Family Reunification Visa

Family Reunification Visa - Your stories

These are shared experiences by people who recently went through a Family Reunification Visa application process. You can share yours with us via an easy-to-fill-in form on this page.

An FB member shared a more detailed experience. You can read it here.
Another member, Tom, also shared his experience with us, you can read about it here

Shared by Telo in October 2024

When did you apply for your FRV	2024-09-25
How many days did you wait before it was approved	12
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	Start preparing for the A1 Exam as soon as you are able too. We got married in Europe but still had our marriage certificate apostilled. Gather all documents and make 2 files (1 Copy each per file) the FRV checklist is straightforward forward and if your partner is German you will be exempt from the Visa Fee. I wasn’t given the option to keep my passport. I had the Verpflictungserklärung attached, my spouse was asked to send 2 documents only. All documents were in English no translation required.

Shared by Cheryl on 03 May 2024

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-08-23
How many days did you wait before it was approved	82
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Engaged
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	It took 2 and a half years to get my Visa. These are the documents we needed to apply to get married in Germany Passport copies (I had these taken to a Notarised Attorney). Unabridged Birth Certificate (needed to be Apostilled and translated). Letter of Non-Impediment – I had to wait a year to get this from Home Affairs so get this as soon as you can (Apostilled and translated). “Versicherung zum Familienstand ( the only place I could get this was from the German Embassy(Eidesstattliche Versicherung) which ended up working in my favour as they helped me when they gave us trouble in Germany). Finally, on the 28th of July 2023, we were given permission to get married in Germany. We had time till the 05th of January 2024 to get married (I Got married on the 4th of January as I still had to apply for my Visa within this time). When I applied for my FRV I also gave my Verpflichtungserklarung which my Fiance needed to get in Germany. Hope this helps.

Shared by Lesego on 06 March 2024

When did you apply for your FRV	2024-02-06
How many days did you wait before it was approved	14
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	In a relationship
Children	I am a parent to a German child (see next question)
Parent to a German Child	I am a parent to a German child and applied for the “parent to a minor German child” visa – as it is less restrictive and easier to obtain
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	No
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	No
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	i had initially applied for a Schengen visa for myself and baby. Embassy came back to say baby cannot be issued visa they need to apply for German passport. they further advised me to apply for national visa instead. email the embassy and plead your case, i find them understanding and helpful. i could apply for my national visa at the same time as baby’s passport. visa came relatively quick while we had to wait a while for baby’s passport. tip email the relevant channels. Tip email the relevant channels.

Shared by Julia on 16 February 2024

When did you apply for your FRV	2024-01-24
How many days did you wait before it was approved	19
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes

Shared by Angelica on 15 February 2024

When did you apply for your FRV	2024-01-09
How many days did you wait before it was approved	29
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	South African passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	Bluecard (Highly skilled)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	My application was approved with High Court Apostile in Cape Town office. I emailed them before to ask if High Court apostile is ok and they said yes. Follow up with local Ausländerbehörde, I did after 2 weeks they said application wasn’t there yet, so I followed up with embassy again then after 2 weeks it was approved.

Shared by Tom on 03 December 2023, who also sent us detailed info that we added to this page

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-10-31
How many days did you wait before it was approved	23
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	We decided to emigrate last November. Between then and now we spent the time collecting the documents, resigning from jobs, making arrangements overseas etc.

Shared by Daichan on 17 November 2023

Name	Daichan
When did you apply for your FRV	2023-08-02
How many days did you wait before it was approved	78
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Engaged
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	Start with the language, home affairs to collect all documents Especially if you intend to marry in Germany.

Shared by Pride on 15 November 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-10-04
How many days did you wait before it was approved	10
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	South African passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	Work Visa (not Bluecard)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	We applied for the visa in Germany, and then the spouse in Germany received an email from the Welcome Center asking them to confirm a few details including proof of accommodation, income, medical and a data protection form, the following day. There were some delays in getting some documents such as a nomore than 1 month proof of employment from the employer of the spouse in Germany, as companies do not necessarily respond instantly, so it took about 5 days to get the letter from the company employer. After that, documents were sent to the Welcome Center in Germany and then after 4 days we received an email that our application had been accepted in Germany and we should book a flight and buy travel insurance and send it to the Embassy in SA. After that, our visa was issued. It was quite a smooth journey and we didn’t need any language since the spouse abroad was on a research visa. The spouse coming to Germany is also allowed to work any type of job.

Shared by Julia on 05 October 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-08-22
How many days did you wait before it was approved	38
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Engaged
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	From getting engaged to getting the visa it tools us about 6 months. The longest process was getting the unabridged birth certificate and letter of no impediment, both with apostille. Agencies can get the documents faster, but they said they don’t have an influence on the time the apostille will take. The visa application itself went rather smoothly since we had all the documents required. The bottleneck here always seems to be the alien office in your town in Germany! After not hearing anything for 5 weeks we called the alien office at our town in Germany and only a few days later it was approved! So if you apply for this visa keep in mind to try calling the alien office in the town your moving to in Germany, hopefully they will then start processing it.

Shared by Matthew on 21 August 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-05-03
How many days did you wait before it was approved	110
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	She has a Turkish passport with EU Blue Card residency in Germany
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	Bluecard (Highly skilled)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	We got married in Germany so it was not needed
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	We had an agency helping us and they followed up with the visa authorities in Germany. We think that the visa application may have been on hold due to additional documents that were required. We were contacted two weeks earlier asking for payslips of my wife and update rental agreement from the landlord. Two weeks after that the visa was issued.

Shared by Liezl on 15 May 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-09-29
How many days did you wait before it was approved	184
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	Dual SA and DE
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	Definitely study well for the A1 exam. It’s costly and can cost you time waiting for the next exam date. Appostile all your unabridged documents. I also translated them into German and have found that to be helpful once converting my drivers. Our application was delayed because the Ausländerbehörde was extremely busy in our small town. Also our 10 year marriage wasn’t registered in Germany and was mistaken for it happening in Germany and not in SA, causing confusion.. We got a family member who speaks German to communicate to the manager at the Ausländerbehörde who reluctantly helped. Delay could’ve been avoided if they bothered to reach out to us and ask. All in all be prepared to wait more than the stated 3 months.

Shared by Chantell on 26 April 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-03-08
How many days did you wait before it was approved	35
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	South African passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse applied for in Germany	Work Visa (not Bluecard)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	No
Tips you would like to share	Start with German A1 as soon as you can as this can take time with finding a date for your test. This was the thing that hold us back the longest. I went through Goethe Institute in Johannesburg and they were great. I received the results of my test within a week but I had to wait for two months to write because of the date for tests they have available. Start with the Apostille of Unabridged Marriage Certificates 6 months prior if you can and Expedite through companies given on the site. It’s affordable for the time that they get the certificates back to you. Once you make your appointment make sure you have all your documents otherwise the process will be delayed. Good Luck!

Shared by Mariska in March 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-01-11
How many days did you wait before it was approved	62
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	The wait is emotionally and mentally draining. Being away from your spouse is not easy. Keep in mind – The Embassy sends your application to the authorities at the Ausländerbehörde in the area you’re emigrating to. If/when you follow up, make sure it’s to the correct Ausländerbehörde. My advice is to give it a few weeks before following up. Even though we never got feedback from the Ausländerbehörde, it’s worth a try. The Embassy can’t give you information regarding the process, but we still sent them emails and their response time was quite good. As difficult as it is, you’ve got to have patience and a little bit of faith. (; Good luck x

Shared by Ryan in March 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-02-21
How many days did you wait before it was approved	28
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Engaged
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	No
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	No
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	It took 10 days to receive an email from the Aliens Office, and other couple weeks to hear back from the Consulate in Cape Town. I thing home affairs here also gets a bad rep and DIRCO for the apostille. I read so many horror stories but in reality, it was a breeze. On the German end, it may have taken quicker because we are registered to marry at a smaller quieter Rathaus in the country side.

Shared by Jemma in February 2023

When did you apply for your FRV	2023-01-04
How many days did you wait before it was approved	42
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	South African passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	Our children have only South African passports
Parent to a German Child
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	Work Visa (not Bluecard)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	The wait is hard and it takes multiple emails to the Ausländerbehörde to get an answer sometimes. My experience is if they have no update then they simply won’t respond.

Shared by Retha in December 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-11-11
How many days did you wait before it was approved	38
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	Dual SA and DE
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	The language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	After your appointment at the embassy, it takes the application 3-4 weeks to reach the ausländerbehörde in Germany. We started following up with them after 3 weeks had passed. The language certificate requirement was waived as I am colloquially fluent in German (B2ish level) so I had my entire visa interview in German at the embassy. I saw on international groups that the rule of thumb for approaching the language requirement this way is, you should be a letter grade higher than required. So if you need A1, you should speak at least B1 level German.

Shared by Rosa in December 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-11-18
How many days did you wait before it was approved	14
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	EU passport (not German)
Marital Status at the time of application	In a relationship
Children	Our children have only South African passports
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	Work Visa (not Bluecard)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	No
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	The language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share

Shared by Chrisni in November 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-08-10
How many days did you wait before it was approved	104
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	Dual SA and DE
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	I am a parent to a German child (see next question)
Parent to a German Child	I am a parent to a German child and applied for the “parent to a minor German child” visa – as it is less restrictive and easier to obtain
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	It’s worth finding out which municipality your place of residence is in, and emailing the Ausländbehorde there if things seem to take a while. I would likely still be waiting for my visa if I didn’t mail them, as my application fell through the cracks due to a staff change.

Shared by Magdelie in November 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-02-16
How many days did you wait before it was approved	180
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	South African passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse has for Germany	Work Visa (not Bluecard)
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	As a lot of people moving to Germany can attest, permanent housing is not always very quickly found. In the event that you are moving to a smaller town, ensure that there are not multiple Auslanderbehörde for different regions of the town. This is what caused the delay for my visa, since my husband’s different AirBnB’s fell under 2 different ABH despite the fact that the 2 areas were part of the main city. This resulted in my application being ping-ponged between 2 ABH and the Embassy in SA, which delayed the entire process to a total of 6 months.

Shared by Eric on 03 October 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-08-03
How many days did you wait before it was approved	54
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	South African passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	I am a parent to a German child (see next question)
Parent to a German Child	I am a parent to a German child and applied for the “parent to a minor German child” visa – as it is less restrictive and easier to obtain
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need an Unabridged marriage certificate	Yes
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	To start, if your child does not yet have a German passport and you are considering emigrating in future, get it done ASAP. It took us 5 months to get the name declaration done and another 6 weeks for the passport. This lead to me applying for the visa later than expected and we got seperated. They did accept just the name declaration at the appointment as proof of German citizenship, but when it ended up in Germany a few weeks later they required copy of passport as well as our marriage certificate for some reason even though it was reunification to child. In both cases, the ND & Passport application as well as for the visa, had family following up on the German side. At time of application my wife and daughter were still in SA so I put my father-in-law as my sponsor with their address as that’s where we’d be staying while we get things in order.

Shared by Samuel 28 July 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2022-05-11
How many days did you wait before it was approved	43
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	German passport
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	No children involved
Parent to a German Child	NA
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	A minimum of A1 level was required
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	1. Apply to a smaller district if possible. I was told that in the bigger cities, these applications can take many months! 2. After a month or so (they send your application to Germany in hardcopy, so give it time to arrive) try to find the person that is responsible for your application at your local municipality and call and email them frequently (in German helps – I got my wife and mother-in-law to phone). It looks like once they become aware of the application they process it quite quickly.

Shared by Tasneem 29 July 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2021-09-14
How many days did you wait before it was approved	36
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	Dual SA and DE
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	I am a parent to a German child (see next question)
Parent to a German Child	I am a parent to a German child and applied for the “parent to a minor German child” visa – as it is less restrictive and easier to obtain
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	Yes
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes

Shared by Vaughn 28 July 2022

When did you apply for your FRV	2019-01-07
How many days did you wait before it was approved	14
Nationality of the person applying for a FRV	South African passport
The nationality of your spouse whom you will be joining in Germany	Dual SA and DE
Marital Status at the time of application	Married
Children	I am a parent to a German child (see next question)
Parent to a German Child	I am a parent to a German child but applied for a spousal visa
Type of Visa your spouse have for Germany	German passport holder
Did you need to have your marriage certificate apostilled	No
Proof of language skills	Language requirement was waived
Are you allowed to work once you are in Germany	Yes
Tips you would like to share	All certificates (marriage and birth) had to be unabridged but not apostilled. As I have a German child (dual SA, DE citizenship), the A1 language requirement was waived however I still did the Goethe A1 test and used it in my application. For proof of medical insurance, I obtained 3 months travel insurance and then went on a krankenkasse the first week in Germany. Book your appointment at the Auslanderbehörde as soon as possible once arriving in Germany and try to take someone fluent in German with you. You may have to do a mandatory integration course, it is hard to do as it is 3-4 hours daily for about a year, but it helps you integrate and gets you to B1.

“German citizens or citizens from non-EU countries who have an Aufenthaltserlaubnis (residence permit) or a Niederlassungserlaubnis (settlement permit) are allowed to bring their relatives to

List of Long Stay Visas

Long Term visas are seen as visits longer than 90 days and will typically be for work or study visits. If your application is approved,

Getting married

Navigating the process of getting married in Germany can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re not a German citizen. On our Facebook page, we often receive