Phase 9: Visa Procedure
Make an account on the portal
Registering on the Consular Services Portal and the questionnaire that decides what it asks you for.
The portal is the actual starting point
Since 2023–2024 the process runs through the Consular Services Portal, not a form you download and post. Creating the account correctly is what determines whether the rest of this goes smoothly.
Two jurisdictions, potentially two processes. Embassy
Islamabad (Islamabad Capital Territory, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir) runs the online portal described
below. Consulate General Karachi (Sindh and Balochistan) has historically
used a paper drop-box process instead — its own checklist makes no mention
of a portal account. Missions do migrate procedures over time, so confirm on
your specific mission's own page which applies to you before assuming
either way.
Starting the account
- Go to the Consular Services Portal at digital.diplo.de/studium and register.
- Use a valid email address you check regularly. Every subsequent step — the document verdict, the appointment offer, any request for a missing file — arrives by email and nowhere else. A typo here or an inbox you forget about is the single most avoidable way to lose months.
- Enter your details exactly as they appear on your passport, in Latin letters. A name typed differently from the passport is a mismatch that gets queried later, when it is slower to fix.
- Work through the interactive questionnaire about your situation — the course you are applying for, your qualifications, and your circumstances. The document list you are asked to upload is generated automatically from your answers, so answer accurately rather than in a way that seems to simplify the list; a document requirement skipped this way resurfaces at the screening stage anyway, later and slower.
One account, one applicant. Do not create an account for a
sibling or friend, and do not let someone else fill in the questionnaire on
your behalf using their own account. The verdict is tied to the identity
entered, and mismatches are exactly what the later screening step exists to
catch.
What the account is not
- It is not a calendar where you pick an appointment date. There is no such calendar for this process — see the next step for how appointments are actually assigned.
- It is not optional preparation. Registering and answering the questionnaire is what generates your specific document checklist and is the entry point to everything that follows — gathering documents in step 1 of this phase is preparation for this step, not a substitute for it.
✅ Quick action plan
- Confirm which mission has jurisdiction over you — Islamabad or Karachi — and check that mission's own current process.
- Register on the Consular Services Portal with an email you check daily.
- Enter your name and details exactly as printed in your passport.
- Answer the questionnaire accurately and note the document list it generates for you.
- Move straight to gathering and uploading that exact list — see the next step.
This phase
- Gather all documents
- Make an account on the portal
- Submit all document on the portal
- Waiting list / Preliminary Review
- Visa Appointment
- Interview Questions