Quick Initial Guide for New

Students in Dresden
This document is written for voluntarily help and based on the
information gained through previous years. There could be some
changes and if there are; I apologize for the inconvenience.
Moreover this document is written mainly for the audience of
Masters program. Other students may have to follow some steps
and may be benefited from this document. This document only
provides guidance and you are welcome and free to investigate
information yourself.
Tasks you need to do after arriving in Dresden. Addresses of
the offices can be found below.
1.

Keep all your documents (especially Passport) with you for all
the steps.

2.

Visit Studentenwerk office, pay the deposit and get the

contract of your accommodation. Go to your dorm and show that
contract to the housemaster of your dorm to get the keys of your
room.

3.

Go to City Registration office, show them your accommodation

contract, passport etc. and register yourself in the City of
Dresden. You will get a document of City registration from them.

4.

Visit the nearest Deutsche Bank, show them your passport,

accommodation contract, city registration etc. and activate your
bank account.

5.

Now you have to enrol yourself in TU Dresden. For enrolment

you will need health insurance along with the above stated
documents and admission letter. If you want Public Health
insurance (there are also private health insurances. Differences
are in benefits and monthly premium. But that is a different topic,
just for the suggestion, if you need to visit clinics often and want
to be completely on safe side take any Public health insurance
like TK, AOK, Barmer etc.). You can visit the nearest offices of
these health insurance companies to get the insurance. During
enrolment period usually the representatives of various health
insurance companies can also be found in the international office
building.

6.

Visit international office of TU Dresden on 6th floor with all the

documents and enrol yourself.

7.

Most of the steps are completed so far. Attend orientation from

university. Buy things for your new room. Get your internet
connection installed by contacting any internet administrator of
your dorm (This task, you could also do after getting your room
contract and keys, so that you could stay connected with family
and other people in Dresden, in case you dont have a sim card.)

8.

Last but not least, email Auslanderbehrde (Foreign office) for

the appointment of your visa extension. This can be done within
one month or so. Email of Auslanderbehrde
termin.auslanderbehoerde@dresden.de

Please be aware of the opening hours of these offices. Due to new

students in Dresden in this time frame, there could be some
exception, which is why I have not stated the opening times in this
document.
Studentenwerk Office
Address: Fritz-Lffler-Str. 18
Bus/Tram Station: Reichenbachstrae
Bus/Tram Number: 3, 8, 66
Link: http://www.studentenwerk-dresden.de/

City Registration Office

Address: Theaterstrae 11
Bus/Tram Station: Postplatz
Bus/Tram Number: 1, 9, 12, 2, 4, 8
Link: https://welcome.dresden.de/en/entry/registration.php

International Office TU Dresden

Address: Strehlener Str. 22
Bus/Tram Station: Strehlener Platz
Bus/Tram Number: 11, 66
Link: https://tu-dresden.de/studium/im-studium/beratung-undservice/akademisches-auslandsamt/index/document_view?set_language=en

FAQs
Q: Public transport tickets in Dresden.
A: Before enrollment in TU Dresden, you will not have your semester
ticket so to use public transport (Buses and Trams), you need to buy
the ticket. There are many different types of tickets options available
for example 1 hour, 4 hours, Day ticket etc. All the information about
these tickets can be found in https://www.dvb.de/en-gb/

Q: How to find out tram and bus connections.

A: You could use the printed maps to find out the connection to your
destination. You can find these maps free of charge in DVB (Dresden
VerkehersBetriebe AG = Dresden Transport Service) offices at
various Bus/Tram stations. Another option is to install application on
your mobile phones. You would require the internet connections to
use these apps. Some of the popular apps are Faplino, Offi, DB
Navigator etc.

Q: Halal Food availability.

A: Normally one could eat vegetarian food from anywhere but for
other food you have to be careful with the ingredients (should not
contain Animal Fett, Gelatin, and Alcohol). People here follow
different fatwas (I respect them), but here I will only state the
products or the shops, which have stated Halal in written form.
You can find Halal chicken in Netto, Aldi and Kaufland. Not all
chicken products are halal, there is only one specific product from
Wiesenhof which has halal stamp on it.
Moreover, you can buy halal meat from some Arabic, Turkish,
Bangladeshi and Iraqi shops. Here are the addresses of few shops
where you can find Halal products and traditional spices.
Zlfikar Supermarket: Alttrachau, 01139 Dresden
Orient Bazar: Knigsbrcker Str. 6C
Tukwila-Globalbazar: Bautzner Str. 16 Etc.
Furthermore some of the kebab shops offer halal meat, but you have
to ask them before buying.

Q: Initial shopping for your room or apartment.

A: When you arrive in Dresden, you may need to buy some, utensils
and households. For that IKEA is a big store in Dresden, where you
will find almost everything at reasonable price.
Address: Elbe Park, Peschelstrae 25

Bus/Tram Station: ElbePark

Bus/Tram Number: 9, 64, 70, 72

Q: Mosques in Dresden.
A: There are three mosques in Dresden.
Islamisches Zentrum Dresden
Address: Flgelweg 8
Bus/Tram Station: Flgelweg
Bus/Tram Number: 1, 70, 80, 94

MKEZ Dresden
Address: Marschnerstrae 2
Bus/Tram Station: Straburger Platz
Bus/Tram Number: 1, 2, 4, 10, 13

DiTiB Fatih Camii

Address: Hhndorfer Str. 14
Bus/Tram Station: Pennricher Strae
Bus/Tram Number: 2, 12

Q: Cheapest/Free/Temporary Prepaid Sim. (Information

courtesy: Omair Ahmed)
A: There are many mobile service provider like O2, Telekom,
Vodafone etc. NetzClub is one of the best option you could avail for
free. Its a prepaid sim, which can be order online without any
charges.
With the sim you would get free 100 MB high speed internet every
month and unlimited slow internet. For calls and SMS (9 cents per
min/SMS) you have to recharge with 02 card. All you need is the
address to order this sim. Even with the slow internet, you can
conveniently use Messengers, tram connection application and
many essentials apps. Here I may sound like their marketing agent,
but trust me, I am not :)
Link: www.netzclub.net

Q: Public and Private Health insurances.

A: In Germany, it is mandatory for everyone to have health
insurance. There are two type of Health Insurances available in
Germany i.e. Public (GKV) and Private (PKV). Public health
insurances are State/Government health insurances, while Private
health insurances are owned by public sector companies. If you are

acquiring Private health insurance, make sure that the provider is

recognized in Germany.
Now there are various angles to look on these Public and Private
health insurances. Here, I will only be explaining in terms of a person
with Student status. If you are a employer or something else,
then various things changes. For students there are student
packages in both private and public health insurances.
In public health insurance, for students, there is kind of a fixed
package. Public health insurance cost around 80 to 90 Euros per
month. Public health insurance covers almost every possible benefit.
There are exceptions in some special treatments, for example dental
treatment. Some of the Public health insurance companies are TK,
AOK and Barmer etc.
In private health insurance, there are various insurance companies
offering many different packages. You have to browse through their
websites to find out about the monthly premium, benefits, and
special terms and conditions of the packages. Roughly the monthly
premium of private health insurance ranges from 18 to 90 Euros. Ofcourse, the lesser you pay, the lesser benefits you will get. Also the
monthly premium of these private health insurance, increase by
30% to 50% after some duration (12 months or 18 months). Some of
the private health insurance provider are Care Concept, Mawista,
and Continental etc.
Now there are few thing which you should keep in mind about the
German health system. A normal visit to a Family doctor (HausArzt)
can cost around 30 to 50 Euros. A surgery or medical treatment can
cost around 200 to several thousand Euros, depending on the type
of treatment. So if you choose, the health insurance with least
monthly premium and with very limited benefits, you might have to
pay for the major part of the treatment by your own. Before opting
for private health insurance, you must carefully analyze the terms
and condition of your health insurance package.
The most important thing here to consider is, that normally
international office expect for the student up to the age of 30 years,
to get Public health insurance by default. But if you want to opt
private health insurance, then you have to show the exemption
letter along with your private health insurance certificate. You can
get this exemption letter from any public health insurance office.
The exemption letter will state that the person do not want to opt
Public health insurance and will not be allowed to get any Public
health insurance for the study period. This means once you get this
exemption, you cannot get Public health insurance with you student

visa status. Also, if you opt for Public health insurance, you cannot
cancel it, with your student visa status. The visa status has to
change for changing insurance. (The information given in this
paragraph was collected 2 years ago.)
As far as my suggestion goes, I cannot really suggest someone
which insurance to opt. But I have presented the overview, to the
best of my knowledge. As I already said, if you want to be
completely on safe side, go for Public health insurance.

Important Note:
This document can contain a lot of mistakes and everybody is
welcome to suggest corrections or additions. Please let me know via
personal message, I will edit this doc accordingly. Please do not
comment, the corrections or the addition; because that would create
a huge unorganized comment list. Just let me know, the corrections
or the additions you want to make, I will edit this doc and clearly
mention your name. Thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
Talha Iqbal
(Document version 1.0.3, Revision 20.09.2016)