Dear Experts

Please help me:

Had applied for a German National Visa, (new job, Blue Card eligible, MINT job, salary above 63K, no pre-approval, never worked in Germany before) in Chennai Embassy. But passport is held by consulate.

Do they normally hold the passport during processing? Will it take 4-8 weeks to return the passport? 

For Blue card, can application be decided locally at consulate or does it need to goto an alien office for approval? 

How long does the processing take usually?

Thank you!

Dear Satish,

Your information is not sufficient.

1. How long it has been applied for visa?

Processing time normally take 4-8weeks. After that embassy will call you and say that your visa is approved and submit your passport.

Once they take ur passport they vl return maximum within a week after making sticker on it. 

Even if your salary is more than 63k now adays, they want to check your qualification certificate authentication sometimes. (if necessary).

wait and see what do they say.

Thank you. The application was submitted 8 days ago.

I too am in a similar situation. I made blue card application at Bangalore consulate on Dec 11, along with spouse visa application. They took my passport, marriage certificate and informed me that a decision will be taken in max. 1 week. 

As per my follow up enquiries with the consulate, they do fast approval for cases decided locally at the consulate. In my case, for some reason they send it to Germany and they are now not able to give an estimated time for the processing. They told me that the immigration office is a bit understaffed at the moment which makes visa processing slow.

I am interested to know if anybody else is facing the same situation, since there is nothing else I can do while waiting :-)

By the way, I lived in Germany for 2 years before, working as a contractor for the same company on deputation from India. Presently I am offered permanent employement with them and sal around 44000 Euros. I dont know if these factors influence the verifications involved and consequently the approval time.

Thank you for the updates.

Will following up with the alien's office help speed up the process?

Also, how were you able discuss this with consulate. Did they support telephonic enquiries or in person visits?

I have done telphone enquiries with Bangalore consulate, the number is listed in their site. I do not think that they allow personal visits.

I had requested my company to enquire with the immigration office there. They have informed me that the immigration office has asked for some documents from the company which they have shared. Possibly contacting them first might help speed up things.

It has been 8+ weeks for me now, including the Christmas holidays...

Finally, I received an e-mail intimation from the consulate on Fri (12-feb) to collect my visa. Luckily, they provided approval my wife's family reunion visa too!

Today we have both collected our passports with visa stamped. The marriage certificate was kept at the consulate and they returned it today. So about 8+ weeks was the processing time for both of us, and it did not involve any document verification and additional fees. 

I wish good luck to all who are waiting!

Hello guys,
I am in the similar situation. My wife has applied her spouse visa on 14.03.2016 in Bangalore. They have taken all the documents including her passport. They didnt give her back her passport. Its been already 4 weeks since the application date.

The problem is my wife needs to write her TOEFL or IELTS exam.. Sooner the better. ( the next availble date is MAY 28th) but for both of these exams she need a valid passport. the question is will they give her passport back before they give her the visa or they give the visa along with her passport. 

If any one has any experience or any idea how to proceed withthis situation. is it advisable to book an IELTS date in the month of May (at the end) or we better  wait until we get the passport in hand.

looking forward to your replies.

Regards
Karthik

Hi Akhil,
Congrats for getting the visa! I am also applying for me and my wife's visa from bangalore under EU Blue card as I have the work contract for an unlimited time.
If you can answer below questions it will be a great help:
Can you share your experience on the day you went to embassy?
What were the questions asked?
did you book 2 appointments for you and your wife?
were 2 seperate demand drafts required for both of you?
How many covering letters are required for this?