A paid service year in Germany, from Nigeria

This guide is for a Nigerian, with or without a degree, who wants to spend a year in Germany as a volunteer in a care home, a hospital, a school, a kindergarten or a home for people with disabilities, with a room, food or food money and monthly pocket money from her host, and who has never done any of this before. It takes you from your first German class in Nigeria to your first month at your host in Germany in nine stages: get your German certificate, choose your hosts and write to them, get the host's yes and your place on the consulate's waiting list, get your papers ready, attend your visa appointment, travel, settle in during your first month, do the year, and decide what follows it. Each stage says what you have just done, what you do now, where, what you need, what it costs, how long it takes and how you know you are done. Start with "Where it stands today", then find your row in "From today". Then read Part 1 once from top to bottom, and come back to the stage you are on. Every fee, date and rule comes from the official page that sets it, or from the host's own page where the host sets it. The guide's date is 12 October 2026: every "open", "closed" and "today" in it is counted on that day. Where a line says "volunteers who did it say", it is what people who made this journey report from their own applications, not a rule.

Where it stands today

This route has no single window. The German government's own page for the volunteer scheme says there is no central office to apply to and no deadline for everyone: "Es gibt keine zentrale Bewerbungsstelle oder einheitlich festgelegte Bewerbungsfristen". You apply to each host yourself, at any time of the year. Your host is the organisation that takes you on for the year. Each host sets its own start months and how early you must apply. Two things decide when you really start: when your host takes new volunteers, and the waiting list for visa appointments at the German consulate in Lagos (the Consulate General).

On 12 October 2026, the guide's date:

• Most hosts that take applicants from outside Germany are open today, all year round. Each sets how early you must apply (the table below).
• Diakonie Baden (a Protestant church volunteer service) is closed today: it is not taking applications at the moment ("Aktuell nehmen wir leider keine Bewerbungen an"). Applications open again on 1 December 2026, in 50 days, and close on 31 January 2027, for a start on 1 September 2027.
• The Internationaler Bund (a large German charity that places volunteers) has a team in Nürnberg that takes no more applications for 1 April 2027. Its next starts are 1 September 2027 and 1 October 2027.
• The consulate's waiting list for volunteers: its booking page says the wait from signing up to your appointment is about 3 months ("volunteer year: approx. 3 month").

These are the hosts whose own pages say they take applicants who live outside Germany, counted on 12 October 2026. Stage 2 says what each gives and asks.

Where the consulate's waiting list stands today. The German consulate in Lagos takes the volunteer visa on paper, from its own waiting list. It does not use the online portal it uses for study and family visas. Its booking page names the two volunteer schemes: the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ) and the government's volunteer scheme for any age (the BFD). The category for you is "Registration for a visa for au pair stays, voluntary service (e.g., FSJ, BFD), internships, or re-entry", and it gives the wait for a volunteer year as about 3 months ("approx. 3 month"). You join this list only once you know your host and your start date: the sign-up form asks for the "name of organisation from voluntary service" and the "beginning of contract". About four weeks before your appointment, the consulate emails you its exact date.

When you can really start. Count it from the day you send your applications, by the German you hold. German is measured in levels. A1 is the lowest, then A2, B1, B2 and C1. Germany's immigration law (the Residence Act) calls A1 simple German, A2 sufficient German, B1 adequate German and B2 good German. Each exam gives a certificate for one level.

• With a B1 certificate under a year old in your hand today. You apply this month. Hosts answer in days to weeks: "You'll usually receive a response within a few days" (the Protestant volunteer services' portal). Diakonie Baden takes several weeks to sort its applications ("dauert mehrere Wochen"). The Internationaler Bund takes 3 to 6 months. The day a host says yes and names your start, you join the consulate's waiting list, and your appointment comes about 3 months later. While you wait, your host gets your agreement (the contract for your year) approved in Germany. At Freiwilligendienste DRS that approval takes at least 6 weeks ("Die Genehmigung der Vereinbarung dauert mindestens 6 Wochen"). After your appointment, hosts say the visa takes "two to three months" (Freunde der Erziehungskunst) or "zwei bis drei Monate" (EOS). That is at least six months from today, so your earliest start is about April 2027. But the hosts' own calendars put it in September 2027: "Most volunteer programs begin in the summer (August/September)." Plan for 1 September 2027.
• With A2 today. Apply this month to the hosts that take A2 (From today, below). Plan for 1 September 2027 if a host says yes by early January 2027. If not, plan for February or March 2028.
• With no German today. Most hosts will not read your application until you have your first certificate. Diakonie Bayern will read it without one. Count your start from the day your certificate comes, the same as the two lines above count from today.

What has changed since last year.

• When you register. A volunteer who arrived in October 2025 had signed up for an appointment before she had any host. She was called with none, and "had to cancel". The form today asks for your host's name and your start date, and "Appointment bookings with wrong or incorrect information will be cancelled." Register the day your host says yes (Stage 3).
• The page. Videos made in 2025 still link the consulate's old page for volunteers, ending 2691106. That page is dead. The live page is Voluntary Service, opens in a new tab.
• The certificate. Older posts say only the Goethe-Institut's certificate counts (it is Germany's own language school, in Lagos). Today Germany's embassy and consulates in Nigeria (the missions) take "certificates from the Goethe-Institut or Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch (ÖSD)" for an exam sat in Nigeria. ÖSD is the Austrian German exam.
• A refusal. A visa question-and-answer sheet of 2017, from a group of hosts, tells you to send the embassy a written complaint after a refusal. That is over: "Since 1st July 2025, it is no longer possible to appeal against visa application rejections to the diplomatic mission abroad" (Stage 5).
• The money figures. An older host handout (dated 14 December 2023) prints 812 euros as the money a volunteer must have, 360 euros as the value of a free room, and 453 euros of monthly allowance (as of 2024). Today the visa officers' rulebook from Germany's foreign ministry (the visa handbook) asks 855 euros a month for agreements signed from 1 January 2025 (812 only for agreements signed before). It gives no set value for a free room. And the most a host may pay you as your monthly allowance (the pocket money, Taschengeld) is 676 euros (January 2026).
• The fee. The consulate's fee page for Nigeria charges 75 euros for a long-stay visa (the national visa), and it lists no free visa for volunteers (Stage 5).

From today: what you can start and finish

Find your row by the German you hold today. Your German decides how soon a host will take you. Nothing else on this route has a deadline for everyone.

27 or over on your first day: leave out the Internationaler Bund's page for applicants from abroad, its Nürnberg team, and Diakonie Baden. Write to the Internationaler Bund's Stuttgart team for its any-age scheme, and to Diakonie Württemberg, Freiwilligendienste DRS (its scheme for 27 and over, "BFD 27+"), Bistum Limburg, Diakonie Bayern, Freunde der Erziehungskunst and EOS.

By the month you want to start.

If a host turns you down, you lose nothing at the other hosts: write to the next host the same week (Stage 2).

Part 1. Before you start

What this route is

A voluntary service year is a year of full-time helping work at a not-for-profit place in Germany. This guide walks the German government's volunteer scheme for any age (the BFD, in full the Bundesfreiwilligendienst). The government's page describes it as voluntary work "in sozialen, kulturellen, ökologischen oder anderen gemeinwohlorientierten Einrichtungen in Deutschland" (in social, cultural, environmental or other public-good places in Germany), such as kindergartens, schools, care homes and ambulance services ("Kindergärten, Schulen, Pflegeeinrichtungen, Rettungsdienste"). The volunteers mostly do practical helping work ("leisten überwiegend praktische Hilfstätigkeiten"). Germany's foreign ministry (the Federal Foreign Office) adds that a volunteer may do only practical helping tasks, with a trained person guiding her ("explizit nur praktische Hilfstätigkeiten unter fachkundiger Anleitung umfassen"). It also says these schemes are not meant to fill Germany's shortage of care staff.

Who pays what.

• Your host pays you a monthly allowance, not a wage. The allowance is called pocket money (Taschengeld). The government's page: "Der Bundesfreiwilligendienst ist als freiwilliges Engagement ein unentgeltlicher Dienst. Freiwillige bekommen ein Taschengeld von maximal 676 € monatlich (Stand Januar 2026)". That means the service is unpaid, and your allowance is at most 676 euros a month (about ₦1 million), the amount you agree with your host. The host may add a room, food, work clothes and help with transport, as money or as the thing itself. The hosts in this guide pay between about 200 and 568 euros a month, and most give a free room (Stage 2).
• Your host pays your insurance. You join Germany's public insurance for your pension, accidents, health, long-term care and loss of work (the statutory insurance). Your host pays all of it: "Die gesamten Beiträge ... werden von der Einsatzstelle gezahlt" (the host pays all the payments for it).
• Your host pays your seminars. These are the training weeks every volunteer attends. The seminars, your travel to them, and your room and food there cost you nothing: "Die Teilnahme an den Seminaren, die Hin- und Rückfahrten sowie Unterkunft und Verpflegung sind für die Freiwilligen kostenfrei".
• You pay your flight, your visa and your German. "You'll generally have to pay for your own travel expenses and visa fees. Language courses are not usually part of a volunteer program." The visa is 75 euros (about ₦112,275).

How long. Usually twelve months in one go, at least six, at most 18 (24 only with a special learning plan applied for before you start): "Der Bundesfreiwilligendienst wird in der Regel für eine Dauer von zwölf zusammenhängenden Monaten geleistet. Der Dienst dauert mindestens sechs Monate und höchstens 18 Monate".

What it is not. The Protestant volunteer services' portal says it plainly: "Not an automatic right to stay in Germany after the program ends; Not a regular job with a full salary; Not a language course ...; Not vocational training, but good preparation for it". The visa officers' rulebook (the visa handbook): a volunteer year does not by itself give you a permanent stay ("Die Teilnahme an einem Freiwilligendienst begründet keinen Daueraufenthalt"). What it can lead to, by the law's own words, is in Stage 9.

Who you will deal with

The government's volunteer scheme for any age (the BFD, Bundesfreiwilligendienst; in English the Federal Volunteer Service) is the scheme this guide walks. It has no upper age limit. Your agreement for it is signed by the federal office below.

The federal office in Cologne that runs the any-age scheme (the BAFzA, Bundesamt für Familie und zivilgesellschaftliche Aufgaben, the Federal Office of Family Affairs and Civil Society Functions). It approves your agreement so that you can apply for the visa. It answers questions on 0221 3673-0 (from abroad, +49 221 3673-0), Monday to Friday 7:30 to 16:00 German time, or at service@bafza.bund.de. It does not answer many personal questions: "Eine Beratung durch das BAFzA hierzu ist nicht möglich" (it cannot advise on this).

The volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ, Freiwilliges Soziales Jahr, the Voluntary Social Year) is for people who finish it before their 27th birthday. Germany's states run it through approved organisations that place volunteers (the carriers, Träger). Your placing organisation, not the federal office, signs your agreement. It is this guide's second option: "If you are under 27: the volunteer year (FSJ)", below.

Your host. The care home, hospital or school where you work is your placement (Einsatzstelle). It must be approved for the any-age scheme, and it belongs to one of 22 umbrella bodies (central offices, Zentralstellen). The organisation you write to is often a placing organisation or umbrella body that runs many placements, such as Diakonie Württemberg or EOS. In this guide "your host" means both: the organisation that takes your application and the placement that takes you.

The German consulate in Lagos (the Consulate General) decides your visa. "As a rule, the German Consulate General in Lagos is responsible for all visa applications", and no Abuja exception covers a volunteer, so you apply in Lagos wherever you live in Nigeria. It is at 15, Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos. Its only contact email is info@lago.auswaertiges-amt.de. Its waiting list for this visa runs on the German foreign ministry's online booking system (RK-Termin).

The long-stay visa for Germany (the national visa, or D visa) is the visa you travel on. In Germany, a residence permit for voluntary service (Aufenthaltserlaubnis) can follow it: the card that lets you stay on for your year. The immigration office of your town issues it (the foreigners office, Ausländerbehörde).

Registering your address at the town hall (the Anmeldung) is done at your town's registration office (the Einwohnermeldeamt or Bürgerbüro), within two weeks of moving into your room.

The two German exam bodies. The Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Germany's language school in Lagos, and ÖSD (Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch, the Austrian German exam, sat in Lagos at a licensed centre) are the only two whose German exams Germany's embassy and consulate in Nigeria (the missions) accept for an exam sat in Nigeria.

The visa officers' rulebook (the visa handbook, Visumhandbuch) is the German foreign ministry's own instruction to its visa staff. Its chapter on volunteers (Stand 01/2025, in the handbook of 15 October 2026) says how the consulate checks your purpose, your money and your German. This guide quotes it wherever it decides something for you.

Nobody can sell you a placement

Every host in this guide and the consulate say the same thing in their own words.

• The Protestant volunteer services' portal: "Arranging a volunteer placement costs nothing! Never pay anyone in your home country who promises you a volunteer placement in Germany! Our organizations do not work with agencies or language schools abroad. You must always apply directly and in person to our partner organizations."
• Diakonie Württemberg: applying and placement are free, you pay no fees, and you must never pay money to third parties who promise you a place: "Die Bewerbung und Vermittlung sind kostenlos. Du musst keine Gebühren bezahlen. ... Zahle niemals Geld an Dritte, die dir einen Freiwilligendienst-Platz versprechen!"
• Diakonie Baden, Freiwilligendienste DRS, Caritas in Freiburg and Bistum Limburg each say you need no placement agency and that applying is free.
• The consulate: "Application forms, checklists and appointments are provided free of charge." "The Consulate General does not offer appointments through agents, advisors or any other service provider. Do not waste your money and time with such intermediaries." "Official German government email addresses end in '.de' and any visa-related correspondence coming from an address that does not end with '.de' should be considered suspect."

On this route, money flows to the host, never from you. The German government pays the host towards your monthly allowance and your insurance: up to 300 euros a month for a volunteer under 25, and up to 400 euros from 25. A host that runs a programme for volunteers from abroad can claim up to 100 euros a month more to support you. Nobody in Nigeria has anything to sell you. Volunteers who did it, and the advisers who follow the route, warn about people who sell "placements" and "contracts" for this route. If anyone asks you for money for a place, a contract or an appointment, stop and write to the host yourself, at the address on its own page.

Check that you can start

Three sets of rules decide whether you can start: the scheme's, your host's, and the consulate's for the visa. Where they differ, the strictest one is the one you follow, and that is the answer for your case.

• You have your WAEC result and no degree. You can start. The scheme takes "Anyone who has completed their compulsory full-time schooling ... Age, gender, nationality and your type of school-leaving qualification do not play a role". The visa handbook says the any-age scheme and the under-27 year are open whatever your school certificate ("unabhängig von deren Bildungsabschluss"). The visa file asks for your school results in order, from primary school to WAEC (Stage 4). Your SSCE result, with your primary and secondary school papers, is what the consulate's list asks: bring those. Start Stage 1 today.
• You have no German. You can start, at Stage 1. The language page of the embassy and consulate sets "Voluntary service A1" for the visa. The visa handbook says the law does not require German if your host writes that you can work without it. But the embassy and consulate's rule is the stricter one, and it is the one the consulate in Lagos prints: have A1. ("Your money", below, says which certificate you take to the consulate.) Most hosts ask more: B1 at Diakonie Württemberg, EOS, Diakonie Baden, the Internationaler Bund's Nürnberg team and Bistum Trier; A2 at Freunde der Erziehungskunst, the Internationaler Bund's other teams and Bistum Limburg. Diakonie Württemberg: without basic German you cannot take part ("Ohne Grundkenntnisse in Deutsch ist eine Teilnahme nicht möglich").
• You have a degree and A2. You can start at Stage 2 with the hosts that take A2, and at every host once you have B1. Your degree does not open anything extra on this route. It matters at the visa: the consulate checks that the year fits your past and your plans (Stage 5). What a year opens afterwards for study or work is in Stage 9 and in "If you are also looking at an Ausbildung or a German master's", below.
• You are 27 or over. You can start, on the any-age scheme. There is no upper age limit ("Eine Altersgrenze nach oben gibt es nicht"). The under-27 year is closed to you: it must end before your 27th birthday. There are fewer places: "there are far fewer spots available for incoming volunteers aged 27 and older" (the Protestant volunteer services' portal). The hosts in this guide that take you at 27 and over: Diakonie Württemberg (no maximum; for over-27s it pays 400 euros of monthly allowance and 100 euros of food money), Freiwilligendienste DRS (its scheme for 27 and over, "BFD 27+"), Bistum Limburg (568 euros over 27), Diakonie Bayern (over 27 too, on the any-age scheme: "im BFD auch über 27 Jahre"), Freunde der Erziehungskunst and EOS (18 and over, with no maximum printed), and the Internationaler Bund's Stuttgart team (its any-age scheme has no age limit: "der Bundesfreiwilligendienst (BFD) hat keine Altersbeschränkung"). Not open to you: the Internationaler Bund's page for applicants from abroad (18 to 26), its Nürnberg team (18 to 26) and Diakonie Baden (18 to 25). ijgd, a German youth volunteer organisation, says that as a rule you must be 18 to 30 ("In der Regel musst du zwischen 18 und 30 Jahre alt sein"), so at 30 or over ask it first. The Internationaler Bund's Freiburg team prints no age line of its own, and Bistum Trier and Caritas in Freiburg print only a minimum of 18: ask each whether it takes you at 27 or over. On the any-age scheme your age counts on the day your service starts. On the under-27 year it counts on the last day (it must end before your 27th birthday). Diakonie Baden counts it on the day you apply. Over 27, your seminars are at least one day a month instead of 25 days a year (Stage 8).

• You are married, or you have children. Plan the year alone. Here is the law, read for your case. A volunteer's permit counts as a permit for work (employment). Your husband or wife can join you only if you were already married when your permit was issued, and your stay is expected to last over one year ("voraussichtlich über ein Jahr betragen wird"). A twelve-month service is not over one year; an 18-month one is. On a 12-month service your spouse has no right to join you. The consulate may still allow it if it chooses, and no page says when it does. Plan the 12 months alone. Your spouse needs German at A1, because your permit is not on the list of permits that excuse a spouse from A1. The law also asks for a home big enough for your family, and money that keeps all of you without government benefits (public funds), health insurance included. And the immigration office of your town must agree.

  • What the free room means for a family. The room your host gives is for you alone, and a volunteer's room cannot count as that family home. So choose one of two. Serve alone for 12 months on the route this guide walks, with your family at home in Nigeria. Or take an 18-month service and, before your spouse applies, rent a flat big enough for both of you, and show money for both on top of your host's monthly allowance. If you leave the free room, your agreement must itself pay at least 855 euros a month (Stage 3, Step 2: 302 euros of allowance is enough only with a free room and food). The handbook says a volunteer whose agreement pays less, and who makes up the rest from her own money, is likely to be refused. One host in this guide pays enough without a room: Bistum Limburg, 568 euros plus 340 euros, 908 euros a month from 27 (about ₦1.36 million), for up to 18 months. Your spouse's money is still on top of that, and no page states it. Of the two, the first is the one this guide walks. No page says whether a host's room can count as your family's home, or what money the immigration office asks for a volunteer's spouse. Before you sign, ask your host's adviser for volunteers from abroad (its incoming adviser) to put both questions to the immigration office in your placement's town.
  • The hosts that print 18 months. Freunde der Erziehungskunst ("12 to 18 months") and Bistum Limburg (6 to 12 months, and up to 18: "Verlängerung bis 18 Monate möglich") print more than 12 months and take you at 27 or over. Diakonie Württemberg, EOS, Diakonie Baden and the Internationaler Bund's Nürnberg team print twelve. Ask every host whether you can serve 18 months (Stage 2).
  • Your marriage certificate. The consulate asks one "issued by the official registrar". If your marriage was only traditional or religious, the consulate verifies it, for ₦370,000 (South, which includes Port Harcourt) or ₦420,000 (North), in 6 to 8 months: count those months before your spouse's appointment. Its spouse page: "It is advisable to complete the civil marriage registration before submitting your application. Otherwise, a document verification will be required."
  • Your children. Your child can join you if your spouse comes too and both of you hold permits. If your spouse stays in Nigeria, your child joins you only with her or his consent. A child of 16 or 17 who does not move with you needs German at C1. A family member's permit runs no longer than yours.
  • No embassy or host page speaks of a volunteer's spouse in particular. The rules above are from Germany's immigration law (the Residence Act), which governs every permit like yours. Read "Your family" in Part 7 before you write to any host.
• You have lived in Germany before. If you lived there on a paper that only paused your removal (a Duldung, a toleration), or on a paper you held while an asylum claim was decided (an Aufenthaltsgestattung), the immigration office in Germany must agree to your visa, which adds time (Stage 5). The Internationaler Bund's Nürnberg team takes no one who has spent more than six months in Germany in the last five years, and a host can claim its extra support money for you only on the same rule.
• You are under 18. Not on this route. "Volunteers from abroad must be of legal age (at least 18 years old)", and every host in this guide asks 18 except Diakonie Bayern (from 16).

• Your money. On this route you need no German bank account filled in advance with your living money (a blocked account, Sperrkonto) if your host gives you a free room and your food (Stage 3). What you pay before you go is your German, your passport, the visa and your flight. If you have ₦200,000 today: learn on the free course of Deutsche Welle, Germany's public broadcaster (Stage 1), and pay for no exam until you are ready for A2 or B1. No host in this guide reads an A1 certificate, and an A1 sat now will be more than a year old on your visa day. Your first paid exam is B1 (₦200,000 at ÖSD), or A2 (₦190,000) if you aim for the A2 hosts first. Before your visa you also need your passport (₦100,000, Stage 4) and the visa (about ₦112,275, Stage 5): ₦412,275 from B1, and ₦602,275 if you sit A2 first (Part 7). From no German, your visa fee comes about a year and a half after you start (a B1 and a host's yes first). Your monthly allowance starts once you are at your host.

  • The visa's A1. The certificate you take to the consulate is the newest one you hold, under a year old on the day. When your host says yes, ask its adviser for volunteers from abroad, in writing, whether the consulate takes your B1 for its A1 rule. If it says no, sit A1 (₦160,000) in the twelve months before your appointment.

If your case is on this list, start Stage 1 today, and find your row in "From today" at the top of this guide.

The route this guide walks: the any-age scheme (BFD), at a host that gives you a free room and your food, applied for from Nigeria, for 1 September 2027

Take the any-age scheme (the BFD), at a host that gives you a free room and your food (or money for your food), applied for directly from Nigeria, and aim for a start on 1 September 2027. Here is why.

The any-age scheme is open to you at any age. There is no upper age limit ("Eine Altersgrenze nach oben gibt es nicht"), and no degree is asked. The under-27 year (the FSJ) closes on your 27th birthday. Many hosts decide which of the two you do by your age. Diakonie Württemberg: before your 27th birthday, you do one or the other ("Du machst ein FSJ oder einen BFD"). Each stage says where the under-27 year differs.

A free room and food are what make the visa work. The visa handbook says that if your agreement has the host cover your room and food in full, a monthly allowance of 302 euros is enough: "Werden vom Träger bzw. der Einsatzstelle laut Vereinbarung die Kosten für Unterkunft und Verpflegung vollumfänglich übernommen, genügt ein monatliches Taschengeld von 302,- Euro zur Sicherung des Lebensunterhalts". The consulate asks for a living-money account only "If the contract ... does not contain information on your accommodation and meals". An agreement that does not cover your keep is allowed, but it is likely to fail. The handbook says that where the agreement's own money and benefits do not cover your keep in full, the application is likely in practice to fail, because the consulate will not believe it ("bei denen der Lebensunterhalt nicht voll aus den in der Vereinbarung festgeschriebenen Leistungen bestritten werden kann", "dürften in der Praxis jedoch vielfach an fehlender Plausibilität scheitern"). Diakonie Württemberg: you can take part only if the placement gives you a free room ("Du kannst nur teilnehmen, wenn die Einsatzstelle dir eine kostenlose Unterkunft sichert").

September is when most of the year begins. "Most volunteer programs begin in the summer (August/September)." Count from today how early hosts ask you to apply, and add the consulate's wait: September 2027 is the first start most hosts can give you.

Applying direct costs nothing. Every host in this guide takes your application itself, free (Nobody can sell you a placement, above).

What this route asks of you.

• German to your host's level, which at most hosts is B1, and a certificate under a year old on your visa day (Stage 1).
• A host's yes and a signed agreement before the visa (Stage 3), and about six months or more from the yes to your start.
• Your own flight and the 75-euro visa fee.
• A year of full-time helping work, at least 35 hours a week, far from home (Stage 8).
• A visa that can be refused if the consulate does not believe the year is your real purpose (Stage 5).

If you are under 27: the volunteer year (FSJ)

If you will finish your year before your 27th birthday, your host may place you on the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ) instead. What differs:

• The age line. The service must end before your 27th birthday ("Das bedeutet, dass der Dienst vor dem 27. Geburtstag beendet sein muss"). If a twelve-month under-27 year would run past it, it counts only if at least six months were done by then. The any-age scheme can follow it, as long as the two together are no more than 18 months. The under-27 year counts your age at the end of the service; the any-age scheme counts it at the start.
• Who signs your agreement. "Your contract must be signed by you and the respective institution, as well as, where applicable, the placement department" (the consulate). The federal office (the BAFzA) does not sign, so there is no wait for its approval (Stage 3).
• The same money, insurance, seminars and visa. The most the under-27 year may pay you is also 676 euros a month. Your placing organisation and your host pay your insurance. You attend a first, a middle and a last seminar of at least five days each, 25 days in all. And your visa rests on the same law as the any-age scheme's.
• The hosts. Diakonie Baden takes only the under-27 year (18 to 25). Freiwilligendienste DRS takes the under-27 year, and from 27 its scheme for 27 and over ("BFD 27+"). Diakonie Württemberg and EOS take either.

What this guide does not walk

• weltwärts South-North. A volunteer programme of the German ministry for economic cooperation, run with the any-age scheme, which pays the volunteer's flight as well. It is not open from Nigeria today: "applications can only be submitted to the partner organisations in the respective country of origin", and its list of countries with sending organisations names no Nigeria.
• ICJA through ICYE Nigeria. ICJA is a German volunteer organisation, one of the five largest that take volunteers from abroad, as named by the German foreign ministry. It takes volunteers "only" through the ICYE organisation in the volunteer's own country, and receives them "every year in August-September". ICYE Nigeria is at 9 Gray Close, off Birrel Avenue, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos (+234 8028561218, icyen@icyenigeria.org), for young people aged 18 to 30. No page says whether ICYE Nigeria sends volunteers to Germany today, what it asks of you or what German it needs. Ask it those three things in one email. If it asks money for the placement itself, apply directly to the hosts in Stage 2, where applying is free.

If you are also looking at an Ausbildung or a German master's

An Ausbildung is Germany's paid training for a trade (paid vocational training; Rekoja's Paid-Training Pack, opens in a new tab walks it). A German master's is walked in Rekoja's guide A German public university master's: from your Nigerian degree to your first semester, opens in a new tab.

What you do once for all three.

• Your German certificate. The embassy and consulate take a Goethe or ÖSD certificate "not older than one year" for every long-stay visa, for an exam sat in Nigeria. The visa for training asks German "at level B1" as a rule. A master's taught in English asks no German. A B1 you sit for your hosts serves a training visa too, if it is still under a year old when you apply.
• Your papers. The consulate's lists for every long-stay visa ask the same birth certificate by year of birth, the same affidavits for names, your school results in order and a passport issued in the last 10 years, valid for at least 6 more months, with at least two free pages. Get them right once (Stage 4). Same as the German master's: the same degree certificate goes to the university, with your transcript. If study after the year is a possibility for you, request your transcript before you fly (the master's guide, its papers stage, gives the time and the cost).
• The consulate. The same German consulate in Lagos, the same free booking, the same warning that agents have no access.

What differs.

• The queue. The volunteer visa is a paper application on the consulate's own waiting list, "approx. 3 month" today. The study visa goes through the German foreign ministry's online portal, and the German master's guide reports the wait applicants describe there.
• The money. A master's asks 11,904 euros (about ₦17.8 million) in a German living-money account (a blocked account). The training visa asks "at least €959 net per month" (about ₦1.4 million), or a training allowance of at least €1,048 gross or €822 net a month. This route asks only what your host's agreement gives.

What a service year opens.

• A new permit inside Germany. While you hold a long-stay visa or a residence permit, the law lets you apply inside Germany for another permit (§ 39 of the Residence Ordinance, a rule under Germany's immigration law). Diakonie Bayern: after the under-27 year or the any-age scheme you can start study or an Ausbildung in Germany, but you must apply for a new visa or permit for it ("Nach dem FSJ/BFD kann man ein Studium oder eine Ausbildung in Deutschland beginnen. Man muss jedoch ein neues Visum/Aufenthaltstitel dafür beantragen").
• An Ausbildung. The training permit under section 16a of the Residence Act, with its own training contract, German and money (Stage 9). The hosts say the year is "good preparation" for training, and Diakonie Baden says plainly that the year does not promise you a training place afterwards.
• A master's. The study permit under section 16b needs an offer of a place from a university (an admission). A university can count your volunteer year as an internship. Ask your university whether it does ("ist bei der jeweiligen Hochschule ... zu erfragen"). The application windows for the winter semester close between 15 January and 15 July of the year it starts. A year that starts on 1 September 2027 ends in August 2028, so your master's starts in October 2028, and you apply during your service year (Stage 9).
• A job. Only on a permit of its own, which your degree, not the year, can open (Stage 9).
• At the visa, the order matters. The visa handbook warns that concrete plans for a job or training after the year ("Konkrete Pläne eines sich an den Freiwilligenaufenthalt anschließenden Arbeits- oder Ausbildungsverhältnisses") can show that the service is not your real purpose. Stage 5, "If you hope to stay on after the year", says what to write.

Part 2. The whole journey on one page

Stage 1. Your German and your certificate. Learn German and pass an exam at one of the two German exam bodies in Lagos (the Goethe-Institut or ÖSD), at the level your hosts ask, B1 at most. ÖSD in Lagos: A1 ₦160,000, A2 ₦190,000, B1 ₦200,000. Goethe in Lagos: A1 ₦195,000 (₦72,000 for the Goethe-Institut's own students).

Stage 2. Choose your hosts and write to them. Pick at least three hosts that give a free room, and send each your CV, your letter and your certificate, in German. Free. Replies in days to weeks; the Internationaler Bund takes 3 to 6 months.

Stage 3. The interview, the yes, and your place on the consulate's list. An online interview in German; the host's yes; your agreement (the contract for your year), approved in at least 6 weeks by the federal office that runs the government's volunteer scheme (the BAFzA); and, the day of the yes, your sign-up on the consulate's waiting list, about 3 months before your appointment. Free.

Stage 4. Your papers. Your passport (₦100,000 for 32 pages and 5 years; 42 days for a first passport), your birth certificate, your school results, your letter and your CV, sorted in the consulate's order. A police certificate only where your host asks.

Stage 5. Your visa appointment and the decision. Attend in Lagos with your file. 75 euros (about ₦112,275), paid in naira. Hosts say the decision takes two to three months.

Stage 6. Travel. Fly on your visa to arrive on your start date, with your agreement and your papers in your hand luggage. Your flight is your own.

Stage 7. Your first month. Register your address within two weeks, start your service, and apply for your residence permit (the card that lets you stay for the year) before your visa runs out: 100 euros (about ₦149,700) in Berlin, Munich and Mainz for a first card; 6 to 12 weeks.

Stage 8. The year. Full-time helping work, 25 days of training seminars, at least 20 working days' holiday, and your monthly allowance (the pocket money) each month.

Stage 9. What follows. Home, paid training for a trade (an Ausbildung) or a master's, each on its own permit.

The money. The fees this guide can print, before you fly: ₦200,000 for ÖSD's B1, ₦100,000 for your passport and 75 euros (about ₦112,275) for the visa: ₦412,275 in all, the same if you already hold A2. If you sit ÖSD's A2 first (₦190,000), it is ₦602,275. If the consulate will not take your B1 for its A1 rule and you sit ÖSD's A1 too (₦160,000), it is ₦572,275 from B1. With B1 already in your hand: ₦212,275. Your German course, your flight, your insurance for the days before your service, your courier envelope and your trips to Lagos come on top, and no page prints their price. In Germany your first residence permit is about 100 euros (₦149,700). Your host pays you from your first month: between about 200 and 568 euros a month of allowance at the hosts in this guide, with a free room at most of them. Part 7 has every figure.

The time. No official page states how long the whole route takes. From a B1 certificate in your hand to your first day at your host, count about eleven months for 1 September 2027: your applications this month, a yes in weeks, about 3 months on the consulate's waiting list, and two to three months for the decision. From no German, add the months to reach your hosts' level.

On the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ). The same nine stages, in the same order. At Stage 3 the organisation that places you (your carrier) and your host sign your agreement, with no approval from the federal office to wait for.

Part 3. Stage by stage

Stage 1. Your German and your certificate

Back to the short stages

You have decided to do the year. Now learn German and pass the exam at one of the two German exam bodies in Nigeria (the Goethe-Institut or ÖSD). Most hosts will not read an application without a certificate, and the visa needs A1. Diakonie Bayern says German is an advantage, not a must: with no German, write to it now, while you study (Stage 2).

What the visa asks. The language page of Germany's embassy and consulate in Nigeria (the missions): "Voluntary service A1". And: "If you take your language exam in Nigeria, we only accept certificates from the Goethe-Institut or Österreichisches Sprachdiplom Deutsch (ÖSD). The Embassy or Consulate itself does not carry out any language examinations or classifications." "We do not accept certificates that are older than one year." Where an exam is taken in separate parts (modules), "The language certificate is only complete if all four modules have been passed. The oldest individual module examination must not be older than one year."

What your hosts ask. More than the visa. B1 at Diakonie Württemberg ("Du brauchst Sprachniveau B1"), EOS ("mindestens Stufe B1"), Diakonie Baden, the Internationaler Bund's Nürnberg team and Bistum Trier ("mindestens Sprachniveau B1 mit Zertifikat als Nachweis"); B1 recommended at Freiwilligendienste DRS; A2 or better B1 at Freunde der Erziehungskunst; at least A2 at the Internationaler Bund's other teams and Bistum Limburg; A2 or B1 by placement at Caritas in Freiburg; an advantage, not a must, at Diakonie Bayern ("von Vorteil, aber keine Pflicht"). The Protestant volunteer services' portal: "We recommend a level of German roughly equivalent to A2 or B1." Aim for B1.

Step 1. Learn

Do. Start a German course this week, and study every day towards the level your hosts ask. The embassy and consulate: "How you prepare for the language exam, whether in a language school, on your own with a self-study book, with a private teacher or via online courses, is up to you."

Where. The embassy and consulate link Deutsche Welle's free German courses, opens in a new tab and the Goethe-Institut Nigeria, opens in a new tab, whose exam costs less for its own course students (Step 2). The Goethe-Institut does not print its course dates or fees: ask it for the next A1 course's dates and fee at language-lagos@goethe.de the week you decide, and ask any language school you choose whether its students sit the Goethe or the ÖSD exam. In Ibadan, ask the Klar-Institut (Step 2 gives its address) whether it teaches German and for what fee.

Time. No official page states how long it takes to reach a level. Speak it every day: volunteers who arrived with only English say the first weeks at work were the hardest part.

From volunteers who did it. After signing up late, the commonest mistake they name is aiming only for the visa's A1: "the minimum is A1. But ... a lot of people are applying with A1. So you need to step up. At least have like B1" (a Nigerian presenter, May 2026). Every volunteer who applied from abroad and says which level got them a place says B1.

Step 2. Sit the exam

Do. Register for the level your hosts ask (A2 or B1) at the first exam date you can reach once you are ready for it, pay, sit all four parts (listening, reading, writing, speaking), and collect your certificate.

Where, and what it costs. Two exams count for the visa. Sit only at one of these two.

ÖSD at Easyway, Ikeja, Lagos. ÖSD's licensed centre in Lagos is Easyway Language School, Unity Road, Ikeja (info@easywaylanguageschool.com). Its ÖSD exam page, opens in a new tab gives:

• Fees: A1 ₦160,000, A2 ₦190,000, B1 ₦200,000, B2 ₦210,000.
• Its last dates: 29 and 31 October 2026, at No. 1 Allen Avenue and No. 23 Unity Road, Ikeja; registration for them closed on 6 October 2026. The centre has printed no date after them: ask it for its next dates the week you start your course.
• Results: 2 to 4 weeks after the exam, or "As fast as 1 week" for an express fee of ₦192,500.
• How to register: on the ÖSD exam registration portal, with "A valid identity document (passport, identity card, etc.)". "Examinees pay the fee directly to the centre." "You can take each exam or module any number of times", and ÖSD recommends "a minimum of four weeks before retaking the exam". "You will only receive your exam results at the examination centre where you took the exam."

The same site sells German travel packages and job placement help. You need none of them: sit the exam only. ÖSD's finder also lists the Klar-Institut in Ibadan (3b Ade Adepoju Street, behind former D'Rovans, Ring Road), with "No exam offers available". There is no ÖSD centre in Abuja.

The Goethe-Institut Nigeria, Lagos Island. All its international exams "take place at Goethe-Institut Nigeria. 30, Catholic Mission Street Opp. Holy Cross Cathedral Lagos Island, Lagos". Its Start Deutsch 1 date table, opens in a new tab prints the A1 fee as ₦195,000 for external candidates and ₦72,000 for its own course students. Its exam terms:

• "Bank transfer is currently the only acceptable means of payment." "The full exam fee is payable on the day of registration." "Registrations take place on a first come, first served basis."
• Cancelling costs 50% from 6 to 10 working days before the exam and 80% from 1 to 5 working days before; "No refunds will be possible on or after the exam date."
• On the day: your "Original valid passport" ("Participants without their passport will be excluded"); "Late comers will be excluded from the exam."
• "All exam results will be available from 2 weeks after the oral exam."
• Its B1 exam's fee and dates are not on the A1 date table: ask for them at language-lagos@goethe.de when you ask for the A1 dates.
• No page shows a Goethe exam centre in Abuja. From Abuja, Ibadan or Port Harcourt you sit in Lagos.

The A1 exam, in the Goethe-Institut's rules (1 September 2025). A written exam of 65 minutes with no break (listening about 20, reading 25, writing 20) and a speaking exam of 15 minutes in a group of no more than four, with no time to prepare. You pass with at least 60 of the 100 points and every part completed; under 35 points in the written exam, you do not go on to the speaking. "The exam may only be retaken as a whole." Check any Goethe certificate at goethe.de/verify, opens in a new tab.

When to sit it. Your certificate must be under a year old on your visa appointment day. Count a year back from the month you expect your appointment. For a start on 1 September 2027 your appointment falls about April to June 2027, so a certificate sat from July 2026 onwards is safe; one sat earlier is safe only if your appointment falls less than a year after it. Check the date the consulate emails you, about four weeks ahead, and if it falls more than a year after your exam, sit again at once.

You are done when you hold a Goethe or ÖSD certificate with all four parts passed, at the level your hosts ask, and its date is less than a year before your expected appointment.

If it goes wrong.

• No seat. Seats fill first come, first served. A Nigerian with a visa appointment in November 2025 found online bookings for that month's exams closed and was told to go to the Goethe office in Lagos to ask in person. Register the day a date opens.
• A fail. Retake the whole exam at Goethe, or retake at ÖSD after about four weeks.
• Someone offers you a certificate. "For a real ÖSD certificate, you can only take the ÖSD exam in person." "The organised trade and the use of forged certificates are a criminal act and will lead to a police report." At the consulate, "any visa application submitted with forged documents ... will be immediately and automatically rejected", with "a Schengen-wide entry ban". In July 2026 a seller advertised Goethe and ÖSD certificates online, to be had "without needing in-person examinations". Never buy one.

If you are also looking at an Ausbildung or a German master's. The same certificate serves the visa for paid training for a trade (an Ausbildung), which asks B1 as a rule, if it is under a year old when you apply. A master's taught in English asks no German.

Next. Choose your hosts and write to them (Stage 2), as soon as you hold A2 for the hosts that take it, or B1 for the rest.

Stage 2. Choose your hosts and write to them

Back to the short stages

You hold your certificate. Now find the hosts that take applicants who live outside Germany and give a free room, and write to each of them.

How applying works. Your host places you on one of two schemes: the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ), or the government's volunteer scheme for any age (the BFD). You apply directly to an approved care home, hospital or school (a placement, Einsatzstelle): "Wer einen Bundesfreiwilligendienst machen möchte, wendet sich direkt an eine anerkannte Einsatzstelle und bewirbt sich dort". You can apply at any time, but some placements and some organisations that place volunteers (carriers, Träger) set their own deadlines: "Grundsätzlich ist es möglich, sich jederzeit um einen BFD zu bewerben. Allerdings haben einige Einsatzstellen oder Träger eigene Bewerbungsfristen". The demand is high: "The number of applications from abroad far exceeds the number of available positions. Demand is sometimes so high that it's not always possible to respond to every application. If you want to apply, it's best to do so about a year in advance."

Where to find hosts.

• The hosts below. Each says on its own page that it takes applicants living abroad.
• The government's search for placements (Platz-/Einsatzstellensuche, opens in a new tab) filters by earliest start, by age group ("unter 27 Jahre", "über 27 Jahre": under 27, over 27) and by a room available ("Unterkunft vorhanden"). It has no filter for applicants from abroad: write to a listed placement and ask.
• The Protestant volunteer services' map of hosts for applicants from abroad (Incoming, opens in a new tab, "Some organisations can offer volunteers from abroad placements that include accommodation") lists twelve: Aktion Sühnezeichen Friedensdienste, Diakoneo, Diakonie Baden, Diakonisches Werk Bayern, Diakonie Mitteldeutschland, Diakonisches Werk Schleswig-Holstein, Diakonisches Werk Württemberg, Freiwillige Soziale Dienste Nordbayern, Evangelische Freiwilligendienste Diakonie Hessen, netzwerk-m, Betheljahr and Diakonie RWL. Each has its own page for applicants from abroad, with its own terms.
• Care homes and hospitals. "Larger organizations in the nursing and care sectors often offer positions with housing for incoming volunteers."

The hosts, one by one.

Freunde der Erziehungskunst (Waldorf schools, homes and other social places). Who: "at least 18 years old", "not currently living in Germany", German "at least A2 or even better B1", and "an internship of at least two weeks in your home country ... in the same field in which you would like to work in Germany", with its certificate. A Nigerian applies to it directly: Nigeria is neither on its list of countries that must apply through a partner nor on the list it cannot take (Cameroon, Morocco and Tajikistan on its English page, with Uganda added on its German partner page). What you get: a monthly allowance, "pocket money of at least 200 Euro per month" (about ₦299,400); "you will either live in a room at your placement site or with a host family"; "meals (food and drinks) or financial support"; health, accident and liability insurance. Start "once in August/September and once in February/March", usually for 12 to 18 months, 38.5 to 40 hours a week, with 25 seminar days. Travel: "most volunteers need to cover their travel costs to Germany and back themselves", though some programmes fund travel. How: the online application form on For Internationals, opens in a new tab; incoming@freunde-waldorf.de, +49 721 20111-100.

Diakonie Württemberg (Protestant, in Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Reutlingen and Ravensburg). Who: B1; 18 or over, with no maximum ("mindestens 18 Jahre alt, ein Höchstalter gibt es nicht"); every paper complete and in German ("vollständig und auf Deutsch"); a placement must accept you. What you get: a free room from your placement; starting before your 27th birthday, 350 euros of monthly allowance and 125 euros of food money a month (about ₦523,950 and ₦187,125); starting after it, on its any-age scheme for over-27s, 400 euros and 100 euros (about ₦598,800 and ₦149,700); 30 days' holiday; health and liability insurance. You pay your flights there and back. Start: any month, for 12 months. How early: at least 10 to 12 months before, because embassy appointments are limited ("mindestens 10 bis 12 Monate vor dem gewünschten Starttermin. Warum so früh? Die Botschaftstermine sind begrenzt"). The room: apply only to placements that can give you a room ("Bitte bewirb dich nur bei Einsatzstellen, die dir einen Platz mit Unterkunft anbieten können"). Most rooms are in care homes for the elderly and in work with people with disabilities, more often in the countryside. It is harder to get a room ("Es ist schwieriger, eine Unterkunft zu bekommen") in Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Reutlingen and Tübingen. How, in four steps. First, you find a placement yourself on its list of places, opens in a new tab (filter "Unterkunft vor Ort", a room on site). Second, you email your complete file to the placement: people abroad cannot apply through its job board or online on its site ("Für Personen aus dem Ausland ist die Direktbewerbung über unsere Stellenbörse und eine Onlinebewerbung über diese Website nicht möglich"). Third, the placement interviews you by video. Fourth, if it takes you, it sends your file to Diakonie Württemberg, which holds an online advice talk with you about your agreement and the visa. Contact: 0711 1656-600, info@junge-diakonie.de. Its page for applicants from abroad: Incoming, opens in a new tab.

EOS Erlebnispädagogik (Freiburg; mostly care of people with disabilities and the elderly). Who: 18 or over; B1 ("mindestens Stufe B1"); twelve months full time, about 40 hours a week. What you get: a free room and free food at your placement ("Kostenlose Unterkunft in der Einsatzstelle" and "Kostenloses Essen in der Einsatzstelle"); a monthly allowance of about 200 to 420 euros ("ein monatliches Taschengeld von ca. 200 € to 420 €"; about ₦299,400 to ₦628,740); free German courses from A2 to B2.2, online or at your placement; all insurances; your seminar travel; help with the visa and the residence permit. Start: from March, from September, or flexible; "Du kannst dich jederzeit bewerben. Wir haben das ganze Jahr über freie Stellen" (apply any time; places all year). A police certificate from home is occasionally needed ("gelegentlich erforderlich"). How: its form for applicants outside Germany ("Außerhalb Deutschlands (Incoming)") asks your CV and a motivation letter. It takes a picture of your B1 certificate, and proof of a visa appointment or of your place on the consulate's list, as helpful but not needed ("hilfreich, aber nicht notwendig"). It asks whether you can care for men and women, and whether friends or family in Germany could house you. And it asks why it should take you, since it gets very many applications ("Wir bekommen sehr viele Bewerbungen. Warum sollen wir dich nehmen?"). Nigeria is on its country list. Contact: kontakt@eos-fsj.de, Wildbachweg 11, 79117 Freiburg. Its page for applicants from abroad: FSJ Incoming, opens in a new tab.

Freiwilligendienste DRS (Catholic, Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart). Who: as long as you get a visa, your nationality does not matter ("Solange du ein Visum bekommst, spielt deine Nationalität keine Rolle"); 18 or over; B1 recommended. Under 27 it is the under-27 year (ich-will-fsj.de, opens in a new tab); from 27, its scheme for 27 and over, BFD 27+ (ich-will-bfd.de, opens in a new tab), on the same terms. What you get: at least 480 euros a month paid to you ("mindestens 480 Euro im Monat ausbezahlt"; about ₦718,560); often a free room at hospitals, care homes and homes for people with disabilities; no German living-money account (blocked account) needed ("Muss ich ein Sperrkonto nutzen? Nein"); a budget for German courses, books and exams; at least 26 days' paid holiday; and 300 euros (about ₦449,100) towards your journey home if you go back after at least 12 months. Start: any month; its usual year runs 1 September to 31 August. How: search its placement finder (Stellenfinder) with "Ich brauche eine Unterkunft" (I need a room) ticked; choose 3 placements ("Entscheide dich für 3 Einrichtungen"); apply in German to each placement with your CV, your language certificate, your last school certificate, a motivation letter and its application sheet; the interview is online. Apply to the placement, never to DRS's own email: "Bewerbungen an unsere E-Mailadressen (Freiwilligendienste DRS) können wir leider nicht berücksichtigen".

The Internationaler Bund (IB, a large German charity that places volunteers). Who: 18 to 26 on its page for applicants from abroad; compulsory schooling finished; German at least A2 ("mindestens Sprachniveau A 2"). What you get: about 200 to 400 euros a month, by placement ("je nach Einsatzstelle monatlich ca. 200,- bis 400,- Euro"); shared flats, rooms at placements, rented flats or host families, but its page says a room cannot always be promised, and you may have to pay a small share of your room and food ("ein geringer Kostenbeitrag für Unterkunft und Verpflegung kann anfallen"); usually 26 days' holiday; about 40 hours a week. You pay your travel and your visa. Start: usually 1 September and 1 March; apply about 6 months before; it takes 3 to 6 months to decide. How: email one of the three teams that take applicants from abroad: freiwilligendienste-stuttgart@ib.de, freiwilligendienste-freiburg@ib.de, or the Nürnberg team (IB-Incoming, opens in a new tab). Its Nürnberg team is stricter: care of the elderly and the sick only; 18 to 26; a B1 certificate; no more than six months in Germany in the last five years; two measles vaccinations or proof of immunity; twelve months; starts on 1 April, 1 September or 1 October, applied for at least six months before; next starts 1 September and 1 October 2027; application through its online portal; +49 911 94536-30, Bewerbung-Nuernberg@ib.de. Its Stuttgart team takes the under-27 year before your 26th birthday ("wenn du ... das 26. Lebensjahr noch nicht vollendet hast"), and the any-age scheme with no age limit ("keine Altersbeschränkung"); it asks your CV and your last certificate, invites you to a (video) talk, then sends you a placement's contact for an interview there. Its Freiburg team prints no age line of its own: at 27 or over, ask it whether it takes you, and write to the Stuttgart team for its any-age scheme the same day. Ask whichever team you write to whether its 18 to 26 counts on the day you apply or the day you start.

Diakonie Bayern (Protestant, Bavaria). Who: 16 to 26 ("im Alter von 16 bis 26 Jahren"), and over 27 too on the any-age scheme ("im BFD auch über 27 Jahre"); German is an advantage, not a must ("von Vorteil, aber keine Pflicht"), with money for a German course. What you get: a monthly allowance, food money and a room. Many placements give a room; if not, they help you find a cheap flat ("Viele Einsatzstellen bieten eine Unterkunft an. Falls nicht, helfen sie, eine kostengünstige Wohnung zu finden"). Insurance paid; a seminar group for volunteers from abroad; help with the visa. The page prints no allowance figure. You pay your flight. How: by email with your CV and motivation letter ("per Mail mit Lebenslauf und Motivationsschreiben") to fwd.international@diakonie-bayern.de; contact Konstantin Edelberg, +49 911 9354 358. Its page for applicants from abroad: FSJ/BFD International, opens in a new tab.

Diakonie Baden (Protestant, Baden; the under-27 year only). Who: 18 to 25 on the day you apply ("Zum Zeitpunkt der Bewerbung"), living abroad, B1, papers complete and in German. What you get: a monthly allowance for food, clothes and a bus and train ticket (no figure printed); free insurance; a free single or double room near your placement; a paid German course; 39 hours a week; 30 days' holiday; four one-week seminars; and it picks you up when you arrive and spends your first 6 days with you ("Wir organisieren deine Abholung nach der Einreise und verbringen die ersten 6 Tage gemeinsam"). Start: 1 March or 1 September only, for exactly 12 months. When to apply: 1 December 2026 to 31 January 2027 for 1 September 2027. Its page says "first come, first serve", with interviews while it is open. No closing hour is printed: send yours by 30 January 2027. Its papers, as PDF: a gap-free CV in German in table form, a motivation letter in German, a clear passport copy, your latest German certificate. It sorts applications for several weeks and interviews by video. It refuses, among other reasons, applicants over 25 ("älter als 25 Jahre"), and applicants from a country it already has many applications from ("Wir haben bereits sehr viele Bewerbungen aus Deinem Heimatland erhalten"). After a refusal, do not apply again in the same window. Contact: incoming@diakonie-baden.de. Its page for applicants from abroad: FSJ Incoming, opens in a new tab.

Bistum Limburg (Catholic, Hesse). Who: 18 or over; at least A2; you apply at the placement, directly, free and with no agency ("direkt, kostenlos und ohne Vermittlungsagentur"). What you get, from 1 July 2026: 515 euros under 27 (about ₦770,955), 568 euros over 27 (about ₦850,296), plus 340 euros (about ₦508,980) if your placement gives you no free room: "unter 27 Jahre 515 € / über 27 Jahre 568 € (plus 340 € wenn du von deiner Einsatzstelle keine kostenlose Unterkunft gestellt bekommst)". Its own brochure warns that only a few placements have rooms, and without one you find and pay for a room yourself: choose a placement that gives one. Length: 6 to 12 months, up to 18. Contact: 0 64 33 8 87-60, soziale-dienste@bistumlimburg.de. Its page for applicants from abroad: Infos für Interessierte aus dem Ausland, opens in a new tab.

Bistum Trier (Catholic). From abroad you apply only through placements ("nur über Einsatzstellen"), never by email to its volunteer office (the Lerndienste); 18 or over; B1 with a certificate. You pay your own living costs and travel ("Die Lebenserhaltungskosten in Deutschland und die Reisekosten müssen selbst getragen werden"): use its placement search's filter for placements with a room, or do not apply there. Some placements ask full measles protection (kindergartens) or two COVID-19 vaccinations (care).

Caritas in Freiburg (a Catholic charity) takes applicants from abroad only if you already have a free room of your own in the town, at your work or with family or friends, because it has no rooms itself ("Das kann in der Arbeitsstelle sein oder privat bei Familie oder Freunden. Wir als Träger haben keine Unterkünfte"), and a contact person living in that town. It says it is not an organisation for volunteers from abroad (an incoming organisation). Apply there only if a relative or friend in that town houses you free and will sign the papers for it. It pays 400 euros of monthly allowance and a travel subsidy. Apply at least 4 to 5 months ahead, best between January and March for September or October.

ijgd (a German youth volunteer organisation) takes volunteers from abroad mostly through partner countries, and Nigeria is not on its partner lists. Two of its programmes take applicants from all countries ("aus allen Ländern"): an under-27 year or any-age scheme place in Schleswig-Holstein, 6 to 8 places a year, with a B2 certificate (fsj.sh@ijgd.de), and an under-27 year looking after historic buildings (heritage conservation) across Germany (incoming.fsj.denkmal@ijgd.de). Its volunteers are usually 18 to 30.

What to send. Each host lists its own papers. Together they ask:

• A CV, in German, in table form ("tabellarisch"), with no gaps and every stage up to today ("lückenlos ... mit allen Stationen bis heute"). Stage 5 ("Your purpose, by your case") says what fills it for you.
• A motivation letter, in German. Diakonie Württemberg's questions: why a voluntary service, what social work brings you, what you want to learn, and how the year fits your life plan and your career goals, and what you plan afterwards ("Wie passt der Aufenthalt zu deiner Lebensplanung und deinen beruflichen Zielen? Was planst du nach dem Freiwilligendienst?"). Its advice: a convincing letter shows that your personal growth, the exchange of cultures and learning come first, not a work stay in Germany ("deine persönliche Entwicklung, der kulturelle Austausch und das Lernen im Vordergrund stehen und nicht ein Arbeitsaufenthalt in Deutschland"), so that the consulate believes your visa application ("damit dein Visumantrag als ‚plausibel' gilt"). This same letter goes to the consulate (Stage 5): write it once, well.
• Your certificates (school, training, study, in German, English or French at Diakonie Württemberg), a clear passport copy, your German certificate, and at Diakonie Württemberg a photograph showing your whole head.
• The host's own form where it has one: Diakonie Württemberg's application form (PDF), Freiwilligendienste DRS's application sheet, EOS's online form.
• For Freunde der Erziehungskunst, your two-week internship certificate.

From volunteers who did it. A Nigerian volunteer who arrived in October 2025 applied "to various ones and none of them were available" in her first round, so write to many hosts at once, and ask about the room in your first email. Before you write, volunteer for at least two weeks at a care home, a clinic, a school or your church's welfare work near you, and get a signed letter on its headed paper.

Your first email. Write to each host in German, with your file attached. In English, the email below says: you are applying for a volunteer place from September 2027, on the under-27 year or the any-age scheme; you hold German at B1, with the certificate's date; and you ask whether the host offers places with a free room and food to applicants from abroad. Copy it and fill in the brackets:

> Betreff: Bewerbung für einen Freiwilligendienst (Incoming) ab September 2027 > > Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, > mein Name ist [Vorname Nachname], ich bin [Alter] Jahre alt und lebe in [Stadt], Nigeria. Ich möchte ab September 2027 einen Freiwilligendienst (FSJ oder BFD) in Ihrer Einrichtung leisten. [Ich möchte 18 Monate Dienst leisten.] Ich habe Deutsch auf dem Niveau [B1] ([Goethe-Zertifikat / ÖSD-Zertifikat] vom [Datum]). Bieten Sie Plätze mit kostenloser Unterkunft und Verpflegung für Bewerberinnen und Bewerber aus dem Ausland an? Im Anhang finden Sie meinen Lebenslauf, mein Motivationsschreiben, meine Zeugnisse, eine Kopie meines Reisepasses und mein Sprachzertifikat. > Mit freundlichen Grüßen > [Vorname Nachname], [Telefon mit +234], [E-Mail]

Under 27, write "FSJ oder BFD" (either scheme); from 27, write "BFD" (the any-age scheme). The line in brackets, "Ich möchte 18 Monate Dienst leisten" (I would like to serve 18 months), is for a married applicant whose spouse will join; leave it out otherwise.

Ask each host, before you accept anything. Is it the under-27 year (FSJ) or the any-age scheme (BFD) for you? Is the room free, and is it at the placement? Is the food free, or is there food money, and how much? How much is the monthly allowance? Who pays your monthly bus and train ticket? Which start date? Can I serve 18 months? When is the first allowance paid? No host page in this guide says when your first payment comes.

Cost. Free. Your email and your scans cost you nothing; no host charges you to apply.

Time. "You'll usually receive a response within a few days. ... If you haven't heard back after three to four weeks, please contact the organization." Diakonie Baden takes several weeks to sort applications; the Internationaler Bund takes 3 to 6 months.

You are done when your complete file has gone to at least three hosts or placements that give a free room, each as that host asks. 27 or over: write to every host open to you in the same week; there are far fewer places for you.

If it goes wrong.

• No answer after three to four weeks. Write again, once, to the same address, and send your file to the next host the same day.
• A refusal. Write to the next host the same week. At Diakonie Baden do not apply again in the same window.
• A host with no room. Do not sign an agreement with no free room unless its money alone reaches 855 euros a month (Stage 3, Step 2). Diakonie Württemberg will not take you at all without one.
• Someone asks you for money for a place. Stop (Nobody can sell you a placement, Part 1).

On the under-27 year (FSJ). The same hosts. Under 27, most of them place you on the under-27 year.

Next. The interview, the yes, and your place on the consulate's list (Stage 3).

Stage 3. The interview, the yes, and your place on the consulate's list

Back to the short stages

Your applications are with your hosts. Now pass the interview, get the yes in writing, sign up on the consulate's waiting list the same day, and get your agreement approved while you wait.

Step 1. The interview

Do. Answer the invitation the day it comes, agree a time, and attend by video. The hosts' pages: "invite you to an online interview" (the Protestant volunteer services' portal); the placement invites you to a video interview ("Die Einrichtung lädt dich zu einem Gespräch per Video ein"; Diakonie Württemberg); the interview is online ("Das Gespräch findet online statt"; Freiwilligendienste DRS).

You are done when the host tells you, in writing, that it takes you and names your start date. That written yes is your offer (the Zusage).

Step 2. The agreement

What it is. Your agreement (Vereinbarung) is the paper your visa rests on; the consulate calls it your contract. On the government's volunteer scheme for any age (the BFD), you and the federal office in Cologne that runs it (the BAFzA) sign a written agreement before the service begins: "Das BAFzA und die Freiwilligen schließen vor Beginn des Freiwilligendienstes eine schriftliche Vereinbarung ab". You and the host agree its terms, and the host sends it to the federal office. The English form, "Agreement on the performance of Volunteer Service", fixes your placement, your dates and weekly hours, your monthly allowance, free meals, free accommodation, work clothing, mobility allowances, social security, seminar days and holiday, and states: "No employment relationship is hereby established." (You are a volunteer, not an employee.)

How it reaches you. The host can send the agreement to the federal office without your signature. The office approves and stamps it for now, so that you can apply for your visa with it: "Bei internationalen Freiwilligen besteht die Möglichkeit, BFD-Vereinbarungen ohne Unterschrift der Freiwilligen an das BAFzA zu übersenden. Die BFD-Vereinbarungen werden vom BAFzA vorläufig bestätigt und gesiegelt, damit die Freiwilligen damit ihren Aufenthaltstitel beantragen können". The federal office needs three copies. An agreement marked "Visum" or "Incomer" on its first page is handled first. The federal office sends nothing abroad ("Das BAFzA veranlasst keine Übersendung der Ausfertigungen ins Ausland"), so your host posts you the approval letter and your copy. Freunde der Erziehungskunst: "Once we have accepted you for volunteer service, we will send you all the necessary documents for your visa application."

The original. The embassy usually asks for an agreement with every signature in the original ("Die Botschaft verlangt in der Regel eine Vereinbarung auf der alle Originalunterschriften sind"; Freiwilligendienste DRS). A copy sent by email is not accepted ("Eine Kopie die via E-Mail verschickt wurde, wird von der Botschaft/dem Konsulat nicht akzeptiert"; Bistum Trier). So ask your host to post the original by courier, and give it your full address and phone number. The visa officers' rulebook (the visa handbook): you sign it yourself and apply for the visa with it straight afterwards ("unmittelbar anschließend").

Who signs it. The consulate: "Federal Voluntary Service (BFD): Your contract must be signed by you, the Federal Office of Family Affairs and Civil Society Functions (BAFzA), the placement department, their headquarters and, where applicable, the institution implementing the voluntary service."

Check it before you sign. Your visa is decided on its figures.

• It states your free room and your food. If it does not, the consulate asks for other proof that you can keep yourself, such as a German bank account filled in advance with your living money (a blocked account). The consulate: "As a rule, the sponsoring organisation covers accommodation and food costs. If the contract or other confirmation provided by the respective department does not contain information on your accommodation and meals, please provide additional proof of self-support (e.g. blocked account)."
• Its money passes the visa handbook's line. With room and food covered in full, a monthly allowance (pocket money) of 302 euros is enough (about ₦452,094): "genügt ein monatliches Taschengeld von 302,- Euro". With money only, and no room or food given, 855 euros a month in all (about ₦1.3 million): "ein Gesamtbetrag von 855,- EUR". The figure is 812 euros only for an agreement the federal office signed before 1 January 2025. If the room or the food is given only in part, the sum you must show rises to match ("erhöht sich der nachzuweisende Betrag entsprechend"), and the consulate decides each case. The handbook gives no set value for a free room. Hosts write it at the social insurance values of 2026, 285 euros a month for a room and 345 euros for food, and the handbook accepts that. Normally the host's figures in the agreement are enough ("reichen ... die Angaben der Einsatzstelle/des Trägers in der Vereinbarung aus"). If the consulate finds them short, the host gets one chance ("einmalig") to add more.
• If you live with a host family, the federal office advises a written confirmation from the family for the embassy, so that your housing is proved.
• The dates and hours match what you were told: at least 35 hours a week for full time.

Time. No federal page states how long the federal office takes. Freiwilligendienste DRS: the approval takes at least 6 weeks ("Die Genehmigung der Vereinbarung dauert mindestens 6 Wochen"). Add the courier's time to Nigeria. Your host leaves enough time between the day the federal office receives it and your embassy appointment: "Wichtig ist es, ausreichend Bearbeitungs- und Versandzeit zwischen dem Posteingang im BAFzA und dem Botschaftstermin ... einzuplanen".

Cost. Free.

You are done when you hold the original agreement with the federal office's stamp (its seal) and the approval letter, posted to you by your host.

On the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ). "Your contract must be signed by you and the respective institution, as well as, where applicable, the placement department." There is no approval from the federal office: the organisation that places you (your carrier, Träger) signs, and posts you the original. The money test's date is the day your host or that organisation signs.

Step 3. Sign up on the consulate's waiting list, the day of the yes

Do. The day your host's yes names your start date, sign up in the volunteer category on the consulate's online booking system (RK-Termin), and keep both emails it sends. Do not wait for the agreement to arrive: "The completeness of the application documents is not a criterion for booking an appointment."

Where. The Booking an appointment for visa purposes, opens in a new tab page of Germany's embassy and consulate in Nigeria leads to the Lagos appointment system (RK-Termin), au pair, voluntary service, internships, re-entry, opens in a new tab. The volunteer visa is not one of the visas you apply for online: "You can apply for the following visas online: Opportunity Card, Blue Card (EU), Taking up employment, Studying / language course, Vocational training, Family reunion". Yours is "Application in paper form", on this list.

What the form asks. Your last name and first name, your email twice, your passport number, your date of birth, the visa ("freiwilliges soziales Jahr / Bundesfreiwilligendienst / voluntary services", the two volunteer schemes), the "beginning of contract", and the "name of organisation from voluntary service", with a picture code to type. "Please enter all information exactly as shown in your passport and use the Latin alphabet." Use an email address "that remains active up until and including the day of the appointment and which you personally can access".

What happens next. "Within 120 minutes a confirmation email with your reference number." Then: "Approx. 4 weeks prior to your appointment to apply for a visa you will receive a e-mail with the exact date of your appointment." The list "is processed strictly in chronological order". The wait today: "volunteer year: approx. 3 month".

The rules of the list.

• "Appointment bookings with wrong or incorrect information will be cancelled." Information entered wrongly "cannot be amended. In this case you must cancel your booking and rebook."
• A booking in the wrong category is not attended to, and you must sign up again: "Applicants who book appointments under the wrong visa category will not be attended to and must re-register."
• "only one registration can be booked per person. A new registration can only be allocated after a period of one month."
• "Please cancel your registration if you no longer want to apply for the visa!" Cancelling "is only possible well in advance, as a rule up to 1-2 days beforehand, but not on the day of the appointment or afterwards."
• "Please schedule a separate appointment for each applicant."

Cost. Free: "Booking an appointment is FREE OF CHARGE." "The visa section does not work with private brokers or agencies. These individuals and organizations are NOT able to secure appointments with us." "Agencies and other facilitators do not have any special or preferential access to the appointment booking system, even if they claim otherwise."

At the Internationaler Bund. Its page asks you to book after its firm yes and once you hold its written agreement ("nach fester Zusage und dem Erhalt der schriftlichen Vereinbarung"). If your host is the Internationaler Bund, follow its words.

You are done when you hold the confirmation email with your reference number. Send your host your reference number and, when it comes, your appointment date.

From volunteers who did it. In 2025 a Nigerian volunteer described her wait: she registered around 2021, was called in 2023 with no host and "had to cancel", and waited two more years; her host then sent the consulate a letter that her service would start in a few months, and she was called in July 2025. The list then was long; it is "approx. 3 month" today, and the form now asks your host's name, so sign up once you have your host, and never before.

Next. Your papers (Stage 4), while you wait for your appointment.

Stage 4. Your papers

Back to the short stages

You are on the consulate's waiting list, and your agreement is in the post. Now gather every paper on the consulate's list, in its order, so that your file is complete the day your appointment email comes.

The rules of the file. "All documents must be submitted in both copy and original form." "Sort your application according to this list." "The required documents must be submitted in full at the personal interview. Documents sent in advance cannot be considered." "Do not staple any of the documents." "Copies need to be in DIN A4 format and black/white. Copies in color will not be accepted." "Incomplete and unsorted applications will not be accepted." "The Consulate General reserves the right to request further documents." "Can I submit missing documents after my appointment? No."

The file, in the order of the consulate's sorting list (Status: June 2026). The page is Voluntary Service, opens in a new tab, with its printable sorting list, opens in a new tab.

1. The application form, "completely fill out form in English or German", signed with place and date. You make it on the online visa form of Germany's embassy and consulate in Nigeria (VIDEX, long-term stay, opens in a new tab): "using only Latin characters", dates as DD.MM.YYYY, printed, typed ("Handwritten forms are not recommended and will slow down the process"). "Your application cannot be submitted online": VIDEX only prints your form and its barcodes for the appointment.
2. Your signed promise that what you wrote is true and complete (the declaration under section 54 of the Residence Act, Germany's immigration law), signed with place and date. It says, in its own English: "If he or she refuses to provide data or knowingly furnishes false or incomplete information, the visa application may be refused or, if a visa has already been issued, the applicant may be expelled from Germany."
3. The form on how your data is used (the data protection form, under the General Data Protection Regulation), signed with place and date.
4. A copy of your passport's data page, and your passport: "issued in the last 10 years, valid for at least 6 more months, at least two free pages".
5. A copy of a residence permit for Nigeria, only if you are not Nigerian.
6. Your agreement, the original, signed as Stage 3 says.
7. Proof of money, only if your agreement does not state your room and your meals (Stage 3). On this route, it does.
8. Your CV, "Including the following details: specification of certificates, diplomas, and qualifications obtained; professional training; work experience". Use the same CV your host has.
9. Your letter of motivation, "signed by the applicant; detailed expectations regarding the planned stay; anticipated career and personal benefits, as well as future plans". What the consulate looks for in it is in Stage 5.
10. Proof of work experience, if you have any, with your volunteering letter.
11. Your German certificate. "The test may not be older than one year." The printable list writes "If applicable: Language certificate"; the web page lists it without "If applicable" and the language page sets A1 for voluntary service. Bring it.
12. Your birth certificate and identity papers. Born at or after 15 December 1992: your "NPC birth certificate, issued from the NPC of your place of birth". Born before: a certified copy of your entry in the local birth register, from your first registration. With it, a sworn statement of your age (an affidavit, "Declaration of Age") from one parent, or from the head of the family "at least 10 years older than the applicant" if both parents have died, and a copy of that person's signed identity document. If you are married: your marriage certificate "issued by the official registrar". If your marriage was only traditional or religious, the consulate verifies it, for ₦370,000 (South, which includes Port Harcourt) or ₦420,000 (North), in 6 to 8 months. So count those months before your spouse's appointment, or first complete the civil registration its spouse page advises ("It is advisable to complete the civil marriage registration before submitting your application"). Affidavits "if you changed your name or there was a mistake on any of your documents" (Change of Names "with the published newspaper advertisment", Reconciliation of Names, Spinster- or Bachelorhood, Facts), "issued by the competent court", each with a copy of the signed identity document of the person who swore it (the deponent). And "Other old biographical documents that prove your identity": a hospital birth registration, a weighing card, a baptism certificate, a voter's card, a vaccination certificate or an expired passport.
13. Your school results in order: "Primary, Secondary school, WAEC or National diploma, Bachelor Degree, Masters Degree". If you sat NECO instead of WAEC, or your primary school certificate is lost, no page says what the consulate takes in its place: ask it at info@lago.auswaertiges-amt.de with your reference number (Stage 5, Contact) the week you join the list. Same as the German master's: the same degree certificate goes to the university, with your transcript. If study after the year is a possibility for you, request your transcript before you fly (the master's guide, its papers stage, gives the time and the cost).
14. Your originals, "all originals for the copies mentioned above ... in chronological order. Your original documents will be returned to you once your application has been processed."
15. Passport photos to the official standard (biometric photographs): "2 x biometric photograph not older than 6 months, uniform white background, size: 3,5x4,5 cm, not glued or stapled to the application form". The printable list says one; the web page says two. Bring two.
16. A prepaid courier envelope: "a self-addressed prepaid courier envelope from any major courier service, addressed to yourself".

"Translations into German are generally recommended, but for most visa categories, English documents are accepted."

Step 1. Your passport

Do. If you have no passport, or yours was issued more than 10 years before your appointment, will have less than 6 months left, or has fewer than two free pages, apply for a new one now.

Where. passport.immigration.gov.ng, opens in a new tab, the Nigeria Immigration Service. "Complete passport application online, upload birth certificate from NPC or declaration of age from high court, state of origin certificate, make payment and book appointment", then take your payment and appointment slips in person to the passport office you chose, for your photograph and fingerprints.

What you need. Your NIN slip, your birth certificate or declaration of age (from a High Court), your local government or indigene certificate, and a passport photograph to the international standard (ICAO-compliant).

Cost. "32 Pages 5- Years Validity is N100,000/$150"; "64 Pages 10-Year Validity is N200,000/$230"; "Correction of Data Administrative Charges is N30,000"; "All Prices are Exclusive of Bank Charges". The 32-page passport is enough for this year.

Time. "Fresh Application/ Change of Data: 42 days after Successful Enrolment." "Re-issue: 21 days after Successful Enrolment."

You are done when you hold a passport that meets the consulate's three lines on the day of your appointment.

Step 2. Your birth certificate and your names

Do. Check that your name and your date of birth read the same on your passport, your birth certificate, your WAEC result and every other paper. Then get your birth certificate from the National Population Commission (the NPC) if you do not have one.

Where. The National Population Commission. For adults it issues a special birth certificate (a birth attestation): "Birth Attestation: For individuals 18 years and above", needing your "National Identification Number (NIN)" and a "Court Sworn Affidavit"; you download the certificate with your payment reference. The NPC's page states no fee and no time; ask it at info@nationalpopulation.gov.ng or +234 (0)7000 236 787 the week you apply. No page says whether the consulate takes this adult attestation as its "NPC birth certificate", or whether it must come from the NPC office of your state of birth: ask the consulate at info@lago.auswaertiges-amt.de with your reference number before you pay for one.

If your names or dates differ. Swear the affidavit the consulate's list names (Change of Names with the newspaper advertisement, or Reconciliation of Names) at a court, and bring it with a copy of the identity document of the person who swore it. The consulate can also send your papers to be checked (verification) "if: Your documents contain differing details about your identity (e.g., names, dates of birth)". That costs "Documents issued in the Southern states 370.000 Naira Northern states 420.000 Naira", and "Processing time is typically 6 to 8 months." Fix your names before your appointment, never at it.

You are done when every paper carries the same name and date of birth, or an affidavit explains each difference.

Step 3. Your CV and your letter

Do. Write your CV with every year from your first school to today, with no gaps, and your motivation letter, in German and signed. Use the same two you sent your host: the consulate reads them beside your interview (Stage 5).

You are done when both are printed and signed, and you can say every line of them in your own words.

Step 4. A police certificate, and your health papers, where your host asks

The police certificate. Neither the consulate's voluntary service list nor most hosts ask for one. EOS says one from home is "gelegentlich erforderlich" (occasionally needed). If your host asks, apply online on Police Services, opens in a new tab for the Police Character Certificate: submit and upload your documents, attend your biometric capture at your designated police station, and download and print the certificate once the police criminal investigation department (the Force CID) has signed it. You need the application form, a valid National Identity Card (a NIN slip is accepted for now), your passport's data page, two recent passport photographs on a white background (35 by 45 mm), proof of payment, and your birth certificate or statutory declaration of age. It takes 5 to 7 working days once your documents are complete, or 2 to 3 by the express service at extra cost. The fee is shown on the portal. A German placement that needs a German police clearance (the certificate of good conduct, Führungszeugnis) asks you for it in Germany, free for volunteers (Stage 7).

Measles. German law stops anyone born after 1970 from working in a kindergarten, a school, a children's or care home or a hospital without proof of two measles vaccinations, or a doctor's certificate of immunity: "Eine Person, die über keinen Nachweis ... verfügt oder diesen nicht vorlegt, darf in Einrichtungen nach ... nicht tätig werden." The visa does not ask it; your host does, before your first day. Find your vaccination card now, and if you have no record of two doses, ask your host what it accepts. No page names where in Nigeria an adult gets the vaccination or an immunity test, or what it costs: ask your host which of the two it takes before you pay for either. The Internationaler Bund's Nürnberg team asks the proof with your application, and Bistum Trier's care placements ask two COVID-19 vaccinations as well.

No TB test, no medical certificate. Neither the consulate's list nor any host page in this guide asks for a TB test or a medical certificate for this visa.

Cost. Passport ₦100,000; birth attestation and affidavits at the NPC's and the court's own fees; the police certificate's fee only if asked; photographs and copies.

You are done when your file is sorted in the sixteen-item order, with every original behind its copy, nothing stapled, and every paper checked against the list the night before.

If it goes wrong. If a paper will not be ready on your appointment day, cancel at least 1 to 2 days before (Stage 3, Step 3), tell your host the same day, and sign up again; a new sign-up is possible a month after the last, and the list is about 3 months today. Your host then confirms it still wants you, and your agreement stays valid (Stage 5, If your start date passes while you wait). Never attend with a paper missing: "Can I submit missing documents after my appointment? No."

From volunteers who did it. In Lagos, applicants for other long-stay visas (national visas) in 2025 and 2026 describe files sent back for a missing primary school paper.

Next. Your visa appointment (Stage 5).

Paying from Nigeria

Most of this route is paid in naira. The Goethe-Institut takes its exam fee by bank transfer only; the ÖSD exam centre takes its own fee; the consulate takes the visa fee "in Nigerian Naira in cash or via POS" at its own rate on the day. Two payments are in euros: the health insurance for your first days in Germany (Stage 5), bought from a German provider, and your residence permit in Germany (Stage 7), paid there. Before Stage 5, ask your bank whether your naira card pays online in euros and what its foreign spending limit is, and have it raised if it is below the insurance's price.

Stage 5. Your visa appointment and the decision

Back to the short stages

Your appointment email has come, about four weeks ahead. Now take your file to the consulate, answer the interview, and wait for the decision.

Where. The place and time in your appointment email. The German consulate in Lagos (the Consulate General) is at 15, Walter Carrington Crescent, Victoria Island, Lagos; its visa enquiries line is +234 (0)201 4621 820, "only Monday until Thursday 09:00 am to 11:00 am". Every volunteer applies in Lagos: "In all other cases, the Consulate General in Lagos is responsible for your visa application." From Abuja, Ibadan or Port Harcourt, travel the day before.

Do.

• Arrive early, in person: "Applicants must appear in person for visa interviews. No proxies are allowed." "Applicants who arrive late for their appointment cannot be accommodated and must book a new appointment."
• Hand in your file, sorted, originals and copies (Stage 4).
• Answer the interview.
• Pay the fee.

Cost. "The processing fee for a Schengen visa is normally EUR 90 and the fee for a national visa (for longer stays) is EUR 75." Yours is the long-stay visa (the national visa): about ₦112,275, payable in naira, in cash or by POS, at the consulate's own rate on the day. "The processing fee is not refundable in case of visa rejection." The fee page lets some people off the fee: holders of a scholarship from public funds and some family members of Germans. It lists no free visa for volunteers, so bring the fee. Add your courier envelope.

What the consulate checks: your purpose. This is where a volunteer visa is won or lost. The visa officers' rulebook (the visa handbook) says your CV, your letter and what you say must show clearly why, at this point in your life, you want a volunteer year in Germany: "Aus dem Lebenslauf bzw. dem Motivationsschreiben/der mündlichen Darstellung der beantragenden Person muss schlüssig hervorgehen, weshalb die Person sich in der gegenwärtigen Lebensphase gerade für einen Freiwilligenaufenthalt in Deutschland interessiert". If the consulate does not believe your purpose, the visa is refused, and nothing else is checked, not your German and not your money: "Wenn der Einreisezweck ‚Freiwilligendienst' ... nicht plausibel ist, ist der Visumsantrag abzulehnen. In diesem Fall erübrigt sich auch die Prüfung weiterer Erteilungsvoraussetzungen". A good letter from your host helps, because letters from the placement must be taken into account ("Schreiben der Einsatzstellen sollen bei der Prüfung zur Erteilung eines Visums beachtet werden"). Ask your host for one to bring.

What the consulate checks: your return and your plans. The stay is for a fixed time ("Der Aufenthalt zu einem Freiwilligendienst stellt einen befristeten Aufenthalt dar"). "Konkrete Pläne eines sich an den Freiwilligenaufenthalt anschließenden Arbeits- oder Ausbildungsverhältnisses können darauf hindeuten, dass die Primärmotivation des Aufenthaltes nicht die eines gemeinwohlorientierten ... Einsatzes ist" (concrete plans for a job or training after the year can show that the service is not your main reason). And: "Allein die Darstellung, sich im Anschluss an einen Freiwilligenaufenthalt einen fortwährenden Aufenthalt ... ggf. vorstellen zu können, stellt somit noch keinen ausreichenden Ablehnungsgrund dar" (only saying you could imagine staying on afterwards is not enough reason to refuse); "Freiwilligendienste sollen auch der beruflichen Orientierung dienen" (the volunteer schemes are also meant to help you choose a career). Diakonie Württemberg: "du [musst] bei der Visumbeantragung zeigen, dass du grundsätzlich bereit bist, nach dem Freiwilligendienst in dein Heimatland zurückzukehren ... Zum Beispiel durch familiäre, berufliche oder schulische Bindungen in deinem Heimatland" (you must show you are willing in principle to return home, for example through family, work or school ties). So write your letter like this: why this work, at this point in your life, from what you have already done; what you will learn; and what you will do with it at home, naming your ties there. Have no job or training already arranged for after the year: concrete plans of that kind can show the year is not your real purpose.

If you hope to stay on after the year. If you hope to train or study in Germany after the year, you may say so truthfully. The handbook says the volunteer schemes are also meant to help you choose a career ("Freiwilligendienste sollen auch der beruflichen Orientierung dienen"), and that saying you could imagine staying on is not on its own a reason to refuse. Diakonie Württemberg: applying later for a new permit, for training or study, is not forbidden ("Es ist nicht verboten, später einen neuen Aufenthaltstitel zu beantragen, zum Beispiel für eine Ausbildung oder ein Studium"). What can show the year is not your real purpose is a job or training you have already arranged. So write the truth: why this work now, what you want to find out in it, and what you will do with it, at home or in further training or study. Never write a plan you do not have, and never leave out one you do: the promise you sign (Stage 4, item 2) makes false or incomplete information a reason to refuse.

Your purpose, by your case.

• No degree. Fill every year since school in your CV with what you did (lessons, a trade, church or community work, your two weeks of volunteering), and tie the year to the care or social work you want to follow.
• A degree in another field. Do the two weeks or more of volunteering in Nigeria (Stage 2) before you write to hosts, and say why this work now and how it fits what you have done since your degree, NYSC and any work included.
• 27 or over. Name your work so far and what the year adds to it.
• Married, with your spouse staying in Nigeria. Your spouse is one of the ties at home Diakonie Württemberg names ("familiäre ... Bindungen", family ties).

What the consulate checks: your money and your German. Your money is your agreement's figures (Stage 3). Your German is your certificate (Stage 1).

From volunteers who did it. "Getting contract is not the problem. The problem is passing the Nigerian embassy ... if you have done ... a degree in architecture ... then all of a sudden you now say that you want to come and volunteer in a hospital ... does it make sense"; "your motivation letter should tally with what you're going to be saying"; "if you remove your degree they'll ask you why is this place empty" (a Nigerian volunteer on the any-age scheme, July 2026). A Nigerian volunteer was asked why Germany and not her own country. Another Nigerian volunteer, asked online in 2026 whether the questions at her visa interview were in German, answered: "No, it was in English". So let your CV, your letter and your answers tell one story.

You are done when the consulate has taken your file, your fingerprints and your fee.

The decision.

• Time. No page states how long a voluntary service visa takes, and "We cannot provide a specific time frame". "We do not offer expedited processing." The consulate answers no status questions "within the first 4 weeks" for this kind of visa, and asks you to "avoid requesting status updates unless more than three months have passed without any communication from us". The hosts: "the visa process can take two to three months" (Freunde der Erziehungskunst); "zwei bis drei Monate" (EOS); "Üblicherweise müssen mindestens 3 bis 6 Monate eingeplant werden" (plan at least 3 to 6 months; Diakonie Bayern). The German foreign ministry's "up to three months, sometimes longer" applies when the immigration office in Germany (the foreigners office) must agree. For a volunteer visa it must agree only if you have lived in Germany before on a paper that paused your removal (a Duldung) or on a paper you held while an asylum claim was decided (an Aufenthaltsgestattung). Then it has ten days to object, and if it says nothing, that counts as a yes.
• When it is positive: your health insurance. "If a positive decision has been made on your visa, you will be asked to provide an incoming health insurance." That is short health insurance for your first days in Germany. The policy must meet the standards of German health insurance law (the social code, SGB V) and "must not include any cancellation clauses for long-term stays"; "Usually, only German providers offer such qualifying insurance"; "The embassy/consulate is not entitled to give advice on a specific insurer or company." The visa handbook asks a volunteer for it because your public insurance (the statutory insurance) starts only with your service: "ist für die Übergangszeit ein Nachweis über eine Reisekrankenversicherung vorzulegen" (proof of travel health insurance for the days between). A newcomer's (incoming) or travel health policy is enough, as long as it does not stop covering you once you live in Germany. It may end the day your public insurance starts, and three months is usually enough ("Regelmäßig sollte hier ein Zeitraum von drei Monaten genügen"). Its start may not depend on a condition, such as first opening a bank account. The consulate's list of papers for volunteers does not name it: have your policy chosen before your appointment, and buy it the day the consulate asks, from your arrival date. No page states its price: ask two German providers for their price for your dates the week your appointment is booked. Diakonie Württemberg helps its volunteers join a public health insurer and gives a certificate for the visa: if your host does the same, use that.
• Your visa. For a twelve-month service the long-stay visa is issued "für die gesamte Aufenthaltsdauer, längstens aber für zwölf Monate" (for your whole stay, at most twelve months), with the condition "Beschäftigung nur gem. § 14 Abs. 1 Nr. 1 BeschV gestattet, Freiwilligendienst bei ‚Name des Trägers, Ort'" (work allowed only as a volunteer at your named host). "It is your duty to verify whether the information printed on the visa sticker is correct and complete and to report any errors to the consulate immediately." Your originals come back in your courier envelope.

If your start date passes while you wait. The visa handbook: up to about one month late, with a good reason, the consulate accepts the agreement as it is; beyond that, your host confirms informally that it still wants you and for which period, and "Die Vereinbarung selbst muss in diesen Fällen für das Visumverfahren nicht aktualisiert werden" (the agreement need not be changed). The federal office that runs the any-age scheme (the BAFzA): the approval of your agreement stays valid if you arrive later ("Die Bestätigung der BFD-Vereinbarung behält auch bei einer späteren Einreise ihre Gültigkeit"), and you can start any day within the approved dates. If fewer than six months of your agreement remain when you start, your host applies to move its end date on your first day.

If it is refused.

• The reasons. The visa handbook: the reasons behind a decision on a volunteer visa "müssen ... bei einer ablehnenden Entscheidung im Bescheid dargelegt werden" (must be set out in a refusal). The consulate can refuse a volunteer on its own.
• No appeal to the consulate. "Since 1st July 2025, it is no longer possible to appeal against visa application rejections to the diplomatic mission abroad." "We cannot reconsider or re-evaluate visa decisions."
• A new application, "at any time", "generally ... subject to the usual fee", with all your papers again, after you put right what the refusal names.
• The court: the court in Berlin that hears visa cases (the Berlin Administrative Court), within "1 month from the date on which the notice is served"; "The language of the court is German"; a lawyer is not compulsory; "the fees for court proceedings are currently set at about 480 euro" (about ₦718,560); "processing times of several months can generally be expected".
• Tell your host the same day. If you cannot start because your visa was refused ("wegen Ablehnung des Visums"), your host tells the federal office, and it need not give the exact reasons ("Die genaue Angabe der Gründe ist nicht erforderlich").

A false paper. "any visa application submitted with forged documents or documents containing false information will be immediately and automatically rejected. The applicant will be entered into a warning database ... And the applicant will be issued a Schengen-wide entry ban." "Avoid visa consultants who offer to improve your chances by adding false information to your application."

Contact. Only info@lago.auswaertiges-amt.de, with your full name, your date of birth, your passport number and your reference number: "Messages that do not contain the above details or are unclear will not receive a response."

On the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ). The same file, the same appointment and the same decision. Your agreement is signed by the organisation that places you (your carrier) and your host, not the federal office.

Next. Travel (Stage 6).

Stage 6. Travel

Back to the short stages

You hold your visa. Now fly so that you arrive on your start date, with your papers in your hand luggage.

Do.

• Book your flight for your start date. Your service counts from the day you enter, but never before the agreement's start: "Als gültiger Dienstbeginn zählen auch Feiertage, Wochenendtage, der erste Seminartag und der Einreisetag, jedoch nicht vor Beginn der Vereinbarung" (the day of entry counts as your first day, but not before your agreement begins). Your visa must be valid "mindestens einen Tag vorher" (at least one day before your service begins; Freiwilligendienste DRS and Bistum Trier). Your public insurance starts with your service, and your short health insurance for your first days covers any day before it (Stage 5).
• Tell your host your flight. Diakonie Baden picks you up and spends your first 6 days with you ("organisieren deine Abholung nach der Einreise und verbringen die ersten 6 Tage gemeinsam"). Ask yours who meets you and where you sleep the first night.
• Pack in your hand luggage: your passport with the visa; your original agreement and the federal office's approval; a set of your visa documents and your proof of health insurance ("the border police will also ask you to present documents upon entry, as well as proof of health insurance. You should therefore take a set of your visa documents with you on your trip"); your vaccination card; your German certificate; your school certificates.
• Bring money for your first weeks. No host page in this guide says when your first monthly allowance is paid, so ask your host before you book your flight, and bring enough for your food and your local transport until that day.

Where. Any airline. With a German long-stay visa you need no visa just to change planes (an airport transit visa) at a German airport ("holders of valid visas and national residence permits of EU and Schengen states" are exempt), and "Holders of ... a national visa (D-visa) can stay in the entire Schengen area for up to 90 days in any period of 180 days." (The Schengen area is the group of European countries with open borders between them.)

Cost. Your flight is yours: "most volunteers need to cover their travel costs to Germany and back themselves" (Freunde der Erziehungskunst); "Du musst deine Reisekosten selbst bezahlen" (Diakonie Württemberg). No page prints a fare. At Freiwilligendienste DRS, if you go home after at least 12 months, you get 300 euros (about ₦449,100) towards that journey.

You are done when you have landed and your host knows you are there.

Next. Your first month (Stage 7).

Stage 7. Your first month

Back to the short stages

You have arrived. Now register your address, start your service with your work permission in order, apply for your residence permit if your visa ends before your service, and set up your bank account.

The order. Munich's immigration office (the foreigners office): after you arrive, you first register your address ("Nach der Einreise: Sie müssen zuerst Ihren Wohnsitz im Bürgerbüro anmelden"). Bistum Limburg's welcome brochure for volunteers: register at the residents' office, then take your registration to the immigration office and apply for your permit ("Nach der Einreise meldest du dich beim Einwohnermeldeamt an. Mit der Anmeldung gehst du zur Ausländerbehörde und beantragst einen Aufenthaltstitel"); the visa is mainly for your lawful entry and your first weeks ("Das Visum dient hauptsächlich der legalen Einreise sowie für den Aufenthalt in den ersten Wochen").

Step 1. Register your address (the Anmeldung)

Do. Within two weeks of moving into your room, register at your town's registration office (Einwohnermeldeamt, Bürgeramt or Bürgerbüro). Book the appointment the week you arrive.

What you need. Your valid passport, and a written note from the person who gives you your room, saying that you moved in ("der Bestätigung des Wohnungsgebers"). Where your room is at your placement, your host gives it. The law makes the landlord give it within the two weeks; if the landlord refuses, tell the registration office at once. If you live with relatives, Diakonie Württemberg says they must be ready to issue every paper, and a spoken promise is not enough ("bereit sein, alle nötigen Dokumente für das Visum auszustellen. Eine mündliche Zusage reicht nicht aus"), for example by a landlord's note ("z. B. durch eine Wohnungsgeberbescheinigung").

Cost. Free.

You are done when you hold your registration certificate (Meldebestätigung).

Step 2. Start your service

Do. Sign your agreement if you have not yet signed it. The federal office that runs the any-age scheme (the BAFzA) needs the agreement signed by you, by your first day at the latest ("die von der freiwillig dienstleistenden Person unterschriebene Vereinbarung (spätestens zu Dienstbeginn)"). Give your host your address in Germany: it reports your actual start to the federal office with your address and your signed agreement. Join a public health insurer with your host's help. You must join one for the year, and your host pays all of it: "Die Freiwilligen sind für die Dauer des BFD grundsätzlich dazu verpflichtet, sich als Mitglied in der gesetzlichen Krankenkasse (GKV) zu versichern. Die Beiträge werden vollständig von der Einsatzstelle übernommen". Show your measles proof where your placement needs it.

Your work permission. You may start only with a valid work permission for the any-age scheme. Without it you may not work, and your placement may not let you serve: "Internationale Freiwillige dürfen nur mit einer für den BFD gültigen Beschäftigungserlaubnis ihren BFD beginnen. Ohne Beschäftigungserlaubnis besteht ein Beschäftigungsverbot und die EST darf die Freiwilligen keinen Dienst leisten lassen". The condition printed on your visa is that permission. A paper from the immigration office saying your earlier permit still counts while it decides (a Fiktionsbescheinigung) also serves, if it says so.

You are done when you have worked your first day, your host has your address, and your health insurer has your membership.

Step 3. Your residence permit

When. Read the end date on your visa. If it ends before your service does, you must apply for a residence permit before it runs out: "Antragstellende haben vor Ablauf der Gültigkeitsdauer des Visums eine Verlängerung des Aufenthaltstitels oder die Erteilung eines anderen Aufenthaltstitels bei der zuständigen Ausländerbehörde zu beantragen". The federal service text published by Mainz: "The residence permit should be applied for at least 6 to 8 weeks before your visa, visa-free stay, or valid residence permit expires, but in any case well in advance of the start of your voluntary service." Book your appointment at your town's immigration office (the foreigners office) the week you register your address. If your visa already runs for your whole service, ask your host's adviser for volunteers from abroad whether your town's office still wants you to come; no page in this guide says.

What you need. Berlin's and Munich's lists together:

• the application form, your valid passport, and colour copies of its data pages, your entry stamp and your visa;
• a passport photo to the official standard (biometric);
• your agreement, in the original;
• proof of your health insurance (your health card, front and back, or a current confirmation from your insurer);
• your registration certificate, or your tenancy agreement with your landlord's confirmation; a tenancy agreement is asked "wenn der Träger des Freiwilligendienstes keine Unterkunft zur Verfügung stellt" (where your host gives no room).

What the office checks. Berlin: that you are in Germany lawfully, for example on a long-stay visa ("zum Beispiel nationales D-Visum"). On the any-age scheme there is no age limit, but you must have finished your home country's compulsory schooling ("Bundesfreiwilligendienst: Eine Altersgrenze besteht nicht, die Schulpflicht des Herkunftslandes muss erfüllt sein"). It checks your written agreement, and that your living costs are covered ("Gesicherter Lebensunterhalt"). That is met when your monthly allowance, with the value of your room and food, reaches the standard benefit rate ("wenn das Taschengeld (eventuell zuzüglich des Werts von vereinbarten Sachleistungen und Verpflegungskosten oder Verpflegungskostenzuschüssen) dem Regelsatz des SGB II/XII entspricht"). It checks that you have enough health insurance, and public insurance is enough ("Gesetzlich Krankenversicherte sind ausreichend versichert"). Even a fine can block your permit ("Schon Geldstrafen können die Erteilung der Aufenthaltserlaubnis hindern"). "There is no automatic entitlement to a residence permit for participation in the Federal Volunteer Service. Decisions are always made on a case-by-case basis" (Mainz). "The procedure is generally conducted in German."

Cost. For a first permit: in Berlin 56 euros as a sticker in your passport (about ₦83,832) or 100 euros as a card (about ₦149,700), plus 6 euros for a photograph at its machine, paid by credit card or PayPal before you send its online form; in Munich 100 euros; in Mainz 100 euros for an adult. To extend: 93 euros for more than three months, 96 for up to three (Munich); Bistum Limburg's brochure: extending your permit costs about 100 euros, which you pay yourself ("Die Verlängerung des Aufenthaltstitels kostet ca. 100 €. Das musst du selbst bezahlen").

Time. Munich: 10 to 12 weeks. Mainz: about 6 to 8 weeks, and "approximately 4 to 6 weeks for the Federal Printing Office to produce the electronic residence permit". Berlin: a sticker on the day of your appointment, or a card in 4 to 6 weeks; its online application gives you a PDF confirming that your current visa stays valid past its date ("über das bisherige Gültigkeitsdatum hinaus im Bundesgebiet weiter gültig bleibt") until it decides, unless your visa had already expired on the day you applied.

You are done when you hold your residence permit, or the office's written confirmation that your visa stays valid while it decides.

If it goes wrong. "File an appeal against the decision of the Immigration Office within one month of its notification" (Mainz). "The residence permit is valid only for participation in the Federal Volunteer Service. If the purpose of the stay changes, the competent immigration office must be notified immediately."

Step 4. Your bank account, your numbers and your ticket

Do.

• Open a bank account. Anyone living lawfully in the EU, even without a fixed address, has a right to a basic bank account, and the bank must offer it within ten business days at the latest ("spätestens jedoch innerhalb von zehn Geschäftstagen"). Bistum Limburg: register your address first (Step 1): "Bevor du ein Konto eröffnen kannst, musst du dich im Bürgerbüro/Einwohnermeldeamt anmelden".
• Collect your numbers: your health insurance membership, your social insurance number, and your tax ID from the tax office (Finanzamt), as Bistum Limburg's brochure lists them. Your monthly allowance is tax-free ("ist steuerfrei"); a room, food and work clothes given on top of it are taxed.
• Your ticket. Bistum Limburg: the monthly bus and train pass for all of Germany (the Deutschlandticket) costs 63 euros a month (about ₦94,311), and it is already inside its allowance: "kostet im Monat 63 €. In deinem Taschengeld sind die 63 € für das Ticket bereits enthalten". At other hosts, ask who pays it (Stage 2).
• Your volunteer card. You get a volunteer ID card ("Die Freiwilligen erhalten einen Freiwilligenausweis"). It helps you get discounts; it gives no right to them.
• A German police clearance, if your placement asks. The certificate of good conduct (Führungszeugnis) is free for volunteers when the service needs it ("Freiwillige sind von der Gebühr für die Erteilung eines Führungszeugnisses befreit, wenn dies zur Ausübung des Freiwilligendienstes benötigt wird"), with your host's note that it is needed. Bistum Limburg's placements ask it from the district office (Landratsamt).
• The TV and radio fee for each home (the broadcasting fee, Rundfunkbeitrag). "For private households, the current fee is 18.36 euros per month" (about ₦27,485), "One dwelling, one fee", and your registration office tells the fee service when you register. No page says whether a room your host gives you is a dwelling for this fee. Ask your host the day you register: "Is my room registered for the Rundfunkbeitrag, or must I register it?"

You are done when your monthly allowance can be paid into your own account.

From volunteers who did it. Volunteers' rooms in their accounts of 2025 and 2026: a hospital hostel room with no food (India); a flat three minutes from work with the ticket paid (Kenya); a room in a shared flat with rent to pay (Bethel, 2026). Many speak of loneliness and the cold in the first months: "I live alone, I have never lived alone before in Africa ... it's quite lonely also but it's not so hard to make friends" (a Kenyan volunteer, 2025), and a volunteer placed in the countryside found that "life could really be a routine and monotonous" (2025).

Next. The year (Stage 8).

Stage 8. The year

Back to the short stages

You are working at your placement. Now do the year well: your hours, your seminars, your holidays, your health, and the rules that keep your permit.

Your hours. Full time means at least 35 hours a week ("Eine Vollzeitbeschäftigung erfordert eine wöchentliche Dienstzeit von mindestens 35 Stunden"), and where your placement's staff work between 35 and 40 hours, its hours apply: 38.5 to 40 at Freunde der Erziehungskunst, 39 at Diakonie Baden, about 40 at EOS and the Internationaler Bund. Not more than eight hours a working day as a rule, 48 a week at most; overtime is given back as time off, never paid. Night, Sunday and holiday shifts can be agreed where your placement's staff work them. Part time is possible only above 20 hours a week, with no right to it, and on the visa only if the service stays your main purpose.

Your work. Only helping tasks, with a trained person guiding you ("Die Aufgaben der Freiwilligen dürfen explizit nur praktische Hilfstätigkeiten unter fachkundiger Anleitung umfassen"). Volunteers describe early and late shifts at one rehabilitation clinic, and reception and documents at another (2025). The hard part, in a 2026 account: a volunteer with no German "couldn't understand" a wheelchair user asking to be turned, and called for help.

Your seminars. They are compulsory, and they count as your work time ("Der Besuch der Seminare ist verpflichtend. Die Seminarzeit gilt als Dienstzeit"). Under 27 on your first day: 25 seminar days in a twelve-month year, among them a five-day seminar on politics and society (political education) at a federal training centre. 27 or over on your first day: at least one seminar day a month. Seminars, travel, room and food there cost you nothing, and no holiday can be taken in a seminar period. Volunteers praise them: "one week every 3 months" with all the region's volunteers (a Kenyan volunteer, 2025).

Your holidays. At least 20 working days for twelve months on a five-day week (24 on a six-day week), and days you do not take are paid out at the end ("Nicht genommener Urlaub ist nach dem Ende des Dienstes abzugelten"). Hosts give more: 30 days at Diakonie Württemberg and Diakonie Baden, at least 26 at Freiwilligendienste DRS, usually 26 at the Internationaler Bund.

When you are sick. Your allowance and everything your host gives you go on for six weeks, and if you are sick for more than three days, your placement needs a doctor's note by the next working day: "In the event of illness, the monthly allowance and all other cash and non-cash benefits as well as mobility allowances shall continue for six weeks." "In the event of incapacity for work lasting more than three calendar days, the volunteer must provide the assignment location with evidence of the incapacity for work and its duration on the following workday at the latest"; at a seminar, on the first day. After six weeks your public health insurer pays sick pay (Krankengeld). Medical checks your work needs are arranged and paid by your placement.

No second job. Volunteers from abroad with a residence permit for the any-age scheme may do no side work ("Ausländische Freiwillige, die eine Aufenthaltserlaubnis für den BFD erhalten haben, dürfen keine Nebentätigkeit ausüben"). Munich: no other paid work beside the service ("neben der Teilnahme am Freiwilligendienst ist die Ausübung einer zusätzlichen Erwerbstätigkeit nicht erlaubt"). Freiwilligendienste DRS: no small side job (a mini job) during your service ("Du darfst keinen Minijob während deinem Freiwilligendienst machen"). The law bars any work other than the one your permit names, unless the immigration office allows it. A former volunteer says in a 2026 video that a short mini job is allowed; the pages say no. Take no other job.

Your trial period, and leaving early. "The first six weeks of the assignment are considered a probationary period" (a trial period), with two weeks' notice inside it; after it, four weeks' notice, ending on the fifteenth or the last day of a month; for a serious reason (good cause), at once; if you and your host both agree, any day. "The Agreement can only be terminated by the BAFzA or the volunteer." If your service ends early, your host must tell the immigration office within four weeks, and your residence permit ends too ("Wenn du deinen BFD vorzeitig beendest, endet auch deine Aufenthaltserlaubnis"; Freiwilligendienste DRS).

Staying away without permission. You lose the allowance and the rest for that time: "In the event of unexcused absence from the Federal Volunteer Service, there is no entitlement to cash benefits, benefits in kind or mobility allowances." After more than a month, your host takes you off the public insurance (it deregisters you).

Extending the year. Up to 18 months in all. Your request must reach the federal office (the BAFzA) before your first end date. A late one is refused, which can touch your right to stay: "Zur Bestätigung einer Verlängerung ist der rechtzeitige Eingang vor dem ursprünglichen Dienstende im BAFzA erforderlich. Nach Ablauf der ursprünglichen Dienstzeit eingegangene Anträge müssen abgelehnt werden". Your work permission must cover the extra months, so extend your residence permit before it runs out (Stage 7).

German at work. EOS gives free German courses ("Kostenlose Sprachkurse"), online or at your placement, from A2 to B2.2; Diakonie Baden pays for a course; Caritas in Freiburg gives one from your eighth month; Freiwilligendienste DRS refunds courses, books and exams. "Volunteers have no legal right to a language course": ask yours in your first week. Volunteers who did it: a Nigerian volunteer "used English" in her first week (2026), and a Kenyan volunteer who spoke German "7 hours a day" at work reached B2 in about four months (2025).

At the end. Your placement gives you a written reference on your work, your conduct and your skills ("ein schriftliches Zeugnis über die Art und Dauer des Dienstes mit Angaben zu Leistung und Führung sowie zu berufsqualifizierenden Merkmalen"), and a service certificate at the latest two months after you finish ("spätestens jedoch zwei Monate nach Dienstende"). Keep both: they are what you show for the next step.

Serving again. You may serve more than once. Until 27, all your months on the any-age scheme and the under-27 year together may not pass 18 (24 exceptionally), and after that total there must be five years before you serve on the any-age scheme again.

You are done when your last day is worked and you hold your reference and your service certificate.

On the volunteer year for people under 27 (the FSJ). The same hours, holiday and sick rules. Your seminars are a first, a middle and a last seminar of at least five days each, 25 days in all.

Next. What follows (Stage 9). Start it by your sixth month.

Stage 9. What follows

Back to the short stages

You are in your year. Now decide, by about your sixth month, whether you go home, train, or study, because each next step needs its own permit before your volunteer permit ends. What you may say about these hopes at your visa appointment is in Stage 5, "If you hope to stay on after the year".

What the year gives you, and what it does not. "Not an automatic right to stay in Germany after the program ends." The visa officers' rulebook (the visa handbook): taking part does not by itself give you a permanent stay ("Die Teilnahme an einem Freiwilligendienst begründet keinen Daueraufenthalt"). But the law does not bar switching to a new reason for your stay (a change of purpose), so staying on for another purpose is possible and allowed in principle ("Da ein Zweckwechsel gesetzlich nicht ausgeschlossen ist, sind Anschlussaufenthalte zu einem anderen Zweck denkbar und grundsätzlich zulässig"). While you hold a long-stay visa or a residence permit, the law lets you apply inside Germany for another permit (§ 39 no. 1 of the Residence Ordinance, a rule under Germany's immigration law). And if you apply before your permit expires, your old permit counts as still valid until the immigration office decides ("Beantragt ein Ausländer vor Ablauf seines Aufenthaltstitels dessen Verlängerung oder die Erteilung eines anderen Aufenthaltstitels, gilt der bisherige Aufenthaltstitel ... bis zur Entscheidung der Ausländerbehörde als fortbestehend").

Going home. Volunteers on weltwärts, the development programme, go home by design; on this route you choose. Freiwilligendienste DRS gives 300 euros towards your journey home after at least 12 months. Your reference and certificate count as an internship or as a gap term (a waiting semester) only where a university or a training place says so: "Check with the relevant authorities, organizations, schools, or universities in your home country."

Paid training for a trade (an Ausbildung).

• The permit. Section 16a of Germany's immigration law (the Residence Act): a permit for training at a company is to be granted ("soll erteilt werden") where Germany's job agency (the Federal Employment Agency) has agreed, or where its work rules (the Employment Ordinance) need no agreement. It also covers a German course to prepare for the training, and it lets you work beside it up to 20 hours a week ("bis zu 20 Stunden je Woche"). For a qualified vocational training, proof of German is asked unless the school checked it or a preparatory course is planned. The government's site for workers from abroad (Make it in Germany): "You will normally require German language skills at level B1"; and money of "at least €959 net per month", or a training allowance of "at least €1,048 gross or €822 net per month".
• When. Volunteers who stayed started around month six: "start 5 to 6 months before"; "Some people wait and when it is already 10 months, they now start running around" (an adviser, 2026). One who switched lists what the immigration office asked: insurance, a language certificate, proof of where she would live, and the training contract (2025).
• Where. Ask your placement at your interview whether it also trains, knowing that a yes now is no promise (the volunteer who switched says so, and Diakonie Baden says the year does not promise a training place); ask for a recommendation letter; and apply to training places from month six. Only the employer may be charged for placing you into training (the law: "Für die Leistungen zur Ausbildungsvermittlung dürfen nur vom Arbeitgeber Vergütungen verlangt oder entgegengenommen werden", payment for placing someone into training may be asked or taken only from the employer): nobody may charge you for a training place. Rekoja's Paid-Training Pack, opens in a new tab walks paid training.
• Cost. Switching your residence permit to a new reason (a change of purpose) is 98 euros (about ₦146,706).
• Volunteers who did it. Paid training, most often in nursing, is the commonest next step in their accounts: one African volunteer ended her under-27 year in late September 2026 and started nursing school on 1 October 2026.

A master's or other study. Section 16b: a study permit once a university has admitted you ("wenn er von der Bildungseinrichtung zugelassen worden ist"), with work up to 140 working days a year ("140 Arbeitstage im Jahr"). Universities can count your volunteer year as an internship ("Universitäten, Hochschulen und andere Ausbildungsstellen können Freiwilligen den BFD als Praktikum anrechnen"); ask your university. A master's asks 11,904 euros (about ₦17.8 million) in a German bank account filled in advance with your living money (a blocked account); your monthly allowance does not build it. A year that starts on 1 September 2027 ends in August 2028, so your master's starts in October 2028. Its windows open and close inside your service year. For October 2027 they opened between 15 August and 1 December 2026 and closed between 15 January and 15 July 2027; no university has printed its dates for October 2028 yet. Read each course's own dates in the master's guide's table from your second month. Rekoja's guide A German public university master's: from your Nigerian degree to your first semester, opens in a new tab walks the application, the money and the semester, and its table gives each course's window.

A job. Your volunteer permit allows only your service. Any job needs a permit of its own, applied for before your volunteer permit ends. No page in this guide says that a service year itself opens a job permit. What can open one is a degree:

• The EU Blue Card, Germany's work permit for graduates with a high salary, asks "Equivalence or comparability of the foreign academic qualification", a job offer of at least six months, and a salary of at least 50,700 euros a year (about ₦75.9 million), or 45,934.20 euros (about ₦68.8 million) for a shortage job or a degree under three years old (as of 2026).
• The skilled worker permit for a graduate (section 18b of the Residence Act) is for any qualified job ("jede qualifizierte Beschäftigung"), for a skilled worker with a university degree (an academic qualification).
• The Opportunity Card (Chancenkarte), a permit to look for work for up to one year, asks a degree recognised by the state, at least six points in its points system, German at A1 or English at B2, and 1,091 euros a month (about ₦1.6 million) in the same kind of living-money account or a sponsor's signed promise to pay your keep (a Declaration of Commitment).
• Your degree's recognition. "When applying for a visa or an EU Blue Card, you have to show that your university degree is comparable to a German qualification." If your university and your degree programme are both listed in Germany's online list of foreign universities and degrees (the anabin database) with the required evaluation, "a Statement of Comparability is not necessary". If not, Germany's central office for foreign education (the ZAB) issues a Statement of Comparability, a paper saying how your degree compares with a German one, for a Nigerian bachelor's, not for an HND or a diploma: 208 euros (about ₦311,376), 3 months, or 2 weeks for a Blue Card.

You can apply for any of these inside Germany, without going home, while your volunteer permit or visa is still valid (§ 39 no. 1 of the Residence Ordinance). Apply before it runs out, and your volunteer permit counts as continuing until the office decides. What decides it is whether you meet that permit's own lines above: the job offer, the salary, your degree's recognition.

What not to believe. Advisers say that universities "lower the bar" for volunteers and that "up to 70%" of volunteers in healthcare are offered training afterwards. No page states either.

You are done when you hold your next permit, or your ticket home, before your volunteer permit ends.

Part 4. What can stop you

These are the problems volunteers meet, in the order they meet them, and what you do about each.

Your deadlines

Write each date down the day it arrives.

What stops people, and what you do

No certificate, or one that is too old. The consulate takes no certificate "older than one year", and most hosts read no file without one. Sit the exam at the first date you can reach, and sit it again if your appointment will come more than a year after your exam (Stage 1).

German at the visa's level, not the hosts'. After signing up late, this is the mistake volunteers name most: A1 opens the visa, but most hosts ask B1 and interview in German. Reach B1 before you count on a September start (Stage 1).

Hosts that do not answer. "Demand is sometimes so high that it's not always possible to respond to every application." Write to at least three at once, and to the next one after three to four weeks of silence (Stage 2).

A host with no room. Do not sign an agreement with no free room unless its money alone reaches 855 euros a month. Where the agreement's own money falls short and you make up the rest yourself, the visa officers' rulebook (the visa handbook) says the application is likely to be refused. Sign an agreement that states your free room and your food, or one whose money alone reaches that line (Stage 3).

Names that differ across your papers. The consulate can send your papers to be checked (verification), at ₦370,000 (South) or ₦420,000 (North) and 6 to 8 months. Swear the right affidavit before your appointment (Stage 4).

A wrong entry on the waiting list. "Appointment bookings with wrong or incorrect information will be cancelled", and a booking in the wrong category is not attended to. Type every line exactly as your passport reads, and choose the volunteer category (Stage 3).

An agreement that comes late, or only by email. The federal office that approves it (the BAFzA) takes at least 6 weeks at one host's count, and it sends nothing abroad; the consulate takes no emailed copy. Ask your host to send the original by courier the week the federal office returns it, and tell your host your appointment date the day you have it (Stage 3).

A refused visa. Most refusals turn on the purpose: a year that does not fit your past, no plan after it, a letter your answers contradict. There is no appeal to the consulate. Read the reasons in the notice, put them right, and apply again, or go to the court in Berlin that hears visa cases within one month (Stage 5).

A start date that passes while you wait. Your approved agreement stays valid; up to about a month late is accepted, and later your host confirms it still wants you (Stage 5).

A permit that runs out. Apply for your residence permit before your visa ends, and for your next permit before your volunteer permit ends. If your service ends early, your permit ends with it (Stages 7, 8 and 9).

Someone selling a place, a contract, a certificate or an appointment. Every host and the consulate say all of these are free or not for sale. Pay nobody. Write to the host yourself (Part 1).

Part 5. If you already did some of this

Start at the first stage you have not finished.

You have no German yet. Start Stage 1 this week, study towards A2 or B1, and write to Diakonie Bayern now, while you study (Stage 2). In your first email, ask it which start month it offers you, and whether that placement gives you a free room and your food. If it says yes, with a room, sign up on the consulate's waiting list the same day (Stage 3, Step 3) and plan for the start it names.

You hold an A1 certificate only. Apply now to Diakonie Bayern, and keep studying to A2 and B1 (Stage 1, then Stage 2). In your first email, ask it which start month it offers you, and whether that placement gives you a free room and your food. If it says yes, with a room, sign up on the consulate's waiting list the same day (Stage 3, Step 3) and plan for the start it names. If not, plan for February or March 2028. Your A1 counts for the visa only while it is under a year old on your appointment day.

You hold A2. Apply this month to the hosts that take A2 (From today), and sit B1 (Stage 1).

You hold B1 or higher, under a year old. Start at Stage 2 this week.

Your certificate is more than a year old, or will be on your appointment day. Sit the exam again (Stage 1). Apply to hosts at the same time with the certificate you hold (Stage 2); the new one goes to the consulate.

You have applied to hosts and heard nothing. After three to four weeks, write once more and apply to the next three (Stage 2).

A host has said yes in writing, with your start date. Sign up on the consulate's waiting list today (Stage 3, Step 3), then start Stage 4.

You signed up on the consulate's waiting list before you had a host. The form asks your host's name and your start date, and wrong information gets a booking cancelled. Once a host says yes, cancel the old sign-up and sign up again with your host's details. A new sign-up is possible only a month after the last, so cancel the day the yes comes (Stage 3, Step 3).

You hold your agreement but no appointment. Sign up now if you have not (Stage 3, Step 3), and send your host your reference number.

You have an appointment date. Check your file against the sixteen items (Stage 4), your passport's three lines and your certificate's age, then go to Stage 5.

Your visa was refused. Read the reasons on the notice, tell your host, and choose between a new application and the court within one month (Stage 5).

You hold your visa. Book your flight for your start date and buy your short health insurance for any days before it (Stage 6).

You are in Germany. Register your address within two weeks, then your residence permit before your visa ends (Stage 7).

You are in your sixth month. Start Stage 9 now.

Part 6. The time, stage by stage

• Stage 1, your German: not stated on any page. Results: ÖSD 2 to 4 weeks (express as fast as 1 week); Goethe from 2 weeks after the speaking exam.
• Stage 2, your hosts: "usually ... within a few days"; Diakonie Baden several weeks; the Internationaler Bund 3 to 6 months.
• Stage 3, the yes and the waiting list: the approval of your agreement by the federal office (the BAFzA), at least 6 weeks (Freiwilligendienste DRS), plus the courier; the list "approx. 3 month"; your appointment date by email about 4 weeks ahead.
• Stage 4, your papers: a first passport 42 days after your photo and fingerprints are taken (enrolment), a re-issue 21 days; a police certificate, where asked, 5 to 7 working days (2 to 3 by express); the consulate's check of your papers (verification), where your names differ, 6 to 8 months.
• Stage 5, the decision: not stated on any official page; hosts say two to three months; status questions are not answered in the first 4 weeks.
• Stage 6, travel: your flight on your start date.
• Stage 7, your first month: registering your address (the Anmeldung) within two weeks; your residence permit 10 to 12 weeks in Munich, 6 to 8 weeks plus 4 to 6 for the card in Mainz, a sticker on the day or a card in 4 to 6 weeks in Berlin; a bank account within ten business days of asking.
• Stage 8, the year: usually twelve months, between six and 18.
• Stage 9, what follows: start by your sixth month; your service certificate within two months of your last day.

The whole route: no official page states it. From a B1 certificate in your hand to your first day, about eleven months for 1 September 2027. From no German, add your months to B1.

Part 7. The money, all of it

Every fee in the order you meet it, for you alone, on the route this guide walks, with ÖSD's exams. For paying in euros, see "Paying from Nigeria", before Stage 5.

What the total leaves out. Your German course; your NPC birth certificate for adults (birth attestation) and your affidavits (no page prints their fees); photographs, copies and your courier envelope; your travel to Lagos for your exam and your appointment, and a night there; your health insurance for the days before your service; your flight; and your food and transport until your first monthly allowance.

What your host pays. Your room and your food (or food money) at the hosts on the route this guide walks; your public insurance for pension, accidents, health, long-term care and loss of work, all of it; your seminars, with their travel, room and food; and your monthly allowance (the pocket money) each month.

What you receive each month, by host, on its own page:

The most any host may pay you is 676 euros a month (about ₦1 million), the federal ceiling. Diakonie Bayern and Diakonie Baden print no figure.

Your family. The room your host gives is for you alone, and on a 12-month service your spouse has no right to join you (Part 1, Check that you can start, "You are married, or you have children"). Your husband or wife applies for the visa to join you (a family reunion visa) on the German foreign ministry's online portal (Stage 3, Step 3 lists family reunion among the visas applied for online), not on your volunteer waiting list: "As of July 1st 2026, the German Consulate Lagos has switched to the foreign portal for processing family reunification visa applications", and those already on its old waiting list are called first. The consulate's question-and-answer page (its FAQ) says each family member books an appointment of her or his own. That is how a family member applies, not whether one may. Before your spouse books, ask the consulate at info@lago.auswaertiges-amt.de, with your reference number, whether your spouse may apply at the same time as you or only once your permit is issued. If only after, your spouse applies from Nigeria in your first months in Germany. Each family member pays the same 75-euro long-stay visa fee. Your spouse needs her or his own A1 certificate, and "In family reunion cases, an A1 language certificate may be submitted later if not yet available at the time of the interview." No page says yet how long a family reunion appointment takes at Lagos on the portal: ask it in the same email. If your marriage was only traditional or religious, the consulate verifies it, for ₦370,000 (papers from the South, which includes Port Harcourt) or ₦420,000 (from the North), in 6 to 8 months. A medical check of a child's age (an age assessment), only where the consulate doubts a child's age, is about 640 euros (about ₦958,080). No page states the money a volunteer's family must show; the law asks for a home big enough for you all, and money that keeps all of you without government benefits (public funds) (Part 1, Check that you can start).

The guide's date is 12 October 2026. Every fee, date and rule in it is from the official page that sets it, or the host's own page where the host sets it.

Applying costs you nothing, in the hosts' own words. "Arranging a volunteer placement costs nothing! Never pay anyone in your home country who promises you a volunteer placement in Germany!" (the Protestant volunteer services' portal, updated on 12 October 2026). "Die Bewerbung und Vermittlung sind kostenlos" (applying and placement are free; Diakonie Württemberg, updated on 12 October 2026). "Application forms, checklists and appointments are provided free of charge" (the German consulate in Lagos, updated on 12 October 2026).