hi friends/community members,

I am living in Germany and am getting married in year end (Nov 2010) in India. Around the mid of 2010 I plan to go for a court marriage. my intention is solely to reduce the waiting time for my wife for visa processing after wedding. What I would like to know is that once the court marriage is done in mid yr 2010, can I initiate the visa process (without waiting till Nov) so that by the time we get married in Nov, I can expect the visa to be in hand.

Is this practically feasible ? Has someone gone through such a situation ?

Thanks in advance for your replies/comments/suggestions.

Hi,
Yes, it is the most practical and sensible thing to do.
The downside thou is that you will have to visit India twice.Once to file the application, then after a month to get it formally court registered.

If you are ok with the 2 trips, then i suggest go for it.

Cheers
D

Hi,

thanks for the reply. I have another doubt which I want to clarify.

actually I dont know the exact procedure for court marriage. does it require me to visit India twice. I mean is it not possible to get my application filed by my parents/relatives. or do I compulsorily need to be present in person while filing my case.

secondly, I hv learned from my friends, that there is an enquiry procedure to verify the marriage and this takes place after the visa application has been filed. would this enquiry process remain the same, in case of a court marriage as well..I learnt it from my friends that the enquiry procedure is really a time-consuming process.

thanks in advance

Hi abh2010,

Court marriages in INDIA again differs from state or city to city though legally it has to be same everywhere.

From a friend of mine I learnt that, you need not be physically present to submit an application. Your parent with or without the bride can apply for this and then you go and Sign on the day of Court Marriage - For this process you got to pay some fees.

About the time for marraige verification - its the same in any case it takes almost 8-12 weeks for your wife to get a dependant visa. In some cases it can be faster - sounds like a gamble.

All the best!

thanx guys,

that clears a lot of my doubts and gives me a better picture now. Actually I thought that for the case of court marriage, the verification process might take less time (as I am getting married in court itself..). But anyway now that I know, I will proceed accordingly.

Cheers,

Hi ABH2010,

Court marriage is something different. You need to file an application (normally, for e.g. in my state) at least 2-4 weeks earlier and you must be present in court.

Are you sure that you want to do court marriage? You got to tell the court why you are doing court marriage and all. You will need an advocate. It is done to get court protection actually so that if someone (like parents) are against marriage then no one should be able to interfere.

Actually, I think you are talking about a marriage which is registered. In that case you should file application in Registrar office with few pics of your marriage showing that essential rituals were performed (+ cert from Preist + 2 witnesses) and within days you get marriage certifiicate which is verified by embassy later.

In any of the above cases you need to perform weding according to Hindu/Muslim/Sikh/catholic rituals.

By the way, in any case you can never shorten embassy's procedure. One thing you can do is to keep track of your application ovcce your wife files it in India and visit ABH regularly. This helps (at least in my case and few others I know). Here are some tips:
- Ask your wife to start German course (if she has not done Masters) and write A1 exam which is essiantail prerequisite for filing visa app. and takes 3 months + waiting time + result waiting time etc.
- Get married,do not throw flowrist bill, and other bills related to wedding function
- Ask phographer to give you few pics where relatives and neighbours are visible as soon as possible.
- Meantime register marriage in Registrar office
- Go to a week honeymoon :-)
- comeback, accompany your wife with her passport, cert, pics and other papers (mentioned on embassy's website) to embassy and file application

in 6-12 weeks she should get visa.
Hope that helped
-Tony

By the way, in case of court marriage too you must perform marrage according to rituals of your religion too so that a certificate stating that marriage was done accoring t Hindu marriage act/Muslim marriage law etc can be given.

You dont need to throw a party though. So it does not matter what kind of marriage you perform you do not have any influence on getting marriage certificate because court does not provide you with any certificate (at least in my state) but the registrar does.

I will suggest not to think of marriage without rituals. And if you have rituals done + court marriage done, then you dont need to fly in Novemeber to marry your wife again but may be only for party. Registrar office asks for pics with rituals performed, German embassy too. German embassy also sends/might send detectives to priest to confirm it and if they have 1% doubt that only paper marriage was performed without rituals then it will become big problem for you.

I know, it worked ggod for my friends in US, New Zeeland and Austraila but one of my friends got her visa rejected(3 times) as Embassy came to know that only paper marriage was done.

thanx Tony for ur comments / suggestions and sharing ur experiences. my situation is the following:
my wedding with all the Hindu rituals, priest and relatives is planned for November. During the mid-yr or so, wud be my engagement. And during the engagement (+/- 1 or 2 days) we plan to go for a marriage in court. we have a family friend/lawyer who wud help us out with this process. And the court marriage is also in total conscent with us (me and my wud be wife) and our families.

I may be wrong in my thinking (guys please correct me...if I am wonrg). My sole intention and interest of going for a court marriage, couple of months before the ritual marriage, is that I wud probably get a marriage certificate and initiate the visa process for my wife way ahead of our actual ritual marriage...so that by the time in Nov when we are done with the ritual marriage, she wud be possesing visa and in a position to come along with me without any further waiting time. So my intention is not to try to reduce the visa processing time with embassy but to initiate the process well in advance to reduce the waiting time.

But as you say, that a dependant visa application without the photos of ritual marriage (which is not possible before Nov), might complicate the case more, as before Nov, we wud only have a certificate which confirms our marriage, but not the photos. So is there any other way which can work out, or do I have to wait till Nov to file her application.

Tony, one more thing that I wud like to ask. If I understood you correctly, is it so that if my wife has Masters then she does not need to go for a German certification. Can you please forward me the link where this information is mentioned. That wud be of gr8 help.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Pics are compulsory. You can see it on checklist for Family reunion visa and they are serious about it.

I dont have the link, may be you can call embassy to cofirm it but I know someone personally who did not go for any German course because she was exempted due to her Masters.

-Tony

Hi Tony,
could you please tell me what type of masters degree your friend did. I tried to contact German consulate in Chennai to know about the German language exemption for being a masters student in biotechnology. i didn't get any response from them . i also tried to call them to find out whether is it ok if my wife apply for spouse visa without Having A1 level certificate. Unfortunately i never got the right person to speak. could you please share your experience or related information.
thanks in advance.

-Could someone please confirm/suggest/advice if photos are needed for application submitted based on court marriage (only)

I donot see the requirement of photo being needed based on the visa requirement as here

http://www.vfs-germany.co.in/south/images/Info-chklist/Information%20Sheet%20on%20Visa%20for%20Family%20Reunion%20for%20Spouses.pdf


Thankyou one and all

As part of the so called „investigation procedure“ which in its current form and excesses(private detectives, etc.) is in my opinion illegal as I have discussed in a different thread

http://www.trust7.com/en/foren/visa_questions/family_reunion_visa_-_is_this_a_means_to_deter_foreigners_from_working_in_germany/re_family_reunion_visa_-_is_this_a_means_to_deter_foreigners_from_working_in_germany__6

the showing of marriage photos may be the least of the invasive requirements.


contact(at)kanzlei-jain.de

hi !!

I will be going to germany soon on student visa for masters. can my spouse join me ? ..if yes on which visa? I am a nepalese citizen ..