uni-assist, anabin and Certified Copies: Document Recognition for Germany
Fee figures: catalogue of 6 October 2026.
Germany has no central office that issues a recognition certificate to future students. Each university decides on admission, most of them with the help of a shared service, uni-assist, and all of them using the same reference database, anabin. This guide explains how the pieces fit and what you have to send.
anabin: what your certificate is worth
anabin is the database of the Standing Conference of the education ministers. For each country it states what a school-leaving certificate allows:
- direct access to any subject
- subject-restricted access
- access only after one or two years of university study in your home country
- access only through a Studienkolleg and the assessment exam
The DAAD offers an admission database in English with the same information in simpler form. Check it before anything else, because it decides whether you apply for a degree or for a preparatory course.
uni-assist and the VPD
About 170 German universities ask international applicants to send their documents to uni-assist in Berlin. It checks that the file is complete and formally correct, verifies the access level, and converts your grades to the German scale. It charges a fee for the first university and a lower fee for each additional one in the same semester.
There are two models:
- uni-assist forwards your application to the university, which then decides.
- uni-assist issues a preliminary review document (VPD) with the converted grade, and you apply to the university yourself with it. This is common for programmes with a grade limit and for the national allocation system.
Processing takes four to six weeks in the busy season. Send the file well before the deadline: an application that arrives complete on the last day may be processed too late to correct.
Universities that do not use uni-assist check documents in their own international office, under the same rules.
Certified copies
You do not send originals. You send officially certified copies (amtlich beglaubigte Kopien): photocopies bearing the stamp and signature of an authority that confirms they match the original.
- In Germany: town halls, citizens' offices and notaries.
- Abroad: the issuing school, a notary, or the German embassy or consulate.
- Each page must be certified, or the pages must be bound and stamped so that they belong together.
uni-assist now accepts uploads for most applicants and asks for certified paper copies only in certain cases or at enrolment. The rules by country are on its website.
Translations
Documents not in German or English need a sworn translation. uni-assist accepts translations by sworn translators, by the issuing institution, or by a German mission abroad. See sworn translations.
The APS certificate
Applicants with school or university certificates from China, India and Vietnam must first have them verified by the Academic Evaluation Centre (APS) at the German embassy in that country. The APS certificate is a condition both for the application and for the visa. Waiting times are long: apply several months ahead.
Apostille
German universities generally do not ask for an apostille on school certificates, but they may ask for legalisation when they doubt a document, and the embassy may ask for it in the visa procedure. Follow the university's country-specific instructions.
A realistic order of steps
- Check anabin or the DAAD database for your access level.
- Read the admission page of each programme: uni-assist or direct, deadlines, language certificate.
- Obtain certified copies and sworn translations.
- Submit to uni-assist six to eight weeks before the deadline.
- With the admission letter, apply for the visa. See student visa for Germany.
Where to look next
Official sources
Always check current information on the official website of the university before you apply.