How ASEAN Students Certify and Submit Documents to German Universities Through Uni-Assist
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 07, 2026 • Study Abroad
Uni-assist checks and certifies your school and university documents before most German universities look at your application. You register at uni-assist.de, upload certified copies, pay a handling fee, and get either a forwarded assessment or a VPD certificate you submit yourself.
📩 Handling fee: 75 EUR for your first chosen course, 30 EUR for each extra course in the same semester
Copies must be certified true copies, not plain scans or photocopies
⏱️ Processing commonly takes several weeks, so start 6-8 weeks before your target deadline
A VPD stays valid for about a year but is issued for one specific university, so confirm with uni-assist if applying to more than one
What Uni-Assist Does
Uni-assist is a document-checking service many German universities use to verify foreign school and university certificates before an admissions office reviews an application. Instead of every university checking your Indonesian, Filipino, Vietnamese or Malaysian certificate against German entry rules on its own, uni-assist does that check once and passes a rating to the university, or issues you a certificate you submit yourself. Confirm on each university's admission page first, since some review foreign documents in-house and do not use uni-assist at all.
Two Ways Your Application Gets Processed
Uni-assist runs two separate procedures, and which one applies depends on the university you apply to.
Standard procedure: you apply to a specific university and course through uni-assist. Uni-assist checks your documents and sends an assessment directly to that university's admissions office.
VPD procedure (Vorprüfungsdokumentation ): some universities want you to apply directly and only ask for a VPD, a certificate from uni-assist confirming your qualification and converting your grades to the German scale. You request the VPD yourself, then attach it to your direct application.
Step by Step
Create a My-assist account at uni-assist.de and check whether your target university needs the standard procedure or a VPD.
Get certified true copies of your school-leaving certificate, transcripts, and, for postgraduate applicants, your bachelor's degree and transcript.
Get certified translations into German or English for any document not already in one of those languages.
Scan and upload the certified copies through your My-assist account, then submit the online application for each course or the VPD request.
Pay the handling fee by bank transfer or credit card.
Wait for uni-assist to check your file. If anything is missing, you get a notification and a chance to add it before the deadline.
Certifying Your Documents
A certified true copy carries a stamp and signature confirming it matches the original. Get one from a notary public, the school or university that issued the document, or a German embassy or consulate in your country.
Plain photocopies or uncertified scans get rejected, so build the certification step into your timeline instead of leaving it for the week before a deadline.
Fees
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| First chosen course (per semester) | 75 EUR |
| Each additional course in the same semester | 30 EUR |
The handling fee is the same for the standard procedure and the VPD procedure, and it does not get refunded if you withdraw your application or get rejected.
Vietnamese Applicants Need APS First
If you completed your schooling or university studies in Vietnam, uni-assist requires an APS certificate from the Academic Evaluation Centre at the German Embassy in Hanoi before it processes your file, regardless of your citizenship. Applicants from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and most other ASEAN countries skip this step and go straight to the uni-assist application.
Common Reasons for Delay
Missing certified translations, transcripts issued per semester instead of as one cumulative document, and school-leaving certificates in a provisional format are the most common reasons uni-assist pauses a file. If your final certificate is not ready when you apply, check whether the university accepts a provisional certificate first and the final one later, since this varies by institution.
Timeline
Uni-assist tells applicants to allow several weeks for document review, and this stretches longer during peak intake periods: May-July for the September/October semester, November-January for the March/April semester. Submit your certified documents and payment 6-8 weeks before the university's application deadline, not on the deadline itself.
A VPD stays valid for about a year from its issue date, but uni-assist issues it for one specific university. If you plan to apply to more than one VPD-accepting university, confirm with uni-assist whether you need a separate VPD request for each one.