What documents do you need to enrol at a university in Germany?

Enrolment (Immatrikulation) is a separate step from applying: it comes after admission, and your admission letter (Zulassungsbescheid) tells you which documents are needed and by when. There is no single national checklist; each university sets its own.

#Commonly required

• Enrolment application (usually completed online and signed)
• Admission letter (Zulassungsbescheid)
• Valid passport / ID
• Health-insurance status: by law (§ 199a SGB V) you must prove before enrolment that you are insured, exempt or not subject to statutory insurance. A statutory health insurer sends this notification to the university electronically; a paper certificate or travel insurance is not accepted, for example at FU Berlin.
• Proof of payment of the semester fee (Semesterbeitrag) — the amount varies by university
• Certificates in the form the university asks for (originals or certified copies, translations; a VPD for foreign certificates where required) and language certificates

#Examples

Universities such as FU Berlin and LMU München publish their lists on their enrolment pages; LMU, for example, also asks for anything named in the admission letter.

#Do not confuse it with the application

School certificates, transcripts and language certificates are mainly application documents; at enrolment, the originals or certified copies are often checked.

Source: § 199a SGB V · FU Berlin – Unterlagen