Dear Members,

I would request you to provide your valuable information on the following question on tourist visa.
Situation:
I would like to invite my mother in law from india. After showing the docs like salary slip etc, I got the verpflichtungserklärung from city office. In the verpflichtungserklärung it was mentioned that I am the gastgeber.

1. Now my wife have a visa valid until the mid of june and we will be extending this soon. VFS office says that my wife visa has to be extended first and then the tourist visa for my mother-in-law can be processed. Is this true?. has anyone experienced such issues?. Shall I ask vfs to submit the application like that to the consulate?.

2. Even after providing the so called Verpflichtungserklärung, VFS is asking for bankstatment from the applicant. Why is this so?. What happens if the applicant submit the application without bankstatement. I called the helpline reg this issue and was informed, if the applicant cant provide bankstatement then I should provide my bankstatement for processing.

I think VFS is making this kind of mess and hope the process should be simple in the consulate.

Kindly throw your inputs.

Regards
Karthik.

1. It should not be a problem since officially you are the Gastgeber and your wife's visa validity date should not play a role. If possible,try to extend your wife's visa or ask VFS to process the application. I assume that your wife's visa copy is not a part of the tourist visa application docs.

2.Yes. Bank statement has to be provided whether the tourists pay for themselves or a sponsor pay for them.I don't know the reason. However,in your case, if your MIL has a bank account in India,ask her to provide a bank statement. The money or the transaction in the statement will not affect the visa decision since you are the sponsor. It is just a formality in this case, I guess.

Usually the tourist visa with a sponsor in Germany is simple only..no need to worry.

Thanks for ur input.
Actually I attached the Passport n visa copy of my wife to avoid unnecessary questions on the proof that the applicant is my MIL. Obviously my wife passport has her parents name to avoid such confussion but VFS is clever enuf to find some more reasons.

karthik.

Actually I attached the Passport n visa copy of my wife to avoid unnecessary questions on the proof that the applicant is my MIL. Obviously my wife passport has her parents name to avoid such confussion but VFS is clever enuf to find some more reasons.

Your effort to be smart and avoid the problems led you to toher problem. When you are the "Gastgeber", ther is no need to attach ur wife's visa docs. If u known that ur wife's visa is about to expire then it didnt make any sense to attach them.

VFS always makes a fuss of all documents. In my case they asked my mother to submit her bank statements. She simply said that she don't have any bank account. That's all no more further questions.

In the consulate, they concentrate on the "Verpflichtungserklärung". You can also send ur payslips and bankstatements as a safe side.

Dear Karthik
In my opinion, VFS is an appointed agency by German consulate who delivers a service (ofcourse they are paid by each visa applicant). From my experiences with them since several years for different visas (spouse visa,tourist visa etc), they have always been helpful or genuine in giving us advice regarding the required documentation. I just tried to address the tone of your post which according to me sounded like VFS is finding fault in your app docs. VFS will not gain or lose anything by doing so. But we may gain if we stick to their advice.(though visa is not guaranteed in any case...but the chances will be higher)

Ofcourse I guess, the visa applicant can still ask them to fix for a visa interview with the consulate even if all the documents recommended by VFS are not provided by the applicant. You can do that if you think your application docs can still convince the consulate in awarding the required visa.

I got a letter from city office that my wife has an appointment on the coming days for visa extension. I am going to attach this letter to the application. Hope this makes the process easier.

Karthik.