Hi,

I am an American citizen with a resident/work permit for Germany and will marry a woman from Belarus in Belarus. What do I have to do to bring her to Germany? What does she have to do? How long should this take? Will she be able to work in the beginning?

Also, I will get NE in 1 year. Will she also get NE when I get it?

I would greatly appreciate as much information and any possible links that anyone can provide me.

Thanks in Advance for your help,
Christopher

....bringing new wife to Germany..

hmmm...whatever happened to the old one :-)

probably she won't be able to work in beginning. normal wait time is 2 years although i am not sure of effect your upcoming NE will have.

process to bring her is straightforward. she will have to apply at german embassy in Minsk for family reunification visa (not sure exact name but you can find info by looking at a german embassy site - try a site where they will have info in english - probably they have info on german embassy in belarus site but maybe not in english) (your wife can search also on internet - german embassy site in belarus or russia or russians in germany site etc). look know and get your papers in order - you will have to give her some documents for her to include in her application. she needs also documents - start now - she will have to translate her birth cert for example. of course marrige cert too but guess you must wait for that. actually maybe you can bring her without being married but not sure. anyway, my advice in general is make your plan of action and sort out documents and work on getting them. i remember i had to get marriage cert (for russian wife) legalized (or something similar) in Russia (got married in russia) and then translated. advice is to look into all details - one missed step can cost you lots of lost time.

after she applies the process can be fast or can take couple or few months. find out if she can ask germans in minsk to fax application to proper people in germany (these are probably your local office for foreigners) and get answer faxed back to minsk. when my wife applied in moscow the germans there faxed and got answer back same day!!!! you may want to find out who in your local gov't office will process the application and talk to them slightly before she applies to arrange for faxing and to find out if process will be smooth - sometimes these people don't like it if you bother them but sometimes they can be helpful.

other general advice is for your wife to get all her important docs legalized (appostile or something similar) in belarus and translated to english and german - likely you will need this in future (one day down the road you may want to move to your home country and it would be nice to have already docs

sorry for rambling reply .....

Hi Southsider,

Do you have a private email where I can contact you? I would like to get in touch with you.

Regards,
Christopher