Blocked-account amount planner

Every published monthly minimum, with its source

These are the figures the planner multiplies, each with the official page it comes from in the last column. Checked 2026-09-07. Two of them, the in-company training routes, are published as a gross and a net figure because a training allowance is counted first.

The "at that length" column is the monthly figure multiplied by the longest period that visa is normally issued for. It is arithmetic, not a published total, and your own visa may be shorter.

Where the figures come from

Under the Residence Act (Aufenthaltsgesetz) a livelihood is secure when you can cover your costs, adequate health insurance included, without public funds. For study and training permits the same rule makes that concrete: your monthly means have to match the monthly need set by the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG), the law that funds German students. Those four amounts add up like this.

That addition is our own reading of those four rates, offered so you can see why the number moves. The authority for €992 is the published administrative figure, not our sum.

The Residence Act explains the higher figure too. 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, it requires the same means plus a surcharge of 10 percent.€992 plus ten percent is where €1,091 comes from. The Opportunity Card is not named in either rule, so its €1,091 is an administrative figure that happens to match rather than one the law sets.

The Act also settles 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 every figure here carries a check date, and why the planner ends by sending you to your own mission's page rather than asking you to trust this one.

What a blocked account has to contain

The same list the planner prints, in full. Rows marked as one mission's practice come from a single embassy's page: they are real requirements for applicants there and may not apply to you, which is exactly why your own mission's page is the one that counts.

Enough in the account for the whole period you apply for

The figure is a monthly minimum, so the balance the mission expects is that figure multiplied by the months your visa is meant to cover. Bank charges are payable on top of the blocked amount and do not count towards it.

Federal Foreign Office, blocked accountHow a blocked account works

A blocking confirmation that names the monthly withdrawal limit

The confirmation is the document you upload, not a bank statement. The German Missions in India ask for one that states in writing that no more than the monthly figure can be withdrawn each month. Check the exact wording your own mission asks for before you pay anything.

German Missions in India, study document listOne mission's document list

The right beneficiary named on the account

That is the mission where you applied, until the visa is granted or used, and the foreigners authority after you arrive. The beneficiary cannot withdraw your money; naming one is what makes the block real.

Federal Foreign Office, blocked account

A way for the mission to check the account

The German Embassy in Islamabad asks that the provider give the authorities a login code, or a contact who can confirm the account. A confirmation the mission cannot verify is not proof. Other missions word this differently, so read yours.

One mission's practice · German Embassy Islamabad, how to finance your stayOne mission's verification rule

Your signature attested, where your mission requires it

Applicants in Pakistan have to have the signature on the account-opening documents attested at the Embassy in Islamabad, the Consulate General in Karachi or the Honorary Consul in Lahore, and pay €25 for it at the counter. This is one mission's rule, not a general one, and it is the kind of step that adds a week if you find out late.

One mission's practice · German Embassy Islamabad, how to finance your stay

Your training allowance counted first

On an in-company route the allowance in your contract is the primary proof of your livelihood. A blocked account or a declaration of commitment only has to cover what the allowance does not reach, so work out the gap before you transfer the full amount.

Consular Services Portal, vocational trainingThe portal's training figures

Proof of health insurance, as its own document

Insurance is part of what a secure livelihood means in law, but it is a separate certificate covering your stay from the date you arrive. It is not paid out of the blocked account and does not reduce what the account has to hold.

German Missions in India; Consular Services Portal

A plan for closing the account

Lifting the block needs the beneficiary's agreement. A refusal notice is enough on its own. If you never applied, withdrew your application, did not use the visa, or left the Schengen area before getting a residence permit, the mission can issue a consular certificate that lifts it.

Federal Foreign Office, blocked account

Ways to prove the money without an account

A blocked account is one accepted proof, not the only one. These are the alternatives the official pages list, and they can be combined with an account that covers whatever they do not.

A declaration of commitment (Verpflichtungserklärung)

Someone living in Germany 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 costs them time and a fee, and it removes the blocked account entirely.

Consular Services Portal; German Embassy Islamabad

A German or EU scholarship

Proof of a scholarship from German or EU public funds is accepted in place of the account. Missions are specific about which awarding bodies count: the Embassy in Islamabad says a scholarship from a Pakistani university is not enough and only an HEC award is accepted.

Consular Services Portal, study; German Embassy Islamabad

An education loan

The German Missions in India ask applicants who have taken out an education loan to upload proof of it alongside the other financing evidence.

German Missions in India, study document list

Money you will earn on the route itself

A training allowance, or a part-time contract of up to 20 hours a week on the Opportunity Card and the training search, counts towards the figure. Where it does not reach the monthly minimum, the account covers the difference rather than the whole amount.

Consular Services Portal, training and Opportunity Card

What this planner will not tell you

It will not name a provider. The Federal Foreign Office deleted its own list of blocked-account providers in mid-2022, says it makes no recommendation and accepts no liability for a provider's failed payment, and states it has never had a business relationship with any of them. This site takes the same position, and carries no affiliate link to any of them.

It will not tell you whether your application will succeed. Showing the money is one condition among several, and the mission decides. It will not quote your bank's fees, your exchange rate or your insurance premium, because no official source publishes those. And it cannot tell you next year's figure: the amounts are reviewed annually, so check the live one before you transfer anything.