Stuck inside the uni-assist form?
Most guides explain whether you need uni-assist. This one is for the moment after that, when the form is open, a field is asking for something you have never heard of, and the submit button will not move.
On this page
Many of the things that stop a uni-assist application are mechanical, rather than questions about your eligibility. The payment step only opens once every mandatory question is answered, uploads must be PDFs of at most 10 MB, each document is uploaded once for all your applications rather than once per university, and you should keep a single My assist account. Three failed payment attempts lock the step for an hour. If you enter something wrong, you can correct your own personal details inside My assist, so a mistake in the name fields is worth fixing calmly rather than panicking over.
Common blocks are mechanical. An unanswered mandatory question, a file over 10 MB, a card without 3D Secure. Each has a cause uni-assist publishes and a clear next step.
One account, always. uni-assist states that creating multiple accounts causes problems. If you cannot get into an account that exists, reset the password instead of registering again.
Nobody confirms your upload. uni-assist sends no upload confirmation. If you do not check the list in your account yourself, a missing file stays missing until it is too late.
Who it applies to
Anyone filling in the My assist online form, before or during submission.
Key facts
Upload limit
10 MB
PDF only, per file [1]
Failed payments
3 = 1 hour
three failed attempts lock the payment step for an hour [1]
Activation link
24 hours
after that you register again [1]
Upload each document
Once
once for all your applications, not once per university [4][2]
Limits uni-assist's own form and FAQ enforce, not conventions we observed.
What the screen says, and what is actually wrong
Every row below is a cause uni-assist states on its own pages, not a guess about the software. Find your symptom first; the fix follows from the cause.
| What you are seeing | The cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| I cannot pay, so I cannot submit | Mandatory questions in the application are still unanswered | Answer every mandatory question [1] |
| The card is refused | The bank has not enrolled the card in 3D Secure | Ask your bank [1] |
| It will not let me try paying again | Three failed attempts lock the step for one hour | Wait an hour [1] |
| My course will not let me create an application | The application period may not have started yet | Not yours to fix; ask the university [1] |
| The document will not upload | Only PDF is accepted, at most 10 MB per file | Convert, then shrink [1] |
| I typed my name or date of birth wrongly | Personal details stay editable in your account | Correct it in My assist [3] |
| I uploaded, but no confirmation arrived | uni-assist sends none; the account list is the record | Check it yourself [1] |
| My activation link no longer works | Activation links expire after 24 hours | Register again for a new link [1] |
A "Bad Request" while uploading can also come from your own firewall; uni-assist suggests disabling it or trying another computer.
Bottom line
If you are blocked in the form, look first at the mechanical causes uni-assist publishes, not at your qualifications. [1]
The causes uni-assist itself names for a stuck application are mechanical: unanswered mandatory questions, 3D Secure, a one-hour lock after three failed payments, PDF-only uploads capped at 10 MB.
Walk your application once more from the top, answering every mandatory question, then check the document list in your account rather than waiting for a confirmation email that never comes.
Correcting a mistake, and the one change that costs
Applicants tie themselves in knots over the personal-data fields because they assume a mistake is permanent. It is not. uni-assist states that you correct your own details in My assist: open "My account", then "Change applicant information", then "Edit applicant information", tick the mandatory box, enter your password and save. Name, date of birth, place of birth, citizenship and postal address are all in that set.
The change that is not free is the study course. Before uni-assist has evaluated your application you can swap it yourself by withdrawing and submitting again. Once the application has been processed, that door closes: a different course means a new application, with a further handling fee, and uni-assist publishes the current amounts on its own fee page.
So the order that protects you is simple: be careful about which course you submit, and be calm about the rest. [3]
The account rule
Two of uni-assist's instructions sit close together and look contradictory until you notice which situation each one is for. If your activation link expired before you used it, the FAQ tells you to register again to get a new one. Elsewhere it is blunt that you should use only one My assist account and not register multiple times, because multiple accounts cause problems.
Read them as a single rule with two branches:
- An activation link that expired unused. Register again; that is what the FAQ means.
- An account that is already activated and you cannot get into. Use the password reset, not a second registration.
The account is meant to carry all of your applications, including future semesters. [1][2]
If your name has changed
What uni-assist does state about the name fields is narrower than the fields themselves, and more useful: if you have changed your name, for example through marriage, you must include a record of that change in your application. That is why the field matters at all. Your certificates may carry your earlier name while your passport carries the current one, and the record is what ties the two together.
If your case is not a plain one, a name change, an adoption, or a naming system that does not map onto German fields, do not guess and do not take a forum's word for it. Ask uni-assist. And if you have already submitted something you now think is wrong, correct it in My assist rather than starting over. [7][3]
Upload once, not once per university
This is the single most common piece of wasted effort in the form. The upload section in My assist is shared across all of your applications, so uni-assist needs each document once only, even when you are applying to several universities or several courses. Uploading the same transcript four times does not make four applications stronger.
Two rules make the shared pile work. Name each file clearly, in German or English. And where a document belongs to a specific university and course, write that university and course visibly at the top of the document, because that is how it gets assigned.
Documents can still be submitted at any time before the application deadline expires. Once an application has already been forwarded to the university, the upload section is no longer the right channel and you should contact that university's admission office instead. [4][2]
Certified translation is not the same as a certified copy
These two get merged in almost every forum answer, and they have different rules. The translation requirement is the strict one, and uni-assist states it plainly: upload your education certificates in their original language together with a translation into German or English, and that translation must come from a person or institution authorised to translate under oath or admissible in court, or from a department of the issuing school or university authorised to issue such translations. In its own words, it does not accept non-certified translations from standard translation agencies.
If your documents are from Turkey there is a further rule that catches people every year: uni-assist only accepts translations made by a sworn translator, a yeminli tercüman, whose stamp carries that phrase in Turkish. A stamp only in English or German is not accepted, even when the translator is genuinely sworn.
One small thing that saves an upload: the copy of your passport only needs to contain the page with your picture and your personal data. [5][6][4][7]
What uni-assist's own pages do not answer
uni-assist publishes a glossary of terms. We read the complete list again on 29 August 2026: 79 entries, from Abitur to ZAB. The form asks for the first three fields below and the glossary defines none of them. The fourth is a rule people expect uni-assist to publish, and it does not.
What does "name affix" mean in the uni-assist form?
Not in the official source ·
Not one of the 79 entries in uni-assist's published glossary, which we read end to end on the date shown. [8]
What we tell applicants
In German records a name affix is a separate name component kept apart from the family name. Most international applicants have none, so an empty field is the ordinary case rather than an omission. If your documents show something you think might qualify, ask uni-assist rather than guessing.
What should I enter as my birth name?
Not in the official source ·
Also absent from the same 79-entry glossary, though the form asks for it. [8]
What we tell applicants
Where your name has never changed, it is often simply the same as your current family name. Where it has changed, through marriage or adoption, or where your country's naming system does not map onto these fields, ask uni-assist instead of guessing.
What does "c/o" mean in the uni-assist address fields?
Not in the official source ·
The third of the three: asked for in the form, not defined in the glossary. [8]
What we tell applicants
It is an address addition, used when your post reaches you through another person or household. If your post goes straight to you, leave it empty.
Do my documents have to be notarised?
Not in the official source ·
uni-assist publishes no rule that your copies must be certified. Its documents FAQ answers the question of which documents you need with "The requirements vary between universities and courses of study", and we read that FAQ, the translations page and the other-documents page on the date shown without finding notarisation mentioned once. The glossary has no entry for it either. [4][5][7][8]
What we tell applicants
Do not read that silence as a no. The translation rule is strict and published; the copy-certification rule is not, which means the binding list is your chosen programme's own. Ask the university. Anyone who gives you a confident yes or no to this question is guessing with your money.
Every line above is an absence we checked on the date shown, not a permanent state. If uni-assist defines these terms or publishes a certification rule, this block is the first thing on the page that has to change.
Want the form checked before you pay?
Your advisor goes through the route, the documents and the fields with you, and says what is missing before anything is submitted. The check happens before you pay us anything.
- A named advisor on your application
- Documents reviewed against the required form before submission
- You approve the key decisions yourself
Our fee includes uni-assist's handling fee, and your documents are checked before you pay anything.
We are not uni-assist e.V. and we do not decide your admission; we prepare and run the application through the official channel.
How can you apply to Germany?
About 2 minutes · No password required
Before you pay the handling fee
- Every mandatory question in the application answered
- The right study course selected, because changing it after evaluation means a new application and a further fee
- One My assist account, not a second one created after a failed login
- Each document uploaded once, as a PDF under 10 MB, named in German or English
- University and course written at the top of any document meant for a specific one
- Translations made by a sworn or court-admissible translator, uploaded alongside the original
- A record of your name change included, if your certificates and passport differ
Frequently asked questions
How do I create a uni-assist account?
You register once at My assist and receive a uni-assist applicant number. Use that single account for all of your applications, including future semesters. The activation link is valid for 24 hours; if it expires before you use it, register again to get a new one.
Can I have more than one uni-assist account?
No. uni-assist states that creating multiple accounts causes problems and asks you to use only one My assist account. If you cannot get into an account that already exists, use the password reset rather than registering again.
I made a mistake in the form. Can I still correct it?
Yes, for your personal data. uni-assist states that you correct your own details in My assist under "My account", then "Change applicant information" and "Edit applicant information". Name, date of birth, place of birth, citizenship and postal address are all editable there. The study course is the exception: you can swap it yourself only until uni-assist has evaluated the application, after which a different course means a new application and a further handling fee.
Do I have to upload my documents separately for each university?
No. The upload section is shared across all your applications, so each document is needed once only, even for several universities or courses. Where a document belongs to a specific university and course, write that clearly at the top of the document so it can be assigned.
Do my translations have to be certified?
Yes. uni-assist requires translations from people or institutions authorised to translate under oath or admissible in court, or from a department of the issuing school or university authorised to issue them, and states that it does not accept non-certified translations from standard translation agencies. Upload the original-language document together with the translation. For documents from Turkey, only a sworn translator's work is accepted and the stamp must carry the phrase "yeminli tercüman" in Turkish.
Why can I not pay the handling fee?
uni-assist names three causes: mandatory questions in the application are still unanswered, your card is not enrolled in 3D Secure with your bank, or you have made three failed attempts, which locks the step for one hour.
Can I upload a document after submitting?
You can submit documents at any time before the application deadline expires. If your application has already been forwarded to the university, contact that university's admission office about where to send the document instead.
Sources
- [1]uni-assist e.V., FAQs: Apply online · Last reviewed:
- [2]uni-assist e.V., How to apply: Apply online · Last reviewed:
- [3]uni-assist e.V., Send & track: Changes · Last reviewed:
- [4]uni-assist e.V., FAQs: Assemble your documents · Last reviewed:
- [5]uni-assist e.V., Assemble your documents: Translations · Last reviewed:
- [6]uni-assist e.V., Info country by country: Türkiye · Last reviewed:
- [7]uni-assist e.V., Assemble your documents: Other documents · Last reviewed:
- [8]uni-assist e.V., Glossary of terms · Last reviewed:
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Our fee includes uni-assist's handling fee, and your documents are checked before you pay anything.
Get my next stepUniversity ApplicationSourced from uni-assist's own pages, checked 15 August 2026