Hi All,
I was to travel to germany on march 17th on work permit. My wife submitted her application for familiy re-union visa on Feb 17th 2014 at chennai consulate where she was advised at the counter that she would hear an updated from the embassy in two weeks time. There was no update whatsoever till yesterday. 
Today at around 10.00am my wife recieved a call from chennai embassy and the lady over the call asked few questions like... when is your spouse travelling ? and do you know german language? for which she replied 1. June 10th and 2. No german language knowledge. Further my wife explained the lady that the travel date has been postponed from march 17th to June 10th because of the delay with her visa processing to which the lady replied that ther was a communication gap and she would check and let her know.
Since mine is a employment visa (Visa category - D), would someone let me know if the german language can be considered as an exemption for her or she has to undergo the basic level.
Please provide your valuable inputs.
ThanksFayazuddin Syed.

Hello Fayaz,

Do you have any update on this ? 

What happened later to your application document ? Was your spouse able to get the visa ?

Please do keep us posted.

Babu Kilari

Babu

You have to be patient with your spouse visa. It can take anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months for the verification to complete. I can understand your anxiety but refrain from calling the consulate very frequently. Individual cases are different.

Good luck

Spouse Visa - Sequence of events:

1.       My wife submitted her Family reunion visa application at Chennai embassy on 17-Feb- 2014.
           -          Lady over the counter verified the documents.
           -          My wife was asked the below questions
                     1.       Husband’s Employer Name
                     2.       Husband’s income.
                     3.       Location in Germany.
                     4.       Travel Date (Our travel date was 17-Mar-2014).
                     5.       Why there has been a delay in submitting the application? - Replied that she has                                  been waiting for her husband’s Visa approval.
           -          Lady returned the passport to my wife and said she would hear an update from embassy                       in two weeks time.
           -          Two weeks had passed but there was no update from the embassy whatsoever.
           -          We had been dialing the numbers for VFS and Chennai embassy and curiously watching                       emails.
           -          VFS  advised to write an email to Chennai embassy  - visa@chenn.diplo.de
           -          Below is the reply from embassy which I suppose will be the same for anyone who would                       contact them for an update.
 
                     Dear Sir or Madam,
                     Thank you for contacting the Visa Section of the Consulate General of
                     the Federal Republic of Germany. Please have a look on our website
                     regarding further information to your enquiry:
            http://www.india.diplo.de/Vertretung/indien/en/03__Chennai/04__02/Visa__Information.html
 
                     Please understand that we cannot provide updates on the status of your
                     visa application. We will call you once we receive the decision for your
                     visa from Germany.
 
                     Yours sincerely,
                     Visa Section
 
         -          I would daily try reaching them over phone (+91-44-2430 1600) but hardly it connects.                          One day I was lucky enough that somebody picked the phone but there was no answer.
         -          Eventually, after many efforts one day an executive answered the call and replied, they                           would not be in a state to provide the visa updates and hung up the call.
         -          After much frustration and anticipation – it was tenth week that my wife received a call                           from Chennai consulate (2nd May 2014) only to know if she has got German language                           skills which she was not questioned at the time of submitting her visa application.
         -          The second question was travel date, for which my wife replied that we had to postpone                         our trip to June 10th 2014 due to the delay in her visa process.
         -          The lady replied that there was a communication gap and she would let her know the                             update soon.
         -          Per information provided on the website india.diplo.de, spouse of a highly skilled worker                         who is entitled for EU blue card is exempted from having German language skills. I was                         thinking to myself as to why my wife was asked such a question and that too after 10                           weeks has passed by, wherein I could have put her into some basic German language                           course post submitting the visa application and she would have completed the course by                       the time she received the call from consulate.
         -          Finally on may 14th much to our anticipation, anxiety and frustration we have received an                       email from Chennai consulate which says -  Residence permit for your intended stay in the                     Federal Republic of Germany can be issued J. It took 3 months to get an update.
 
           Please note that there was no background verification done for my wife, I think the marriage                    certificate was strong enough. Otherwise I should have shelled out an extra 20K.
           Again all I would say is Luck !! .
           Note that I did not approach any third party for processing my wife’s visa application. It was all                the inputs that I had from this beautiful website trust7.
           Wishing all a very Best of Luck J and I would suggest all the people out here to be patient till you            hear an update from the embassy itself as there is no other way around to get to know the visa              status .
           Anywhere between two weeks to twelve weeks you shall hear an update from the embassy for               sure. (Positive or Negative depends on luck and of course the authenticity of the documents                   supported).

Below are the documents that might help others in submitting the visa for Family reunion application

 
INVITATION LETTER
Mr. Husband’s Name
Address
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
 
German General Consulate 
No. 9, Boat Club Road, R.A. Puram
Chennai 600 028,
Tamil Nadu
India                                                                                                                                     
Date
 
  Family re-union Invitation Letter
 
Dear Sir/Madam,
 
[Wife’s Name] is my lawful wife since . In this connection I beg to inform that I got offer of employment with [Company Name] in Germany for an unlimited period of time. The employment is scheduled to begin on . Due to my employment my wife shall need to accompany me to Germany.
Initially we will be given hotel accommodation [Hotel Address] by the employer for two weeks period and we would subsequently move to an apartment.
Copy of the employment contract for remuneration and other details along with email approval of my residential permit is enclosed herewith.
I kindly request you to approve my wife’s family re-union visa.
Thanking you in advance for your time and consideration of my request.
Kind regards,
(Signature)
  
COVERING LETTER
Mrs.Wife’s Name
Address
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXX
German General Consulate 
No. 9, Boat Club Road, R.A. Puram
Chennai 600 028,
Tamil Nadu
India                                                                                                                                     
Date
Application for Visa for Family Reunion for Spouses
Dear Sir/Madam,
Please find enclosed my application of visa for family reunion for spouses
My spouse [Husband’s Name] has got offer of employment with [Employer Name & Address] in Germany for an unlimited period of time, to be joined on for which Residential visa has been approved.
In this connection email copy of the residential visa approval of my spouse is enclosed herewith. Due to his employment I need to accompany him to Germany. Hence I may please be granted visa at the earliest possible to enable to accompany him on the said date.
 
Please find attached two sets of application documents containing the following:
 
< >Application form [http://www.india.diplo.de/Vertretung/indien/en/06__Consu__Visa/visa__new/NATIONAL/NATIONAL.html]Declaration on true and complete information, signed and dated [http://www.india.diplo.de/Vertretung/indien/en/06__Consu__Visa/visa__new/NATIONAL/NATIONAL.html]Work contract of the Spouse with German companyInformal Invitation Letter from Spouse [ Please find included in this communication]Three very recent passport photographs with biometric requirementsDemand Draft for Visa fee of EUR 60,- 
I thank you in advance for your time and consideration of my request.
 
Kind regards,
(Signature)
 

Thank you Cebit. Yes, there is no other choice other than to wait.

I have one question here. Would you know what exactly happens when they do the marriage certificate verification. I have read in certain forums that the third person investigation agent calls up the in-laws and do the verification. I am wondering how would they know the phone numbers of my in-laws ? Do they call us first to know the details ? Also, I am living in Pune and my marriage took place in Chittoor and the registration had also been taken in Chittoor, a town in Andhra Pradesh. Do these agents go there to verify ?

Appreciate your feedback

Babu Kilari