Blocked Account

Blocked Account is a bank account required by the German Authorities as a proof of sufficient financial means necessary to receive a German visa. Blocked Account is essential for international students, au-pairs and job seekers that want to move to Germany. The monthly amount that should be blocked is being changed regularly and is adjusted to the minimal cost of living in Germany. In 2023, the required blocked amount is €934 per month or €11,208 for the whole year.

If you are going to Germany for long term and need a visa, most probably you will be asked for a confirmation of your financial resources. In such a case, you would need to open a Blocked Account and bring the confirmation to the German Authorities in order to apply for the visa.

Yes, the Blocked Account Expatrio is providing is accepted by all German authorities worldwide.

In order to open a Blocked Account with Expatrio you just need to go to our webpage, choose Blocked Account among the services listed, and then go through the questionnaire. After that, you would be asked to provide some personal information to create a user account. When the account is created and approved, you will be able to access the bank details necessary for money transfer. When the funds reach your bank account, you will get the confirmation document necessary for your visa application.

The Blocked Account fees paid for Expatrio services are €49 for account set up (one-time fee) and €5 monthly fee. Please take into consideration that together with these fees you will be asked to transfer the Blocked Amount required by the German Authorities. This amount varies depending on the length of your expected stay in Germany. An additional €100 buffer is required as it will be used to cover potential transaction fees if such occur. The buffer will be sent back to you together with the last monthly disbursement from your Blocked Account.

You can use any bank or remittance service to transfer the necessary amount to your Blocked Account. Via Expatrio Payments, you are able to perform a domestic transfer in your own currency in many countries, which makes the process faster and less expensive. You also have the possibility of transferring in USD or EUR.

Normally international money transfers take around 3-5 business days, while domestic bank transfers take 2-3 business days. However, in some cases, the process can last up to 14 days. The speed mainly depends on the country from which the money is transferred and the channel which is used for the transaction. When choosing the domestic transfer option (if available), the money transfer usually takes 1-3 business days.

When the funds arrive at your Blocked Account you will immediately receive an automatic email confirmation. Such confirmation can be brought to your visa appointment as proof of your financial resources.

From the point in time when you request to activate your Blocked Account by submitting all the necessary documents, it will take us 24 hours to validate them (otherwise we would come back to you asking to provide more details if something is missing). After the documents are validated, it would take 2-3 business days for the transaction to take place and the money to arrive.

In case of visa rejection, Expatrio will transfer you back the whole amount from your Blocked Account as well as the service fees.