Studying or pursuing research abroad always also means obeying the law as it provides the framework within which a project can be carried out. This begins with entry and residence regulations and accommodation and ends with the host institution’s rules and proper conclusion of your studies or research.
If one has the additional advantage of receiving financial support to carry out one’s project, there are further requirements to be met. – From the very beginning the OeAD has therefore paid special attention to providing legal advice and guidance for foreign students before and during their stays in Austria.
The information that the OeAD provides on admission procedures at Austrian higher education institutions as well as on the current provisions of the law relating to aliens is still highly appreciated today. The OeAD’s first legal consultations date back to the academic year 1963/64. Moreover, from the very beginning the OeAD liaison officers were given a say not only before academic authorities but also in matters of renewal of already granted visas as this significantly supports the aliens police in checking foreign students’ proper study progress.
In the aftermath of the Prague Spring (1968), which brought many Czechoslovakian refugee students to Austria, the OeAD had to prove itself both as accommodation and crisis manager and as mediator in all kinds of legal matters between the group of refugees willing to study and the Austrian authorities (it passed with flying colours and received a lot of recognition). It took until 1974 for the OeAD to set up a “legal department” for foreign students but this was due more to the abolition of the liaison officers by the rectorates than to OeAD's belated insight.
A milestone was the “OeAD Confirmation” introduced in 1994 for third-country nationals: This guarantees that a person receives a scholarship in Austria and has accident and health insurance here. As a result, it is now possible to apply directly for a visa, which is an enormous relief in dealing with the preliminary processes.
This brief excerpt from the history of the OeAD’s legal counselling acquires an authentic colouratura through everyday events, which naturally rather stick in people’s memories than finding their way into annual reports:
A scholarship holder was overjoyed when she found out that she was pregnant – so great was her joy that she completely forgot to enquire about the legal implications of having a baby as a (foreign) scholarship holder in Austria. Weeks and months passed in this blissful unconcern. It was only when the staff in the OeAD Regional Office noticed that the scholarship holder was expecting that they gently familiarised her with the Austrian legal system – and activated the OeAD’s legal counselling. Finally, there was a happy ending and the OeAD received a letter from the scholarship holder (who did not yet speak German so well then) soon after she had given birth, thanking the OeAD very much for her baby. Whether and how much this filled the OeAD with pride and fatherly joy has not been handed down.
Author: Tibor Szabo, Sector Corporate Support & Ombudsperson