India-Germany agree on ‘gratis visas’ for student exchange programmes

With India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on a visit to Germany, the two nations on Wednesday have agreed on gratis visa for short-term school and college visits to further promote student exchanges.

A statement from MEA read, “The skilled labour strategy released by the German government offers a very good framework for mutual benefit. We have also agreed on gratis visas for short – term school and college visits to further promote student exchanges.”

 “We both agree that we want to create more opportunities for Indian skilled labour and students who aim to come to Germany. We have almost 60,000 Indian students in Germany, which makes them already today the largest group of international students in Germany,” it said. 

“Many of them choose to stay, because we urgently need highly skilled and highly qualified labour. With our strategy on highly skilled labour from India, we already support the area of getting these talents to come to Germany. It’s already now a genuine success story,” it added.

Indian skilled workers are an asset for the German labour market. The Visa Center in Bangalore had issued 36,000 visas last year. It is for long-term stays, and the number is increasing. In 2024, almost a third of all student visas globally were issued in India.