FAQs

This is a general text. Some applicants need to complete missing documents for registration, etc. Every applicant has this individual information clearly indicated on his/her corresponding entry and have received emails (registered in the message lists of the online application) with details.

Also, the Student Agreement Draft is available on line for each applicant. This will be the basis to agree a final Student agreement of which two originals will be produced and signed once the student has started the semester.
Full enrolment is only considered once the registration fees have been paid as declared in the SAD document and the bank transfer proof has been uploaded to the online registration system. This must be achieved before the given deadline.

All the students pay for the housing on their own except maybe some field courses.
Erasmus Mundus Scholarship holders receive a monthly allowance to cope with these expenses. They do not have to pay anything to the universities because the participation costs cover tuition fees, field courses, language training, some accommodation and displacements but the payment of travel and accommodation is responsibility of the students.
Erasmus Mundus Scholarship holders receive travel allowance to cover main mobility (e.g., from/to home; between partners; semester 4 abroad; visa expenses and permit procedures; etc.) and monthly allowance to cover accommodation and maintenance. Travel allowance will be paid once the scholarship holder opens a bank account (see below), along September Year 1 (50%) and before September Year 2 (50%). If a payment in advance is needed the Secretariat could manage your travel reservations if you send us the detail of your travel preferences.

Students coming to Plentzia the first week of September will go directly to the camping nearby the Plentzia Marine Station (PiE-UPV/EHU). Information on other accommodations can be found here: http://www.ehu.es/en/web/nazioarteko-harremanak/en-your-first-nights.
You can take advantage to visit some apartments and maybe fix a contract to stay in Plentzia between February and June, or look for accommodation in nearby town for Semester 2/3.

You do not need to come to Plentzia in early September for administrative tasks; however, you might benefit from meeting your future classmates, attending the MSc vivas of year 2 students (from 2022) and preparing your stay (e.g. accommodation) for Semester 2/3.

In August we cannot provide you with any support as most of the services and university offices are on holidays.

Your passport, the acceptance letters and, in some cases, the fiscal number and the national ID card.

If the Scholarship monthly allowance is paid in your Spanish bank account this means that you can use your card for payments and cash retrieval from cash dispensers (e.g. without charge in Euro6000 servers, etc.) in France/Belgium or you can transfer the money every month in a European account and pay the transfer fees. It can be also the other way round.

Changes in the revised study plan might be possible even along September Semester 1 but the Secretariat will try to keep them at a minimum. Overall, the revised study plan recommended by the JPB is aimed at merging as much as possible (there might be mistakes, misunderstanding and biases; obviously) each student’s profile and background with the MSc thesis research field; though seldom might also occur that there are limited seats for certain courses or that a course is not a part of the offer in a given academic year. On the other hand, the MSc Thesis subject, lab and supervisor will be only definitive before starting Semester 3.

The JPB wish to encourage you to self-organise as ECT students. For this reason a preliminary student list with indication of pathways and emails is provided to the students starting each year.

Should I have to apply for three different visas (Spain, France and Belgium) BEFORE leaving my country? Should I ask all three visas to be valid for 6 months each?

Our general advice is to apply for a visa in the country you are going to stay in the first semester. If you are going to be in Pau or Bordeaux in the first semester, contact with the French Embassy in your country. I f you are to Liége, contact with the Belgium. Having taken into account previous years experience, the procedure to ask for a visa in Spain is more difficult and it is impossible to obtain the residence card in just one week (the induction week).
In the second semester, when you move to another country, with a French/Belgium residence card you can apply for a new card in the country you are studying.
Theoretically, there is a European directive (2016/801) that states “The duration of the authorisation for students who are covered by Union or multilateral programmes that comprise mobility measures or by an agreement between two or more higher education institutions shall be at least two years, or for the duration of their studies where this is shorter.” This would make the process much easier for students, as they only would have to notify the mobility, without asking for a new card in a second Member State. However, in practice, it is hard to get this type of visa. For instance, In Belgium they have not applied this directive yet. In Spain and France this directive is valid but in the end few students get it.

I’m an MER scholarship holder. I’m applying for a pre-visa and visa now. In visa documents list, they said all the candidate need to provide parent’s bank prove and an agreement document signed by parents to prove that they are willing to give financial support to candidate. I mean as a full scholarship holder, do I need to provide these documents(these are really troublesome)?
I’ve saw that the scholarship details, which contains our visa fee. Does this mean I don’t need to pay for my visa? If so, what do I need to fill in the sponsor’s blank?
Erasmus Mundus scholarship holders are provided with the EACEA Scholarship Selection Document (that is competed with the official export file from the EMTOOL, especially relevant for updates such as promotion from Reserve to Main lists), the Scholarship Award Letter and Financial declaration documents provided by the Secretariat.
Other financial sustainability proofs are only needed for those students without a Mundus Scholarship.
Each one pays for his/her visa procedures costs and taxes; Erasmus Mundus scholarship holders receive the mobility allowance to cover these expenses.

Please, if it is not too much of a burden to you, may I request for a step by step process/procedure, starting from visa processing (what embassy should we apply) to arrival in the country of destination (what country – France or Spain) to the processing of residents permit and the opening of bank account. This process flow will be a great help for us new students.
This is not a question of work load. Apart from the above guidelines and comments nothing can be more formally established; procedures and requirements may change substantially depending on each Embassy/Consulate office and a common useful process flow cannot be directly provided; it will create more confusion and procedural problems.

Legalization is the process by which documents issued outside of Spain become officially recognized.

– Countries where the directives for degree recognition of the Council of the European Union are applicable:

Germany, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Island, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland by bilateral agreement with the EU. If your degree is from any of the countries above, you do not need to legalize it.

– Countries who have signed The Hague Convention Agreement of October 5, 1961:

The first point applies to countries listed below and which are EU members.

The Hague Convention Member Countries are all the countries of the European Economic Area plus the following:
Andorra, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia,Azerbaijan, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina,Botswana, Brunei-Darussalan, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Korea,Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, the United States of America, the Russian Federation , Fiji, Georgia, Granada, Honduras,Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Liberia, Macao, Macedonia, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Moldavia, Monaco, Mongolia, Mexico, Montenegro, Namibia, Nicaragua, the island of Niue , New Zealand, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Samoa, St Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, Saint Vicent Grenadines, Santa Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia , the Seychelles, Switzerland, South Afrika, Surinam, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ucraine, Vanuatu, Venezuela. Extensions: the Netherlands (the Dutch Antilles, Aruba); United Kingdom(Anguila, Jersey, the bailiwick of Guernsey, Isle of Man, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Santa Elena, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands). To legalize documents from these countries, the Apostille issued by the competent authorities is required.

– Other countries not included in these first two categories: The degree must be legalized by diplomatic means. It must be submitted to*:

1. The Ministry of Education in the country where the degree has been issued
2. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country issuing the degree
3. The Spanish diplomatic representatives in that country

Documents issued by diplomatic or consular authorities of other countries in Spain must be legalized by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

*These are not optionals, the three stamps are required.

When you have to submit an official degree or other official documents issued abroad, you have to take into account the language these are written in and also which administrative procedure you are going to follow (1 or 2):

1. Procedure for official recognition of the foreign degree: in this procedure the documents issued in languages other than English or Spanish must be accompanied by an official translation into English or Spanish carried out by a sworn translator who is duly authorized.
2. In the remaining cases you will have to take into account the language in which the documents you submit are written:
   • Documents written in Spanish or English: documents written in Spanish or English do not need an official translation.
   • Documents in other languages: documents in other languages must be accompanied by an official translation into English or Spanish carried out by a sworn translator.

This document is mandatory to make the pre-registration at the university.
https://www.ehu.eus/en/web/estudiosdeposgrado-graduondokoikasketak/batez-besteko-notaren-baliokidea

In this link you will find the instructions to do it and another link to the Spanish Education Ministry to ask for it. First steps are in Spanish, but after making a profile it is possible to change the language. Not necessary to have the official translation into Spanish to get the overall grade, although the application indicates that.

This document is issued by the Spanish Ministry of Education and in Secretariat we don’t have any relationship with it. We try to help students with questions ( specially with the first steps) but we don’t know the application in depth, so it is better to make contact with the following address: notamedia.uni@ciencia.gob.es