How much money do you need in a blocked account for Germany?

It depends on the visa. For studying, the German missions currently ask for 992 euros a month, which is 11,904 euros for a first year. For a visa to look for a university place, a training place, an Opportunity Card or a standalone German course, the figure is 1,091 euros a month. School-based vocational training is 959 euros a month, and the two in-company training routes are published as a gross and a net figure because your training allowance counts towards them. Multiply the figure for your route by the months your visa has to cover, and read the current amount on your own mission's page before you transfer anything.

Why do different websites give different blocked account amounts?

Two reasons. Most of them quote the study figure, 992 euros a month or 11,904 euros a year, without saying which visa it belongs to, so a reader on a different route sees a number that is not theirs. And the amounts are revised every year, so pages that were right two years ago still show older figures such as 934 euros. The Federal Foreign Office publishes no figure at all on its blocked account page. It says the amount depends on the purpose of your stay and points you at your mission or the Consular Services Portal, which is the step the provider pages skip.

Do you get the blocked account money back?

It is your money throughout. The Federal Foreign Office says the beneficiary named on the account, your German mission before the visa and the foreigners authority afterwards, cannot withdraw it. What the account does is limit you to a set amount each month once you are in Germany. If your visa is refused, the refusal notice is enough on its own to lift the block. If you never applied, withdrew your application, did not use the visa, or left the Schengen area before getting a residence permit, your mission can issue a consular certificate that lifts it. The bank's own fees are charged on top of the blocked amount and are not returned.

Which bank should I open a blocked account with?

No official source will answer that, and neither will this page. The Federal Foreign Office deleted its list of blocked account providers in mid-2022. It makes no recommendation, accepts no liability if a provider fails to pay out, and has never had a business relationship with any of them. What it does tell you is what to check: the account has to hold enough for your whole period, the blocking confirmation has to state the monthly withdrawal limit, and your mission has to be able to verify the account. Compare providers against those requirements rather than against a ranking.

Blocked Account for Germany: How Much, Which Routes Need One, and How It Works

Search for the German blocked account and you get one number. It is usually 11,904 euros, sometimes written as 992 euros a month, and on older pages still 934. What almost nobody tells you is which visa that number belongs to.

Germany does not publish one blocked account figure. It publishes a different monthly minimum for each purpose of stay, and the amount you pay in is that figure multiplied by the months your visa has to cover. A student and an Opportunity Card applicant transferring money on the same afternoon owe different amounts. So does a school-based Ausbildung applicant, and so does someone coming for a German course.

This guide gives you the figure for your own route, shows where it comes from so you can see why it changes, and explains how the account works from opening it to closing it. It names no bank, because the Federal Foreign Office names none either.

What a blocked account actually is

A blocked account (Sperrkonto) is an ordinary bank account with two conditions attached. You cannot touch the money until you arrive in Germany, and after that you can only take out a set amount each month.

It exists because German law asks visa applicants to prove they can support themselves. Under the Residence Act, your livelihood is secure when you can cover your costs, adequate health insurance included, without drawing on public money. A blocked account is one way of proving that. It is not the only one, and for some routes it is not even the usual one.

The money stays yours. The Federal Foreign Office is explicit that the beneficiary named on the account cannot withdraw it. The monthly limit exists so that money meant to last a year cannot be taken out in the first week.

Which routes need one, and how much

The middle column is the monthly minimum for each route. The right column is that figure multiplied by the longest period the visa is normally issued for, which is our arithmetic rather than an official total. The year matters, and the next section explains why.

Your route	Per month	Longest visa	At that length
Studying, or a preparatory college or study-preparatory language course	992 €	12 months	11,904 €
Looking for a university place	1,091 €	9 months	9,819 €
Vocational training in a company	1,048 € gross, 822 € net	12 months	12,576 € gross
Vocational training at a school	959 €	12 months	11,508 €
Advanced vocational training in a company	1,090 € gross, 855 € net	12 months	13,080 € gross
Advanced vocational training at a school	992 €	12 months	11,904 €
Looking for a training place	1,091 €	9 months	9,819 €
Opportunity Card	1,091 €	12 months	13,092 €
An intensive German course on its own	1,091 €	per month of stay	1,091 € a month

The training figures have applied since 1 September 2025, and the study figure of 11,904 euros a year is the 2026 amount.

Two things in that table catch people out.

The two in-company training routes have a gross and a net figure because your training allowance is counted first. The allowance can itself be the proof, and a blocked account or a sponsor only has to cover what the allowance does not reach. If your contract pays enough, you may need no blocked account at all. Work out the gap before you transfer a full year.

Searching costs more than doing. Looking for a university place is 1,091 euros a month while studying is 992. That is not an error. The next section explains it.

The blocked account amount planner on this site does the multiplication for any of these routes and prints the conditions attached to it, along with the official page to check the figure against. It runs in your browser and saves nothing.

Where the figures come from, and why they move

The Residence Act does more than define a secure livelihood. For study and training permits it makes the amount concrete: your monthly means have to match the monthly need that German students are funded for under the Federal Training Assistance Act, known as BAföG.

That need is built from four amounts: a base need of 475 euros for higher education, 380 euros for housing when you do not live with your parents, and contributions of 102 euros towards statutory health insurance and 35 euros towards long-term care insurance. They add up to 992. That addition is our reading of the law rather than an official derivation, but it shows you exactly which lever moves the number: when the German parliament raises student support, the amount an international student has to show goes up with it.

The higher figure comes from the same place. For a permit to search for a study place or a training place, and for a German course that is not preparing you for a degree, the law asks for the same means plus a surcharge of 10 percent. Add ten percent to 992 and you get 1,091. You pay more to look for something than to do it, because the law assumes a searcher has no institution behind them.

The Opportunity Card is not named in either rule, so its 1,091 euros is an administrative figure that happens to match rather than one the statute sets. What the Opportunity Card costs traces that in full, along with every fee in the process.

Finally, the law says who republishes the amounts. The Federal Ministry of the Interior announces them for each calendar year in the Federal Gazette by 31 August of the year before. That is why the figure carries a year, why guides go stale quietly, and why the number that counts is the one on your mission’s page on the day you apply.

How the account works

You choose the provider. Blocked accounts are offered in Germany and in many other countries on varying conditions, and the Federal Foreign Office leaves the choice to you after your own research. It deleted its list of providers in mid-2022, makes no recommendation, accepts no liability if a provider fails to pay out, and has never had a business relationship with any of them. Banking fees are payable on top of the blocked amount and do not count towards it.

The account is normally opened for a year, unless your planned stay is shorter. You name a beneficiary, which is the mission where you applied until the visa is granted or used, and the foreigners authority once you are in Germany. Neither can take your money.

What you upload with your application is not a bank statement but a blocking confirmation. For a student visa in India, that confirmation has to state in writing that no more than 992 euros a month can be withdrawn. That wording is the point of the document, so check what your own mission expects it to say before you pay for one.

Missions add requirements of their own, and they are worth finding out about early. The German Embassy in Islamabad, for example, wants the provider to give the authorities a login code or a contact so the account can be verified. It also requires your signature on the account-opening documents to be attested at the Embassy, the Consulate General in Karachi or the Honorary Consul in Lahore, for a 25 euro fee paid at the counter, and in particular cases it may ask for a blocked amount covering up to two years. Those are one mission’s rules. Yours may differ, which is exactly why you should read yours.

Health insurance sits beside all of this rather than inside it. It is part of the legal definition of a secure livelihood, but missions ask for it as a separate certificate covering your stay from your arrival date. It does not come out of the blocked amount and it does not reduce it.

Closing it again

Lifting the block needs the beneficiary’s agreement. There are two ordinary ways that happens.

If your visa application is refused, the refusal notice is enough on its own. Otherwise your mission can issue a consular certificate that lifts the block. It does so in four situations: you never applied for a visa and so did not travel; you applied and withdrew; you were granted a visa and did not use it; or you entered and left the Schengen area before the foreigners authority issued your residence permit. Once you are living in Germany, the foreigners authority handles it instead.

You may not need one at all

A blocked account is one accepted proof. The official pages list others, and they can be combined with an account that covers whatever they do not.

A declaration of commitment (Verpflichtungserklärung) is given by someone living in Germany who takes on financial responsibility for you. They apply in person at their own foreigners authority and have to prove sufficient means, for example with payslips and bank statements covering at least six months. It replaces the account entirely.

A scholarship from German or EU public funds is accepted. Missions are specific about which awarding bodies count. In Pakistan, for instance, a scholarship from a Pakistani university is not enough while an HEC award is.

An education loan is accepted as supporting evidence for study, and applicants in India who have one are asked to upload proof of it.

Money you will earn on the route itself counts where the route allows it. That is the training allowance on the two in-company training routes, and a part-time contract of up to 20 hours a week on the Opportunity Card and the training search. If you are on the Opportunity Card, the evidence checklist sets out what each of these three proof routes needs and how long each takes to arrange.

What no page can promise you

Not your bank’s fees, not your exchange rate, not the service fee a provider charges your mission, and not next year’s figure. Those belong to a bank, a currency market, a service provider and an annual review.

Not the decision either. Submitting the listed documents does not guarantee a visa, as the Indian missions say plainly, and a mission may ask for further documents or have certificates verified, at extra cost. Showing the money is one condition among several.

And not a provider. No official source ranks them, so any ranking you meet elsewhere is somebody’s own judgement, and it may be a paid placement. The three things worth comparing are whether the confirmation states the monthly limit in the form your mission wants, whether your mission can verify the account, and what the total fees come to.

Your next step

Work out your own figure before you talk to any bank. Open the blocked account amount planner, choose your route and the months your visa has to cover, and it multiplies the current published figure and lists the conditions that route attaches.

Then check that number against the source that binds you. Find your mission through the Consulate Finder and read its page for your visa type, because that is the figure your application will be measured against.

If your route is not settled yet, settle it first, since it decides the amount. Opportunity Card requirements and documents covers the job-search route, and Ausbildung requirements for international applicants covers the training route. If German is the condition you still have to meet, which B1 exam to take is free here and written for people sitting the exam abroad.