Since you are here, I am assuming that you are interested in applying for German National Visa maybe because of work or study perspective. There must be several questions running in your mind, for example –
- What all documents I need for Visa process?
- When is the best time to resign at my current employer?
- Who will assist me with my visa process?
- Will I have to pay any amount to get the visa?
- When can I book the appointment at the German Embassy?
- How much time does it take to get the visa processed?
- Can my spouse and children start the visa process alongside mine?
Well… In this post I am not going to answer the above questions like some AI Bot, instead I will share my real life story with you and hope it will answer most of your questions. In case I don’t, please do not forget to leave a comment down below. Also, it is a two part blog. In the second part we talked about Things you must prepare for your Visa interview 🙌. Additionally, I made a YouTube video regarding my visa interview and what happened on the day of appointment. If you prefer to watch content rather than reading, then this video is a must watch for you.
Who are we?
Let’s begin by providing an introduction. Since 2022, I have been living in Germany with my wife. We are both software engineers, but we also like exploring and experiencing different places, culture and food. Expat Travel Finds provides us the platform where we share our experiences, blunders, and lessons learned. We love to write about them and create digital material for social media sites like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. Don’t forget to check the previous links if you want to learn more about us or just want to say “Hi! 👋”
How did it start?
After several stressful months and unsuccessful interviews, on fine day I finally received an offer from a German company. They sponsored visas for me and for my wife and cover our moving costs as well. For a few days, we were blissful but also wore puzzled expressions. The cause was quite obvious. We would be doing our everyday tasks in a foreign country with a different language, culture, and cuisine for the first time since leaving our beloved country. We had never been abroad, so this would be our first journey to the German Embassy. What then did we do?
The Helping Hand
Fortunately, my company offered us help through Localyze, a third party vendor who takes care of global mobility. They know their stuff and are the genuine deal. We were instructed to gather all of our necessary papers for the visa interview (more on that later). Localyze kept tabs on the situation and kept us informed at all times. They kept an easy-to-follow checklist. It is crucial to remember that they are in charge of obtaining all the paperwork you require from Germany, including the Social Insurance, Power of Attorney, and Bundesagentur für Arbeit. We began gathering the documents listed on the website https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de while keeping a watch on the Embassy appointment which we knew was harder to get.
Trickiest part
It can be very frustrating and difficult to get an interview. Most of the time, no appointment will be open on nearby days. Therefore, it’s a good idea to start searching for jobs at least two months before your joining date. Every day at 12 a.m. CST, it is advised to visit the website because new appointments are frequently announced. The appointments typically need to be scheduled individually. However, on occasion they process both of you at once (for instance, if your spouse goes with you to your meeting). We scheduled two appointments that were 20 minutes apart because we were unaware that one appointment would be adequate. To give you a rough idea, we started our visa process in October first week and got an appointment for November 30th.
Game of insurance
Both of us had to enroll in the government-mandated health insurance program while we were attempting to get the Embassy meeting date. (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung). Without completing this crucial stage, it was not possible for me to work in Germany. I had to select standard health insurance. But that was not all. During my appointment at the embassy, we were asked to present travel insurance which should be valid from the time we left India until the start of my employment in Germany. I bought the insurance from Reliance and it was valid from December to March, which sums up to 3 months.
Is your degree valid?
To work in Germany, a degree from a German university or from an accredited foreign university is required. To find out whether my university has been accredited, I used the university database Anabin.
The institutions are grouped into so-called “institution types” and assigned a specific “status” (H+, H- and H+/-). H+ means that the institution is regarded as a higher education institution both in Germany and abroad. Degrees are classified as the length of the studies (A2, A3, A4 and so on). Minimum requirements are A3-A4. On the website, choose “Suchen nach Abschlüssen“, select your country and look for your degree.
Click on the little plus symbol and print the selection as a PDF. Next, Click on “Institutionen” and proceed like described above to find your university. If you cannot find your degree or institution, an individual approval called “ZAB” may be necessary. You can go through this link https://www.kmk.org/zab/statement-of-comparability/application.html.
P.S: If you have a German university degree, you don’t need the recognition and can skip this step.
Labour Market Approval
Next step was to get Labour Market Approval(LMA). During this step you need to submit some documents to the German Federal Employment Agency. They will go through all the necessary checks and decide if you are eligible to work in Germany. Localyze helped us with this process. We submitted the documents below to them.
- Power of attorney
- Work contract
- Job Description
- Proof of qualification
- Experience certificates
- CV
Power of Attorney was required for Localyze to go ahead with my husband’s application since he was not present in Germany. It took around 2 weeks to receive the authority’s reply. Proof of qualification is your University degree. Experience certificates are letters from your previous employees. Content of the CV should be similar to the one you have presented during your job interview.
By the way, this document is the so called “Erklärung zum Beschäftigungsverhältnis” / “Declaration of employment” as listed in the embassy checklist.
Visa application form
While my LMA approval was on its way, I started filling the visa application form that I get it from https://india.diplo.de/in-en/service/-/2288440. I would highly recommend to start collecting your documents provided in the checklist. You can download the checklist from this link.
What next?
I went into details about my national visa interview procedure. In the next part of my blog Things you must prepare for your Visa interview I will share the events of the appointment day. Along with that, I will also give you some important tips on meeting times, payment methods at consulates, and family reunion visas.
With that we came to the end. If you find this blog helpful then don’t forget to share with your friends and family. Till then take care and keep reading!!👋
Your advice has significantly improved my preparations for my studying in germany application, reducing anxiety and uncertainty all along the way. I genuinely appreciate all of your advice, and your support and encouragement have been priceless.