Hi All,

I went to the consulate office in Bangalore to apply for my long term visa (Employment) and a reunion visa for my wife.

The posts in this forum helped me a lot to prepare. I now feel obliged to add a similar post with my experience. Once I get my visa stamped, I'll author a post for this. 

Meanwhile, I have a couple of queries that I am not able to find the answers to in the existing threads.

The visa officer kept both our passports. She also kept our my degree certificate and the marriage certificate for verification. She said that they will get in touch within 4 weeks. 

So my queries are:

• Is it normal for them to keep the passport? In other threads, people have mentioned that the passport is immediately returned and then you carry it with you to VFS office for stamping.
• They "DID NOT" ask for any extra fees for verification of marriage certificate and degree. What does this mean? Is it normal? Again, it seems different from what others have mentioned in this forum

I'd highly appreciate any inputs in this regard.

Thanks,
Rahul

No one has right to hold other passport without any reason.

If they have received a passport, thy would have informed you the reason. 
In normal process, the consulate receives only the application and copy of the documents. They dont collect original.

If marriage certificate is collected, may be thy go for verification. But they didnt tell any reason too. I hope the officer who collected your documents was not clear what to do. He may consult with his collegues and give you the direction..


so wait for it. I hope you have a proof that he collected so and so original documents from you.

Hello Rahul,
I went with the same experience. I have put a file for my wife last month(11th September) at Mumbai embassy. They returned a passport after interview and told to my wife that you will get a response in 19 days. 
Its been a 4 week and we didnt hear anything yet. Today i called to mumbai embassy and they told me that don't call before 12 weeks finish. 
So my answer to your question is, it is normal. We have to wait till 3 months.
Also they didn't ask about marriage verification for me as well.
Once I will get email that your visa is approved then my wife will go to VFS office for stamping with travel insurance of 6 months.
Then i will book flight for her and she will come to Germany. 

Thanks


Regards,
Vijay Rathod

Thanks for all the replies.

I got the visas today. There were many others who had come to collect their passports. So this looks like a routine process where they collect your passports during the interview and hand it back with a stamped visa when done.

In a separate thread, I'll list down my experience for the benefit of others.


 

Congratulations Rahul and welcome to Germany!

As promised, here's my personal experience with the process in Bangalore as of Oct, 2017. 

Most of the process remains same as what is very nicely documented in this thread - http://www.trust7.com/forum/-/message_boards/message/802581

Here, I'll highlight the differences in our case.

Context:
I applied for an employment visa for myself and a reunion visa for my wife. We applied for both the visas together.

Application:

• Filled 2 separate forms, one for myself (Long-term visa for employment) and another for wife (Family reunion-spouse)
• Arranged all documents as per the checklist that is given on the consulate website.
• Purchased travel insurance for 45 days from Religare. A list of all approved insurance providers is given on the consulate website.
• Got the Demand drafts made at SBI. The bank issued a Banker's cheque. I wasn't sure if that would be accepted but it was.
• My lawyer had asked me to write to the consulate about whether it was necessary to get our marriage certificate legalized. The consulate website clearly states that legalization/verification, if required, can only be initiated by German authorities during visa process and not by individuals. Yet, I decided to write to the consulate and got a prompt reply stating the same as was mentioned on their website.
• For the question "Do you plan to maintain your permanent residence in India", I said "Yes".
• I did not have a residential address in Germany at the time of application  - I gave the office contact address.
• For my wife, I also wrote an invitation letter stating that I'll cover all her expenses. This was not asked for in the checklist but I still attached it. We also decided to attach my current salary slips and bank statement with her application.
• With my application, I also attached the joining and relieving letters from all companies I had worked with. Attached the resignation letter for the current employer.
• Unlike Mumbai, Bangalore doesn't need demand draft forms to be filled.
• I had trouble with font-size in the pdf application form. For the fields where the text was too long for the space provided, Acrobat would render the form in a way where a part of the text is either not visible or rendered in very small font size. I had to use Mac's preview-app to fill the form (using its annotation features to preserve the format and font size).
• Photos can be obtained from any GK vale branch in Bangalore. These are not to be glued but handed over separately.
• I did not have a Federal Approval for Employment (not required in my case). 

Visa Interview Experience:

• Our appointment was in the morning. The consulate was not very crowded. There were about 5-10 other people waiting. 
• Considering Bangalore traffic, it helps to reach early. There is a waiting area outside. There are also plenty of coffee shops nearby.
• Our appointment email was checked at the gate and we were let in.
• The visa officer called me first. I told her that my wife is accompanying me. She said she will call my wife next.
• Few basic questions about my employment were asked. Similar to the ones mentioned in the other post. She checked the application set for all documents and returned the ones that she did not need.
• The officer then kept my passport and degree certificate and said that the visa process will take 4 weeks. She said she was keeping the degree certificate for verification. However, I was not asked for any verification fees. This is where our process was different from what's documented in other posts in this forum.
• My wife had a similar experience. In her case, the visa officer kept her passport and our marriage certificate for verification. Our marriage photos were not checked. She was also asked to wait for email within 4 weeks.

We got an email next week asking us to come and collect our passports and original documents.

Hope this helps,
Thanks.