"What to do after Erasmus acceptance: your first 30-day plan"
A guide listing the tasks to complete in the first 30 days from receiving your Erasmus acceptance letter through to arrival week.
The first month after your acceptance letter arrives is the decisive stretch of the whole Erasmus process. The reason is simple: three decisions taken in this month — housing, the visa appointment and the course plan — shape the next six, and all three run on quotas or appointment queues. What you lose by being late is not time; it is options.
The plan below is split by week. The order is not arbitrary: each step depends on the output of the previous one.
Week 1: work out the critical path
The single aim of this week is to see which task is blocking which.
Collect the acceptance letter and every deadline in one place. The host institution's registration date, your home institution's document deadline, the day housing applications open, and the visa appointment calendar. These come from different organisations and nobody coordinates them on your behalf.
Check your passport validity. Most countries require a passport valid for at least three months beyond your return date. If it needs renewing, that has to finish before the visa appointment — and can take weeks on its own.
Apply for housing in the same week. University halls fill on the first day at nearly every institution. If applications have not opened yet, set an alarm for the opening date. Missing student housing is the single decision that can double your budget.
Read the insurance conditions. The policy has to cover the whole Erasmus period and be valid for Schengen. Since it goes into the visa file, it must be ready before the appointment.
Week 2: start the visa and residence chain
Research and book the visa appointment. In peak season slots run four to eight weeks out. The appointment date is the real constraint on your departure date.
Handle the country-specific precondition. This varies completely by country and is usually a prerequisite for the visa file:
- Germany: the blocked account. Confirmation takes anywhere from two days to two weeks depending on the provider, so it must start before the visa appointment. Germany guide
- Netherlands: the BSN needs an address, and the address needs a contract. The sequence starts with housing. Netherlands guide
- Poland: residence formalities happen after arrival, but insurance and housing come first. Poland guide
Confirm the grant process with your own office. The instalment split, the payment schedule, and which documents are wanted when. Do not book flights before you know when the first instalment lands — details in the grant payment article.
Week 3: lock down the academic side
Re-check the course catalogue on the host institution's site. The catalogue you used to draft the Learning Agreement may have been updated; courses close or move semester.
Confirm credit and content matching with your coordinator. The most common cause of recognition problems at the end is this check not being done before departure.
Note the academic calendar and registration week. Orientation and registration usually run a week before classes and attendance is compulsory at most institutions. Plan the flight around it.
For change rules, see the Learning Agreement guide — most institutions allow a four-week correction window after term starts.
Week 4: practical preparation
Keep the final version of every document both in the cloud and on your device. There may be no connectivity at the airport; keep offline copies of the critical ones.
Note three addresses separately: your accommodation, the campus, and the international office. They are asked for separately at border control and at address registration.
Arrange connectivity for day one. Activating a line with an eSIM before you travel keeps you online while booking municipal appointments or viewing flats.
Choose the flight and arrival time around orientation. Night arrivals look cheap, but hall check-in hours can be limited and a first night in a hotel erases the saving.
What to carry physically on arrival
Digital copies are accepted in most places, but border control and first registrations may ask for print:
- Passport and visa
- Acceptance letter
- Insurance policy
- Rental contract or housing confirmation
- Learning Agreement (signed)
- Emergency contact list
- A few biometric photos — frequently requested at local registrations
The most common mistakes
- Leaving housing until after the visa. In some countries the visa file itself needs an address; picking the wrong side to wait on locks the whole chain.
- Noticing the passport expiry late. The one item that can move the entire calendar on its own.
- Skipping orientation week. Registration, student card and course selection usually happen that week.
- Assuming the grant arrives before departure. It usually does, but delays are common.
A closing note
This month mixes academic, administrative and everyday decisions — and you are the only person coordinating them. Keeping one checklist and ticking items off is far more reliable than holding three institutional calendars in your head.
The fastest source on your specific host institution is students who have already been there — ask in the institution rooms.