• In order to facilitate administrative formalities, together with the Student Agreement Draft (SAD), and information leaflet, Partner Country applicants receive a letter of acceptance to be used for visa procurement.
  • Besides, upon request by the applicant we send a letter to the embassies or consulates involved, with general information about the ECT Consortium, the ECT+ EMJMD and the individually-tailored programme of formation designed for the Applicant.
  • The ECT Secretariat recommends the students to take advantage of the Induction week (carried out, in parallel with the vivas, Farewell Assembly and Graduation of a previous cohort) to apply for residence permits and to open the bank account in a local office of the Bank nearby the PiE-UPV/EHU.

Advise: travel agencies are excellent in this respect and we recommend the students to contact them to solve some problems locally.

Visas and residence permits: France

If you are a citizen of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Swiss Confederation, you do not need a visa. Otherwise, you must have a type D visa stamped «Student».

To obtain a visa, go to the French Consulate or French Embassy in your home country to find out which documents you must produce and how long it takes to obtain them or go to campusfrance.org.

All non-EU, non-Swiss or non-EEE nationals, who reside in France for more than three consecutive months or who, in the case of intermittent periods of residence, are effectively present in France for more than three months in any six-month period must obtain a residence or stay permit (titre de séjour).

Visas and residence permits: Belgium

If you are a national from outside EEA planning to move towards Belgium, you will need to apply for a visa at the Belgian Embassy or Consulate in your home country.

Different types of visa exist:

  • Scientific visa: Any non European researcher coming to Belgium in the frame of a hosting agreement signed with an approved research organisation benefits from a simplified and accelerated procedure to get its visa and residence permit – valid during the period of its research (the work permit requirement is cancelled). Please contact your future host organization for more details. Once you arrive in Belgium, you must go personally to the foreigners’ office of the municipal authorities of your place of residence in order to apply for a residence permit.
  • Visa C: The short-term “Schengen” visa allows you to stay in Belgium for maximum three months . It also gives you the right to travel freely through all the Schengen Member States2
  • Visa D: Also known as the “authorisation for provisional sojourn”, this visa allows you to reside and work in Belgium for a period longer than three months.

Visas and residence permits: Portugal

Visas and residence permits: Norway

Visas and residence permits: Spain

The Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Euskadi, is institutionally integrated in Spain. Spain is a European Union member state, which means that researchers and professionals coming from the European Economic Area –EU member states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway–, or Switzerland are subject to EU regulations, being able to enter, leave, stay or move freely within the country’s territory. The EU citizens have the right to take up employment, whether working for an employer or for himself/herself as a self-employed person, receiving remuneration in return, and supply or get services.

Student Visas. Those citizens who want to carry out unpaid research or training tasks, or continue their studies in Spanish officially recognised educational centres or scientific institutions (whether public or private) must have a student visa. Student visas must be applied for at the Spanish diplomatic mission or consular office in the student’s country of residence.

Student visas enable foreign citizens to live in Spain for as long as their courses, studies, research projects, or training take. Students or researchers’ family members (spouses and children under 18 or in their custody) can also apply for residence permits to live in Spain, with no need for previous stay on the part of the student/researcher. If the stay must be longer than six months, they must apply for a foreign student card, which certifies that they are legal residents in Spain.

Student visa holders (but not their families) can perform paid occupational activities if they have a request form from an employer, meet the relevant requirements, and the activities are compatible with their studies. A part-time or a three-month full-time employment contract will be necessary.

Additional information

Residence permit. In order to be legal residents in Spain, non-EU nationals must have a residence permit. Residence permits can be temporary (90 days to five years) or permanent (indefinite stay and employment under the same conditions as Spanish citizens).

EU citizens who want to apply to a Spanish Mobility grant or want to open a bank account in Spain (e.g., to receive grant funds) will need to apply for a Citizen Register Certificate. This requires their presence in the Central Police Offices in Bilbao and the procedure will be assisted by the MER Secretariat.

Non-EU citizens who want to apply to a Spanish Mobility grant will need the residence permit in accordance with the Statutory law on rights and liberties of the foreigners in Spain and its social integration. Those with a student residence permit not eligible.