Welcome
Family Reunification Visa
Would you like to join your spouse, parent or child in Germany? We have compiled the most important information for other long-stay visas below.
Please read the following information carefully and in full before booking your appointment!
Preparing your application
Prepare your application by following the steps below:
- Use our Visa Navigator to make sure you need a family reunification visa.
- Register in our appointment system. Click here to book an appointment. Please note the instructions below for making an appointment!
- Read our information sheet on your visa category carefully and in full.
Important note: Please do not send any unsolicited documents to the visa centre. Unsolicited documents will be deleted and cannot be assigned to any process.
FAQ
If a minor applicant is accompanied by a person who does not hold parental custody, the original of a power of attorney certified by German authorities is required.
If no power of attorney is presented at the appointment, the application cannot be accepted.
The time of processing is at least 12 months from presentation of the complete documents. This long processing time is mainly caused by the extensive work of the verification of documents and depends also on the processing time of the foreigners‘ registration office in Germany.
Questions concerning the state of the process are not answered before the expiration of the regular processing time. You can find a checklist with the required documents here.
In the following cases a langugae certificate is necessary:
- For the reunification with a German or a foreign spouse or fiance, knowledge of German language on level A1 is required. In certain cases no German language skills are required. More information can be found here.
- For the reunification of a minor children with a parent, if the child has reached the age of 16 years, knowledge of German language on level C1 necessary.
Exception: The minor children joins a German parent in Germany. In this case there is no need of language knowledge. In the case of family reunification with recognised refugees, no language skills need to be proven either.
Information: Only ALTE-certificates (Goethe-Institute, ÖSD, telc, TestDaf) will be recognized.
If the certificate is not yet available at the time of application, it is possible to submit it later (usually within 4 weeks). If you have not submitted the required language skills within a reasonable period of time, your application will be rejected.
In the case of parents with joint custody, the personal declaration of consent of the parent remaining in Cameroon must be submitted if only one parent is to join the child. This can be recorded at the embassy when the application is submitted, together with proof of identity.
Otherwise, the declaration of consent must be submitted in notarised form.
Foreign documents are not automatically valid for the German legal system. As the requirements for the legalisation of public documents in Cameroon are not met until further notice, legalisation has been discontinued with the approval of the Federal Foreign Office. The embassy will therefore check whether the certified facts are correct as part of an identity check.