International Office

The Goethe Welcome Centre will serve as your central point of contact and can give or arrange professional, expert advice on all non-academic affairs. The Goethe Welcome Centre is a single source of support for you and your family across a wide and comprehensive range of matters. In its capacity as the central facility for networking and interlinking the existing services and programmes and for pooling expertise and skills at the university, the Goethe Welcome Centre maintains contacts with all the existing service points at the university. The Goethe Welcome Centre additionally offers its own services, fine-tuning these to specifically meet your requirements.

In addition to assistance with all non-academic, extra-curricular fields, the Goethe Welcome Centre also supports the socio-cultural and linguistic integration of international researchers. The Goethe Welcome Centre, in cooperation with the Internationales Studien- und Sprachenzentrum (ISZ), also offers courses for German as a foreign language at different levels.

We would be pleased to draw up a personal support plan for you. If you have any special needs or wishes, please feel free to contact us.

We currently offer the following services:

Services before you arrive

• Advice regarding your visa application
• Information about documents and papers you need
• Accommodation
• Advice on the immigration of your spouse and/or children
• Information about travelling to Frankfurt
• Counceling on research funding options for post-docs 

Services when you arrive

• Orientation Information 
• General counselling
• Helping you find permanent accommodation
• Providing advice and accompanying you on visits to local authorities (Registration, Residence Permit)
• Answering formal questions about health insurance, pension insurance, other forms of insurance, taxes, banks, international driver’s licence, registering a car
• Information about the ID card for the library, an email address, Goethe-Card and WiFi access at Goethe University

Services during your stay

• Support in all non-academic matters
• Change of address
• Coordinating the subsequent immigration of your spouse and/or children
• Helping you with questions relating to the compatibility of family and career
• Providing support for your spouse or partner on how best to continue their previous career path
• Information on childcare facilities
• Helping you to find a school in Frankfurt and surrounds
• German as a foreign language courses
• Information on doctors and hospitals where other languages, besides German, are spoken
• Information about life in Frankfurt
• Information on the range of cultural events, programmes and sporting activities offered in Frankfurt and at the university.
• GWC's events and seminars related to social integration
• GRADE training programme for Postdocs

Services at the end of your stay

• Organising and coordinating formalities before you leave, such as terminating your rental agreement, deregistering with the Frankfurt Municipality, terminating insurance contracts, etc.