Extending your residence permit

A student residence permit is issued for at most 12 months, and never longer than your passport is valid. The VWU preparatory course runs up to four semesters, so if it takes you longer than a year, you'll need to renew the card. It only gets renewed if you can show academic progress. The law sets one more deadline for the preparatory course: within two years at the latest, you need to show admission to a regular programme.^1–3

What to do, and when

1. Book an appointment at MA 35 three months before your card expires. MA 35 is Vienna's immigration authority. You book online, at any of its six offices, regardless of which district you live in. They won't take your application earlier than three months out, and it has to be filed by the last day your card is valid.¹
2. Gather the documents from the list below, in the original. The longest one to get is proof of academic progress, covered in its own section below.
3. Show up in person. Pay €218, you'll get fingerprinted, and you'll receive proof of filing, the Einreichbestätigung.¹
4. Wait for the decision. If you filed on time, you can stay in Austria and keep studying even after your old card expires: you show the proof of filing if checked. You can still leave the country during this time, but only if you get a Notvignette — that's what MA 35 calls the permission to leave and return; it has nothing to do with the road toll sticker of the same name.¹
5. Pick up your new card. Once the conditions are met, MA 35 sets a date and hands you the card in person. At pickup, you show again that you have enough money for the whole term.¹

You can check on your case by phone at +43 1 4000-3535.¹

What counts as academic progress

MA 35 gives three examples of what counts as academic progress over the past academic year:¹

• 16 ECTS, meaning credits from courses you've passed;
• 8 hours of class a week, Semesterwochenstunden;
• admission to a regular programme.

This is backed up with a Studienbestätigung or Studienblatt, a certificate from the university confirming you're enrolled there. Preparatory course students are enrolled at the university as non-regular students, außerordentliche Studierende, so it's your university that issues the certificate.^1·2

If you've passed all the VWU exams and gained admission to a regular programme, that's the third example. If your last exam falls in November or April, you stop being a VWU student on the day you pass it, but you don't move to the university in that same semester, so there won't be a study certificate for that semester. How to avoid this is covered in the article on failed exams.⁴

Everyone else needs a certificate showing how their studies went. If you're learning German with a VWU partner, the partner issues it. The Sprachenzentrum, the University of Vienna's language centre and one of VWU's three partners, sends one after every semester, noting whether you finished the course successfully, attended regularly but didn't pass, or didn't manage it at all. Die Berater, the other partner, posts its certificate for MA 35 in Moodle once the course ends. Whether MA 35 counts VWU course hours as study hours, and what certificate VWU itself issues if you didn't pass the exam, ask the VWU office ahead of time — not a week before your MA 35 appointment.^5·6

Two years for the preparatory course

Renewal has two separate conditions: showing academic progress every year, and gaining admission to a regular programme within two years overall. The second condition applies only to the preparatory course, and without that admission after two years, the law doesn't allow renewing your residence permit on this basis.³

The VWU course itself runs for four semesters, the same two years. A fifth semester is only granted if serious reasons stopped you from finishing, and you apply for it at VWU between 23 June and 2 July. So every failed final exam pushes back not just your studies but your residence permit too. How resits fit into these deadlines, and which sitting to register for, is covered in the article on failed exams.²

Without academic progress, the law only allows a renewal when you were stopped by circumstances you couldn't influence and couldn't have foreseen. That exception is about circumstances outside your control, so don't count on it for a failed exam. If the conditions aren't met, MA 35 issues a negative decision, a negativer Bescheid.^1·3

Documents for the renewal

• The application, in German or English, filled in and signed.
• A valid passport. The card is only issued for as long as your passport is valid, so if your passport is due to expire soon, renew it before MA 35 decides.
• A biometric photo no older than six months.
• Proof of your living costs: your rental or dormitory contract, account statements.
• Insurance valid in Austria that covers all risks, for example student insurance with ÖGK, the state health insurance fund.
• Proof of money for the whole term: your own account, payslips, an employment contract, or a Haftungserklärung, a declaration of liability, with the guarantor's income. For savings, explain where the money came from.
• Proof of academic progress, and a Studienbestätigung or Studienblatt, covered in the section above.
• A recent extract from the register of debtors. MA 35 accepts the free KSV 1870 extract, requested under Article 15 GDPR.¹

Bring the documents in the original. Anything not in German or English needs a sworn translator's translation. How much money to show for your rent, and what counts instead of money in the account, including earnings, is worked out in the article on the residence permit.¹

Sources

· 6 checked 25.09.2026

1. 1Aufenthaltsbewilligung Student — Stadt Wien, MA 35 · checked 23.09.2026
2. 2FAQ — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 20.09.2026
3. 3Niederlassungs- und Aufenthaltsgesetz, § 64 — Studierende · checked 23.09.2026
4. 4Ergänzungsprüfungen — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 23.09.2026
5. 5Deutschkurse für den VWU — Sprachenzentrum der Universität Wien · checked 20.09.2026
6. 6FAQ — die Berater · checked 25.09.2026