Student Visa Details

If you already in Germany and want to change from your current visa to student visa, you must contact the local Ausländeramt of the town where you reside.
If you are not yet in Germany, you should contact your nearest German embassy or consulate.
They do not take your passport. You will be informed when a decision is made and, if positive, then visit again with passport to get the stamp (or rather stricker).

Thanks so much for your response! The issue is that I don't have a place to live yet. I am currently staying in France with family. Can I therefore apply anywhere in Germany? Or does it have to be where my university is?

If you are not yet in Germany, you should contact your nearest German embassy or consulate.

Vielleicht kann dir mit dem Visa auch ein Studienkolleg behilflich sein? Die dürften damit ja tagtäglich umgehen, denke ich. https://www.studienkolleg-paderborn.de/

Sara: Your post is well-intended, but since this is an Anglophone forum, please in future post in English only!
(The reason for this is so the moderators, who do not understand German, cannot do their job of checking for illegal, abusive or commercial content - which must be removed.)

Like Beppi mentioned, the normal procedure is to go to the nearest German consulate or embassy, which in this case sounds like it would be in France. But one usually has a local residence if not applying from their home country, so this might complicate things a bit if you are just traveling in France rather than residing there.

And it isn’t clear what kind of visa you presently have? Americans don’t get tourist visas; they get an allowance of 90 days visa-free travel in Schengen – so they don’t technically have a visa under these circumstances.

And have all of your documentation together for the student visa. As I understand, it is one of the last steps in the process of studying in Germany. One has to first get accepted to a University which is of course based on fulfilling various requirements and producing the needed documentation. Without acceptance to a University, then no visa.

I recently read that the time to process a student visa is max. 3 weeks and 5 days – assuming all of the documents are in order. If one is just starting the process to apply to University as a non-EU student then it supposedly takes at least 6 weeks, easily more. I think the process is streamlined when one applies from a University in one’s home country as an exchange student since the initial qualifications to attend an accredited University will already have been checked.