For years, Germany has occupied a special place in the Indian study-abroad imagination. Public universities with little or no tuition, private institutions promising quick employability, generous post-study work rules and a labour market projected as talent-hungry—it appeared to offer a rare alignment of affordability and opportunity. In 2025, that promise fractured.

Hundreds of Indian students enrolled at a private university in Berlin have been told their residence permits will not be renewed. Some have received formal orders to leave Germany. Others have been given a choice that barely qualifies as one: Continue their degrees, but only from outside the country. Their fault is not academic failure or visa overstay. It is something far more technical—and far more devastating—how their courses are taught.

Who the students are, and where they enrolled

The students are enrolled at IU International University of Applied Sciences, commonly known as IU, a private German university that has rapidly expanded its international footprint. According to figures cited by Euronews, IU has more than 130,000 students globally, with around 4,500 Indian students, making Indians one of its largest international cohorts.

The controversy centres on IU’s Berlin campus, where Indian students were enrolled largely in business-facing programmes—including bachelor’s degrees in business administration and master’s programmes in international management or business management. These degrees were marketed as on-campus, but structured as hybrid programmes, combining online instruction with limited in-person attendance.

For many students, entry into these programmes came via pathway arrangements. Parts of the degree—sometimes an initial semester—were completed online from India, followed by relocation to Germany. Students say this structure was presented as academically legitimate and compliant with German visa rules.

What changed in 2025

In early 2025, Berlin’s immigration authority, the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA), began reassessing hybrid study programmes and how they fit within Germany’s student residence framework.

According to Euronews, this reassessment led Berlin authorities to conclude that several of IU’s programmes did not meet the legal threshold of “in-person study” required for a student residence permit. Students who had already arrived in Germany, paid tuition and started classes were informed that their permits would not be renewed.

Some were given a few weeks to leave the country. Others were told they could continue their degrees only if they did so from outside Germany. A small number managed emergency transfers to other institutions. Many were left mid-degree, with no clear academic or financial exit.

One Indian student told Euronews that he was aware of around 300 affected cases. The numbers have not been officially published by authorities, but multiple reports point to hundreds.

The legal basis: §16b of Germany’s Residence Act

At the centre of the controversy is Section 16b of Germany’s Residence Act (AufenthG), which governs residence permits for study purposes.

Under §16b, a residence permit may be issued only for full-time study at a recognised institution where physical presence in Germany is necessary. The law predates the rise of large-scale hybrid and online education. Crucially, it gives immigration authorities broad discretion to assess whether a student’s presence in Germany is integral to the course—or incidental.

Berlin’s official guidance, published on the Berlin Service Portal, makes this distinction clear: distance learning does not constitute a valid ground for residence, even if the student is physically living in Germany.

In 2025, Berlin authorities appear to have adopted a stricter interpretation of this provision, treating programmes with substantial online components as incompatible with a student residence permit.

The courts and the shrinking room for appeal

The regulatory shift has been reinforced by administrative court reasoning. Legal databases reference a Berlin Administrative Court (VG Berlin) judgment from November 2025, which held that if a course can largely be completed online, Germany is not legally necessary for its completion under §16b.

For students, the timing has been particularly damaging. In mid-2025, Germany also abolished the low-cost administrative appeal process for visa refusals, known as the Remonstration. What remains is a far more expensive court route—often unrealistic for international students already under financial strain.

The financial fallout

The legal arguments may be technical. Their consequences are brutally tangible.

Euronews reported that at least one Indian student had already spent around €20,000, covering tuition, relocation, housing deposits, insurance and living costs—mostly funded through an education loan. Tuition fees at IU vary by programme, but publicly available study-abroad listings place on-campus master’s fees broadly in the €7,000–€10,000 per year range, excluding mandatory living expenses in Berlin.

For students sent home mid-degree, those costs are largely unrecoverable.

The warnings that came early and went unheard

What lends this episode a deeper unease is that the alarm bells were ringing months earlier.

In June 2025, international students began posting warnings on Reddit forums dedicated to studying in Germany. Posts flagged visa refusals linked to IU’s hybrid structure and cautioned that Berlin authorities were questioning whether such programmes met §16b requirements.

A widely viewed thread on Reddit warns prospective international students to avoid enrolling at IU Berlin (IU International University) “at all costs” due to **visa issues and deportation risks.” The post was made about six months back.

At the time, these posts read like online anxiety—easy to dismiss in the face of university marketing and consultancy assurances. By late 2025, the warnings had hardened into official notices.

IU’s response

IU told Euronews it regrets that students are being forced to leave Germany and said the Berlin immigration authority changed its interpretation of hybrid programmes without prior notice to the university. IU has said it is revising its study regulations and that new face-to-face programme structures will apply from 2026. For students already caught in the system, that assurance comes too late.

Why this matters beyond one university

This is not just a story about IU. It is a story about how immigration law is colliding with evolving education models, and how students bear the risk when that collision occurs.

Germany remains one of the world’s most attractive study destinations. But this episode underscores a hard lesson for the next intake cycle: Hybrid is no longer a neutral word in immigration law. In an era of tightening controls, presence is being re-asserted as purpose.

For Indian students planning Germany in 2026 and beyond, the message is stark. Verify not just the university, but the legal necessity of your physical attendance. Read the immigration portal, not just the offer letter. Because in today’s study-abroad economy, the line between student and overstayer can hinge on something as quiet—and as consequential—as how your classes are delivered.