Dear All,

This post is for all of us, who are in the preparation stage for applying Family Reunion Visa: (It might be applicable only for Applicants from India)

I have divided the whole post into 3 parts explaining the below:


1.      Process of Family Reunion Visa Application - Outline (Not necessarily be true for everybody. But Most of them is applicable for all)
2.      Documents Needed & Important Points tob e noted
3.      Special Info for Bangalore Applicants to speed up the process

Process of Family Reunion Visa Application
1.The application is filed with the Consulate with the relevant documents
2. The documents with the Application form are reviewed by a Case Office in the Consulate, where You apply. (1 or 2 days)
3.The Consulate sends a scanned copy of all the documents to the Central Immigration Office in Berlin as well as to the respective Foreigners Office in Your Desitnation City. (Within a week). They also send a set of papers via Diplomatic Post
4.The Destination City Foreigner's office then checks the main Person (who is already in germany) papers and ascertains all the below mentioned info. (Takes 1 to 2 weeks)
        Salary and the Finance Situation to support the Family
        Apartment space, whether it is enough to support the Family
         Health Insurance documents, if applicable
5.If any documents are needed (Sometimes, if the already available documents are too old), then they will ask the Main Person to appear and submit all necessary documents, which are recent. (1 week)
6.Then the Foreigner's Office takes a decision, whether the Marriage and the Birth has to be verified or not. When in doubt, they send the certificates to the Registration Office of the same city and ask them to check. (1 week)
7. Either way, the decision to Consulate for Marriage verification will come from the Foreigners Office. It could be his/her own decision of from Registration Office.
8. Then the verification is started in India (after payment from the applicant) and the result is submitted to Consulate (Timeframe depends. Min: 1 week to 4 weeks)
9.This observation is shared with the Foreigners office and then the Foreigners office takes a decision and updates the Application Status online. (1 week)
Documents Needed
·         All documents as listed in the consulate/ Embassy page
·         In addition, do try to attach the Invitation Letter from the Main person in Germany
·         The Job contract, Salary slips of the Main Person in Germany
·         The Rental Contract of the Apartment in Germany
Important Points to be noted: (For Main Person)·
         Ensure that, You fill Your family details while filling any application w.r.t Germany (i.e: Your Entry          visa application, Registration application, Insurance Application, Apartment Rental Contract, etc)
·         Ensure that, You take a big enough Apartment for accommodating Your family (Per law 16 Sq.m           per person is sufficient for living in Germany)
·         Every time, You visit the Foreigners Office, keep the Officer updated about Your Family’s                        Application & status.
Special Info for Bangalore Applicants to speed up the process 
For Bangalore Applicants, there is a possibility of getting the Visa process speeded up by providing an additional Document. (This can be tried by other state applicants too, but the process will just be speeded up by 2 to 3 weeks)
This document is: Verpflichtungerklärung
Where to get this document: You can get this document from the Foreigners Office
How to get this document: Visit the Foreigners Office and tell them that Your family is soon applying for the Family Reunion visa, and would like to get this above mentioned document for filing it with the Application at the Consulate.
Documents to submit: Rental Contract, Job Contract, recent 3 month Salary Slips, Registration Certificate
What is the benefit: This reduces the need for a round trip to the Foreigners Office and back to the Consulate, unless the Consulate wants to go for a verification of Your Marriage and Birth.
Any proof for this: My Family got the visa in FLAT 2 DAYS

If any more info in this regard is needed, please contact me in reply, I shall gladly help out, whenever I get time to visit this thread.

Hi Uday,

Appreciate your detailed post. Should be helpful to many from now on.

Regards,
HPRJ.

Hi uday,
The shared information is very helpful. I am going to apply for german spouse reunion visa from chennai. My birth certificate has my incomplete name with little spelling mistake, but all other documents have my correct name. Do I need to correct my name in birth certificate also? Or will my current certificate is sufficient?
It will be helpful if somebody can answer my clarification. Thanks

Regards

Hi,

It all depends. If You have a chance to correct the birth ceritificate, I would suggest to do so. As it would be helpful not just now, but later too.

When You say that the Birth certificate is with incomplete name, Are You referring to Surname, which is is in the Passport or entirely diffrerent one. And spelling mistake in 1 letter or more than 1?

Anyway, If if You were born in TN, all the BC details are available in the TNREGINET website and You can directly go to the place which issued Your BC and get it corrected within a week.

That said, If all Your other documents like: Passport, Your Educational Certificates, Your name in Your Spouse passport, Kid's passport, Marriage certificate, then It should not present such a big issue.

BR,
Uday

Hi,

I applied in Chennai 7.5 weeks back till now I did not get any information regarding marriage verification.

When do people get the marriage verification request usually?

chennai consulate is late ... 

there are some people with experiences with Chennai.. use search 

Hi,

I read thru your posts.  I feel, it would be much better for Your wife to contact the Ausländeramt in your destination city. This certainly would bring a much needed clarification. And if the file is stuck anywhere, it can be fast tracked.

That said, Yes, Chennai consulate is small (Compared to the other cities) and there is so much going in the Chennai Consulate, hence they are not able to process all applications quickly.

BR,
U

Hi Udayr,

first of all thanks for sharing such useful information.

May
i ask one another question here, I am in process to apply German Work
Visa, but also full fill the requirement for their Blue Card visa as
well. what exactly they need to prove university degree which gained
internationally, printout from "anabin" which proof whether the degree
and university is valid according to their standards, is that enough for them!

Another questions is, i am also thinking to apply my wife's application along
with me! and for the initial accommodation, my employer is going to
provide 1 week of stay in Berlin. So can i attach the hotel reservation
as proof of accommodation for both of us ! or otherwise is it recommend to
apply the dependent visa same time!

will be really appreciate for reply

Thanks

Hii,

thanks for the detailed post.

I am from Bangalore and i applied for Visa yesterday (17/11/2014) I set all the documents according to the checklist and in addition to checklist, i had also kept invitation letter from husband, certificate of residence , his house contract, anmeldung copy, employment contract and salary of last three months. but the lady who took my documments, gave back all these saying these documents are not needed.

I am worried and i dont know why ?

please help on this.

Thanks in advance

Your husband will be asked to submit these documents in local foreign office shortly. That could be the reason why she has returned them. Do not worry.