Residence requirement for EU nationals

briellestrawberry • 25 February 2024
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Hi everyone,

 

I'm an EU national from Bulgaria, currently looking for applying for a German university or fachhochschule for the next winter semester. I don't speak German that well, however my question is regarding Bafög. I've searched it up a lot, however I find something very contradictive and confusing, so here I am, coming by, to ask regarding it. It's regarding the residence requirements for EU citizens.

My first question is that it says in § 8 of the Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz (BAföG) that 

For Union Citizens (EU citizens):

BAföG support is provided to Union citizens (EU citizens) who have the right of permanent residence (Recht auf Daueraufenthalt) under the Freizügigkeitsgesetz/EU (Freedom of Movement Act/EU).

And when you go and open it, it says: (1) Unionsbürger, die sich seit fünf Jahren ständig rechtmäßig im Bundesgebiet aufgehalten haben, haben unabhängig vom weiteren Vorliegen der Voraussetzungen des § 2 Abs. 2 das Recht auf Einreise und Aufenthalt (Daueraufenthaltsrecht). 

 

So technically, now I don't understand, EU citizens have the right to live indefinitely in any EU country, without to have to wait any years, therefore why do I have to wait 5 years in obtain permanent citizen when I already have that since I am an EU citizen?

This is very contradictive.

 

I wanna add something from the Federal Ministry of Interior and community from their page https://www.bmi.bund.de/EN/topics/migration/law-on-foreigners/freedom-of-movement/freedom-of-movement-node.html:

 

So it says: Entry and residence of EU citizens - look at what I underlined about students.

EU citizens have the right of residence for longer than three months if they

  • are workers or self-employed persons in the host Member State or are seeking employment (for a certain length of time);
  • are not in employment or are students or trainees and have sufficient resources and comprehensive health insurance cover;
  • have the right of permanent residence (following legal residence of five years).
  • Family members, regardless of their citizenship, accompanying or joining an EU citizen who satisfies these conditions also have the right of residence for more than three months.

So technically, doesn't this tell Bafög that being a student is enough for you to be able to legally reside in Germany as EU citizen for as much as needed (I'd say forever, because this is only asked when you wanna stay as EU citizen in Germany for longer than 3 months, after that I don't think they're asking you on early basis whether you wanna stay in Germany and to give proof  of your staying or not), you can work during that time, you can do everything since you're an EU citizen, isn't that correct ? Shouldn't therefore Bafög accept students on this point?

But thanks in advance for replying to me,

 

Answers (1)

Moderation

Hey briellestrawberry, thank you for your question. I have just spoken to the Bafög advice centre and they told me that you only need to meet 1 point from §8 BAföG, it means that you do not have to live in Germany for 5 years if you have one of the points from §8 BAföG. Hopefully this link will also help you:
https://www.studentenwerk-leipzig.de/en/bafoeg-financing/bafog-internat…
If you have any further questions, please let me know. Best Barbara

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