Family reunion with foreign spouse or child

If you are married or get married to a foreign citizen (non EU), or if you are a parent of a child living in Germany and wish to seek gainful permanent residency in Germany (or staying in Germany longer than 3 months) in order to live with your family, it is required to obtain a residence permit in the form of a visa.

A visa in order to live in Germany is a national visa and does also entitle you to enter the other Schengen countries for the duration for up to 90 days for tourist purposes.

Upon submission of ALL the required documents, the application will be forwarded to the competent German Aliens Authority („Ausländeramt“). Permanent residence visa applications can take up to 12 weeks to be processed. After the application has been approved by the Aliens Authority, the German Consulate will issue a residence permit in the form of a visa with the duration for the first 90 days. A final residence permit will be granted in Germany by the Aliens Authority. The Aliens Authority requires all residence permit holders to register upon their first arrival.

German language skills

In order to facilitate integration, visa applicants generally must prove basic German skills when applying for a visa.

Competency in the German language in this case means that the applicant has the ability to communicate in German on at least a basic level, i.e. holds a certificate of successful completion of a German language course level A1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Certificates issued by an institution which performs testing in accordance with the standards of the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) are accepted. These requirements are only met by the Goethe-Institute. For information on language tests at the Goethe-Institute, please visit their webpage: https://www.goethe.de/ins/ro/ro/index.html

Exceptions:

! If the applicant is married to a citizen of the EU (other than Germany), German language skills are not required according to the FreizügG/EU

Other exceptions may apply. This can only be determined after reviewing ALL documents during you appointment.

Please prepare an application set with all of the following documents in the given order. Should you wish to keep any originals, kindly provide two additional copies. Any documents which are not in German/English have to be translated. Incomplete documentation may result in the rejection of your application.

- Valid passport (issued within the last 10 years and valid for at least 6 months after leaving the Schengen area with at least two empty pages)

- Valid resident card, duration covering at least the visa duration procedure

- Application form fully completed, duly signed

- Passport size picture, not older than three months with a bright background and frontal view of the face (please do not attach the picture to the application form). Digitally-altered passport pictures will not be accepted

- Copy of your passport’s data page

- Copy of your resident card (both sides)

° original marriage certificate and copy, OR

° original birth certificate of your child, OR

° registration of marriage appointment in Germany

All above mentioned documents have to be presented together with a multilingual form, according to the CIEC-agreement, or depending on the country an Apostille or legalization. Certified translation into German might be necessary.

- Proof of German language skills (see requirements above)

- Proof of housing in Germany with full address (e.g. renting contract, hotel reservation – OR - Invitation letter in case of private accommodation with name, full address and passport/resident card copy of inviting person)

- Visa fee 75 Euro – payable in Lei - cash or card(Visa + Master)

To be provided after the approval of the visa:

- Flight reservation to Germany, rail tickets, bus tickets, or others

- Proof of travel health insurance (with headquarters in the EU), valid for the entire stay in the Schengen area with a minimum coverage of 30.000,00 EUR including the following details: name of insured person, length of coverage, insurance sum and repatriation coverage. Please note that health insurance coverage by credit card is not valid unless you present a letter from the credit card company with details of coverage of your trip