According to German law, everyone who lives in Germany must have adequate health insurance. If you want to get or renew a visa for work or study, you need to prove that you are covered by a suitable health insurance policy.

Before enrolling, you have to obtain a health insurance certificate from your health care provider. It must certify that you:

• are insured or
• are exempt (versicherungsfrei) or have been exempted (von der Versicherungspflicht befreit) from health insurance or
• are not obliged to have health insurance (nicht versicherungspflichtig).

You must provide your insurance certificate along with the university’s enrollment documents.

If you want, you may enter into a student health insurance agreement with any public health care provider in Germany. Should you be insured with a private health care provider in a non-EU and non-EWR country, you can choose whether to terminate your contract and take out German student health insurance, or whether to request an exemption from insurance obligations. Should you choose to request an exemption, you can do so using the (online) services of AOK Berlin Brandenburg. For this, you need to scan your insurance card (name and validity must be legible) or and the main page of your passport and mail them to studentservice@nordost.aok.de with a request for an exemption. AOK Berlin Brandenburg will send the certificate of exemption directly to the university. Once the university has received your exemption, you can complete your enrollment. The exemption cannot be revoked and is valid for the entirety of your studies.

If you are from a EU or EWR country, you are already exempt from the obligation to have health insurance. You can mail a scan of your European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) to studentservice@nordost.aok.de for confirmation of the exemption.