To enter, stay in or transit through the European Union (EU) third-countries citizens must be in possession of a passport or another travel document recognized as valid for the purposes of crossing the borders by all the EU States.

European Union countries require possession of a valid visa as a condition of entry for students staying longer than 3 months. A visa is a document issued by a country giving a certain individual permission to enter the country for a given period of time and for certain purposes. Visas are typically stamped or attached into the recipient's passport. No visa shall be apposed on a travel document that has expired.

The period of validity of a travel document must be greater than that of the visa. The expiry date of the validity must be more than three months from the date of the visa.

Authority to issue visas is vested in Ministries of Foreign Affairs and their network of accredited diplomatic and consular officers. The visa is issued by the diplomatic or consular mission with territorial jurisdiction over the place of residence of the third-country applicant.

To obtain a visa usually takes 3-6 weeks. However depending of the country concerned it could take longer. We recommend students to begin the procedure to obtain a visa at least 3 months before the start of the course.

We advise third country students to apply for a Temporary Long Stay Visa (type D) for the EU entry country. Procedures for the next visa will be started once in the European Union.