8 BAföG, you might be entitled. However, the legal regulations are very complex, and each case is individual. We therefore recommend a personal consultation with our BAföG-Amt.
Please note: BAföG is generally dependent on your parents' income. If you start your studies and are already at least 30 years old at the time, you will receive funding regardless of your parents' income. Furthermore, only students who have not yet reached the age of 45 at the start of their studies are eligible for funding. However, there are exceptions. For example, for those who are raising children under the age of 14.
BAföG is calculated individually. Your own income and assets as well as the income of your parents and spouse or partner are taken into account in the calculation. As soon as this exceeds the allowances, it reduces the entitlement to funding. The maximum grant for students who live with their parents is €534 per month from August 1 or October 1, 2024. Students who do not live with their parents can receive a maximum of €855 per month.
In addition, there are surcharges for health insurance totaling €137, usually from the age of 25, if students are compulsorily insured as students or privately insured and liable to pay contributions. Voluntarily insured students, who are usually over 30 years old, receive supplements totaling €233 per month.
In addition, there is a further childcare allowance of €160 per month per child for own children under 14 years of age. Please complete form 4 for this.
For first-year students who are enrolling for the first time, are under 25 years old and received a certain social benefit before starting their studies, a study start-up grant (Studienstarthilfe) of €1,000 will be paid out.
The application must be submitted promptly and digitally to the responsible BAföG office. The deadline ends in the second month of your studies.
Click here for the application portal.
- Initial applications: Apply for BAföG as soon as you have applied to a university within our area of responsibility. If you study at a university that is not within our area of responsibility, please let us know. We will forward your application and your file to the relevant office.
- Follow-up application: Submit your application as soon as possible (3 months before the end of the last approval period). Please note: BAföG payments are paid in advance - at the beginning of the month. For example, if the approval period ends in 09/2025, the last BAföG payment will be made on August 31st.
There are several ways to apply for BAföG:
Tip: Hand in missing documents through the BAföG app.
Please be aware: E-mails with any attachments addressed to the BAföG office will be automatically blocked by the system and will not reach their recipient. Data transfer via e-mail is an unsecured communication channel and poses a risk for applicants. Rejecting e-mails with attachments makes sure that nobody can steal sensitive data. Please use the online platform BAföGdigital or the BAföG app as a priority for transferring data and documents.
If you have not submitted your application digitally, you do not have access to the BAföG app or the subsequent submission of documents via BAföGdigital. In this case, you can currently only upload your documents digitally via the still functioning upload portal (Brandenburg), stating your funding number assigned by the office.
Students who have submitted their BAföG application through the BAföGdigital application assistant should be aware that the approval period indicated in the portal can sometimes be misleading. The only binding period is the one specified in the written notice from the BAföG office. In most of the cases, funding is approved for one year.
After all documents have been handed-in, the processing time is about 2 months.
Additional income limits are constantly being adjusted. Your own additional income from employment may total € 6,681 gross in a 12-month approval period from the winter semester 2024/25 without this affecting the amount of funding. You may therefore earn up to €556 per month from employment. The maximum limit for mini-jobs applicable from 1.1.2025 has been taken into account here. If your recognizable income-related expenses exceed the employee lump sum of €1,230 per year, you can earn correspondingly more. Any additional income in excess of the above-mentioned amounts will be distributed over the months of the entire approval period minus a social allowance and will reduce the monthly BAföG entitlement.
Please note: You are legally obliged to declare any additional income in writing, even if you do not exceed the specified allowance.
Your own assets at the time of application are not taken into account up to the 30th birthday in the amount of €15,000 and from the 30th birthday in the amount of €45,000. These allowances increase if you have children or are married or legally partnered. Any additional assets are distributed over the months of the approval period and reduce the monthly BAföG entitlement.
No, child benefit is not considered an income.
You are eligible for the so called parent-indepent BAföG if:
After the intermediate examination or the fourth semester, a transcript of records or an overview of credits (ECTS credits) must be submitted to the BAföG office in order to receive further BAföG funding (form 5). This should demonstrate that you have achieved the usual performance in your degree program.
If the university certifies that you have not yet completed the usual requirements, further funding may still be granted upon your justified application if the requirements are met. This is the case, for example, if you have demonstrably had delays in your studies through no fault of your own. Please contact your case officer at the Office for Educational Support.
Please note that periods of study abroad may have to be taken into account.
The maximum funding period ("Förderungshöchstdauer") is determined by the standard period of study ("Regelstudienzeit"). Under certain conditions, funding is possible beyond the standard period of study.
Valid reasons are:
Several university pandemic ordinances were issued between 2020 and 2022 to ensure that students do not suffer any disadvantages as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. If you were enrolled in the summer semester 2020, winter semester 2020/21, summer semester 2021 or winter semester 2021/22, your maximum funding period will be extended by the semester in question.
With the 29th BAföG Amendment Act, a flexibility semester was introduced from the winter semester 2024/25, which can be taken at the end of the Bachelor's degree or at the end of the Master's degree immediately after the maximum funding period or extended funding period has expired and without giving reasons.
If the previously mentioned funding options have been exhausted, you can still receive financial aid for graduation in the final phase of your studies, which is granted as a full loan for a maximum of 12 months.
If you have exhausted all options for receiving BAföG benefits, the Studierendenwerk West:Brandenburg offers further financial aid, e.g. the graduation loan.
If your parents refuse to provide the necessary information about their income situation or if your parents do not pay the calculated maintenance payments, you can apply for a so-called advance payment form (Form 8) if your education is at risk without the maintenance benefits. In this case, the Education Fund pays the open maintenance amount instead of your parents.
The existing maintenance claim is transferred by law to the state of Brandenburg, represented by the Studierendenwerk West:Brandenburg. If there is a maintenance claim according to cicil code (BGB), we will assert this against the parents or the parent, if necessary in court. If you have questions about the advance payment procedure, please contact us in the BAföG office.
If you are in an undergraduate degree program, it depends on when you change subject area. You can change the field of study for so-called important reason only until the end of the fourth semester. At a later date, so-called irrefutable reasons must exist.
If semesters from the previous degree program are credited to the new degree program, funding for the new degree program can be granted if there is an important reason, provided that no more than four semesters are lost as a result of the change.
Several changes are generally possible.
If you change your field of study during your Master's degree program, you must always provide an irrefutable reason, regardless of when you change your field of study. If you have questions about the change of subject, your BAföG consultants are happy to help.
Please inform us immediately in writing of any changes that have occurred after submitting your BAföG application, e.g. change of subject, discontinuation of studies, successful completion of studies, changes in your income, taking up an internship or changes in siblings.
Please use your user account on BAföGdigital or the BAföG app for the notification. If you have not submitted your application online, you can also use the upload portal (Brandenburg), stating your funding number issued by the office, or the conventional postal service.
Students with permanent residence in Germany can receive a BAföG grant for a subject-oriented study abroad. This also applies to internships that are prescribed in the study or examination regulations.
Do not forget to apply for the ‘’Auslands BAföG’’! This application must be submitted to separate Education Support Offices.
One half of BAföG for students is given out as grant money and the other half as zero interest loan. A maximum of about 10,000 Euro must be repaid of the zero interest loan.
The Bundesverwaltungsamt (Federal Administration Office) is responsible for collecting the loan. Repayment starts five years after the maximum assistance period ends and takes a maximum of 20 years. You will be informed in writing about the loan amount and the start date of repayment about six months before the repayment is to start. The instalment amount is usually 130 Euro per month. Repayment depends on income, i.e. low-income earners may be even exempted from repayment. If the loan amount is repaid prematurely, a discount will be granted – upon request (!).
You need to notify the Federal Administration Office in charge of the loan administration and collection directly about changes of your address or name (D-50728 Köln; bafoeg@bva.bund.de).
Remission of residual BAföG debt:
Students who still owe BAföG 20 years after the start of the repayment obligation can have the (remaining) debt finally cancelled.
Important:
This regulation only applies to students who took up their university course in the winter semester 2019/20 and later.
Students who receive BAföG and do not live with their parents, can apply for exemption from the obligation to pay the broadcasting license fee. For further information on the public broadcasting license fee and the application form for the exemption, please visit the Rundfunkbeitrag website (EN).
Bürgergeld (formerly ALG II):
Students and pupils, whose education can be funded by BAföG, are generally not eligible for Bürgergeld (formerly ALG II). But there are exceptions, e.g. for the student’s children. If the study is generally not eligible for funding by BAföG or if it is interrupted for more than 3 months (for example due to illness, pregnancy or child-rearing), a claim to Bürgergeld, § 7 (5) und (6) SGB II, or § 27 (hardship regulation) may apply.
Housing allowance (Wohngeld):
Students who are entitled to BAföG are generally not eligible to receive housing allowance, regardless of whether or not they actually receive BAföG, § 20 WoGG.
Exepctions:
