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Reunification of spouse or partner with foreign national (not an EU citizen)
Please note:
If your spouse (reference person) living in Germany has a residence permit but has not been living in Germany for more than two years and your marriage took place after the reference person entered the federal territory, family reunification of spouses is generally not possible before the two years have expired. If this applies to you, please contact the embassy BEFORE applying for a family reunification visa to check whether any exceptions may apply.
Exceptions only apply to holders of the residence permits specified in Section 30 (1) No. 3 of the Residence Act.
What kind of documents need to be submitted
These documents depend on the type of visa you are applying for and must be submitted in addition to the standard proofs:
| ☐ | Passport copy of the spouse / fiancé / registered partner living in Germany | |
| ☐ |
Current extended registration certificate (erweiterte Meldebescheinigung) of the spouse / registered life partner in Germany (original document and one non-certified copy) |
The registration certificate may not be older than 6 months and must contain details of the civil status.. |
|
proof of basic knowledge of the German language: certificate A1 (Start Deutsch 1) (original document and one non-certified copy) |
- To find out which certificates are currently recognized, please visit https://www.alte.org/Our-Full-Members. - The examination date must not be more than one year ago. - Exceptions to the requirement of language skills can be found in the leaflet „Proof of knowledge of basic German for spousal reunification from abroad“ |
General information
Please note:
- Due to the high workload and in order to ensure equal treatment of all applicants, the visa section can only accept applications in the requested form for processing.
- Submitting incomplete documents may lead to the rejection of the application.
- Unsolicited documents cannot be assigned to your application.
- All documents, leaflets and application forms provided by the Embassy are free of charge.
- All information on the application procedure is available on our website.
- Please refrain from submitting status requests. Status requests do not speed up the visa process.
- Processing time: Between two and five months, in individual cases shorter or longer.
- If the Embassy has questions during the course of the visa procedure or if additional documents need to be submitted, we will contact you directly.