Students who wish to stay in the House Doebling during any months other than July, August or September, have to apply for "permanent residence".

If you wish to stay during the months of July, August or September only, may we please refer you to our webpage on "application for a summer room").

Students can choose among two kinds of contracts, one for the "academic year" (October 1 to June 30) and one for the "calender year" (October 1 to September 30), and this is confirmed by both parties (the student as well as the management) signing a respective contract. This does not mean, however, that students cannot move in or out during the year. If a student wishes to move out after a few months, he or she can do so, of course, even during the year (on the last day of any month), given that he or she respects a two months period of notice. As students have the right to move out any time during the year, student housing office also offers a considerable number of rooms during the year (on the first day of any month).

There has been a policy of offering student housing at fairly economical prices to those most in need. For acceptance as "permanent residents", applicants must provide detailed information on family income in order to reveal their actual socioeconomic background. Family income should not exceed around 40.000 Euro net annually. Of course, some students will not get any support from their families at all, while others might get financial support. Documents stating whether a student gets financial support or not can be added to the application documents. However, family income is considered quite a good measure of an applicants estimated socioeconomic background, and this is the reason why it is checked during the application process by the "House Doebling application committee" (two members of this committee are from the management, the other two members are students who live in the "House Doebling" and who are elected every year). All documents provided by applicants are checked rigorously. If documents on family income are witnessed officially e.g. by a public notary, chances of being accepted increase. Of course, providing no documents at all strongly decreases the chances of being accepted. The "House Doebling" will not accept students who could afford other, more expensive accomodations.

THE APPLICATION PROCESS:

• Please write to the address given below and ask for the application documents. You can also send a FAX to the secretary, if you prefer. Please do not forget your own postmail address, as the documents will be sent to you by regular mail. Please state the country where you come from (your citizenship), when you apply. Currently, the application documents are available in German language only.
• NEW!!! You can also send an email to the email address given below. The secretary will then send you the application documents by email (as an attached file). After about one to two working days (email) or one to two weeks (regular postal service) you will receive the respective application documents. If not, please contact the secretary again (e.g. by phone or email) to find out if there is any problem.
• Meanwhile you can already arrange for documents that help you provide information on parental income. Please provide in addition all documents enlisted in the information sheet that is sent to you together with the application documents
• When you receive the application forms, fill in the forms (in German language). Please provide all information and documents enlisted in the information sheet that is sent to you together with the application form, and send all documents back to the address given below.
• When you finally mail your application documents to the student housing office, please do not forget to enclose the non-refundable registration fee (please ask for the current amount, which is around 25 Euros). Applications mailed without prepaiment of the application fee will have to be disregarded.
• At the moment, the only way to send back the application documents to the "House Doebling" is by regular postal service, as the application fee must be enclosed in the mail (check or cash). In addition, we need original documents (e.g. your authentic own signature on the application forms), so please understand that scanned documents sent by eMail cannot be accepted.
• About once a month or so, there is a meeting of the application committee. At the meeting, all application forms that have been received are discussed (as long as the appropriate application fee has been enclosed). If the committee decides that you fulfill the socioeconomic criteria for being accepted (no other criteria are of any importance in the application process, as the "House Doebling" follows a strict non-discriminative policy), you are formally "accepted". This means that your name is placed on a "waiting list" and you are notified that you have been accepted.
• When students are accepted, they get "points" for the waiting list according to their socioeconomic situation and according to how good their proof (e.g. documents on parental income etc.) was judged. In general, the poorer a student is, the more points he or she gets, and the higher he or she is placed on the waiting list.
• Students on the waiting list are sorted according to the number of points they have. With every month they remain on the "waiting list", they get additional points so that one gradually moves forward ("up") on the waiting list. This policy has been adopted because it assures that those students who are most in need will get a place in the "House Doebling" more quickly. Other students who do fulfill the application criteria but who do not have as many points initially (due to the fact that their socioeconomic situation is not that bad) will get a place as well, but they have to wait for a longer period of time. In fact some of these students might prefer to chose another kind of accomodation instead of remaining on the waiting list.
• As soon as you are on top position on the waiting list, you will be notified, i.e. student housing office sends you a letter that you can move in on the first of next month. Usually, you will receive this information about a month before you can move in but the period between notification and the availability of your room may sometimes be even shorter.
  IMPORTANT:
  When you are offered a place, you have to move in that specific date, or at least you have to start payment that specific date. It is not possible to move in one or several months later! If you do not move in immediately, you lose your place, and you would have to restart the application process! So please take care that this does not take place.

RATHER, STUDENTS CAN ONLY MOVE IN AS SOON AS THEY ARE ON TOP POSITION ON THE WAITING LIST. IT IS DIFFICULT TO PREDICT WHEN THIS WILL BE THE CASE, AND IF STUDENTS DO NOT MOVE IN AS SOON THEY ARE OFFERED A ROOM, THE PLACE IS LOST.

Applications can or rather should be filed any time of the year, not only shortly before semester start. Demand for "permanent residence" is considerable, so please note that even in case of acceptance, there will be a waiting time. However, this fact should not at all keep students in need of affordable housing from applying. The waiting time varies considerably, depending on the number of applications - and of course on the number of points that an applicant reaches (see above). In some instances, the waiting time may be about half a year, whereas in other instances, it may be as short as a month.

Please note applications for "permanent residence" must be filed on specific application forms which are available under the address given below.

As a rule, the "International Student Hostel" ensures that a minimum of 30% of its permanently resident students are of foreign origin. During the summer months, this figure can be even higher. It is our policy to encourage international relations and friendship between students from various countries, and we do our very best to make everybody feel welcome and comfortable.
 

For further information (e.g. for the specific forms required for application for permanent residence etc.) and for application itself please contact:

International Student Hostel "Haus Döbling"
Gymnasiumstr. 85 / Verwaltung
1190 Vienna
Austria / Europe
Re: request for application forms

Tel: +43 1 3695490-16
FAX: +43 1 3695490-25
NEW!!! eMail to the secretary:

"Verwaltung" means "administration" (student housing office)

When the waiting list mentioned above is extremely long or during the summer holidays when there are no meetings of the application committee, student housing office sometines does not distribute or mail any application forms. In that case, please try again later.

If you decide to apply, please write or send a FAX or an email to the address given above first - asking for the application documents. Do not forget to mention your own address! The application documents will then be sent to you free of charge.

The "House Doebling" follows a non-discriminative policy, which means that all students have equal rights and chances of being accepted. No students are excluded for reasons of race, religion, nationality etc.

However, the student hostel wishes to provide accomodation to those students who are most in need from a socioeconomic point of view, and there is a tendency to ensure that there are international students from many nations (rather than many students from only a few countries). These factors influence the waiting time in general.

Please remark that if a student receives notification of having completed the application process successfully, i.e. of having been accepted, this does not mean that he or she can move in at a specific date. Rather, her/his name is put on a waiting list. As other students move in and out of the student hostel during the year, her/his name will eventually appear on top of the waiting list, and the respective student will then be notified again that he or she can (or rather has to) move in immediately.