Spouse Visa Process in detail:
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 Fayaz for detailing out all the necessary steps.

May I ask you one question. Does your wife holds a Master's Degree ? I would like to know if the exemption to have German Skills of A1 level is being made out of this or not. 

Also, any reason why the marriage certificate verification is not being done ? In my case when I filed the application, my wife had received an e-mail saying Rs.15730 has to be paid to carry out the authenticity of the marriage certificate. Hope it will complete soon

Babu Kilari

Hi Babu,

My wife is a BTech graduate.

Please see below regarding German language skills for spouse

If you're joining your spouse (married or civil partner), you must both be over 18 years old and you must have basic German language skills – unless, that is, your spouse fits one or more of the following categories:

• has an EU Blue Card,
  
• is in Germany as a researcher,
  
• is a highly qualified person, or
  
• is self-employed.
  

If so, there's no age requirement nor do you need to speak any German.

I am not sure why marriage certificate verification not done in our case.

thanks
fayaz

Hello,

Just want to share one valid point with you guys in terms of marriage certificate verification.

If in future a child born in Germany and you applied for Birth Certicate for a child in MOST cases Standesamt ask you to again go for marriage verification procedure. If it's already done in India along with visa application you get immediately your child Birth Certificate.

Very few are exception.


Best Regrads,
Mohamm

Hi Babu,

I see that you are from chittoor. I belong to kadapa and If you want to discuss further you can email me on fayazuddin.syed@gmail.com.

Thanks
Fayaz