Vietnam has the strongest, most current documented Ausbildung-fraud case of any country in this guide. It’s worth understanding exactly what went wrong.
In October 2025, a Berlin vocational school reported that roughly 200 of about 700 Vietnamese hospitality-track trainees had vanished. Berlin’s Senate pointed to “questionable and misleading recruitment” practices back in Vietnam, combined with language gaps that left students unable to cope once they arrived — the NGG hospitality union called the pattern “modern human trafficking.” Separately, a July 2026 documentary covered Vietnamese nursing trainees in Thuringia living ten to a room with no door handles, after families took loans of €10,000 to €40,000 to fund the placement.
The mechanism in both cases: private Vietnamese placement agencies charging heavy upfront fees for contracts, language certificates, and visa processing — exactly the structure the main scams guide warns about. Fake or forged German-language certificates sold online are a specifically documented part of the pattern here.
DOLAB (Department of Overseas Labour) licenses sending organisations — confirm an agency’s registration directly rather than relying on their own claims. A Vietnam-specific document hurdle worth knowing: university-track study-visa applicants typically need an APS certificate (a joint German-embassy/DAAD academic check) before any visa application is processed — whether this extends to the Ausbildung route specifically isn’t confirmed, so ask the German mission directly.