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Family Reunification Visa
Would you like to join your spouse, parent or child? We have compiled the most important information for other long-stay visas below.
The visa procedure for long-stay visas requires detailed and careful preparation.
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.
- Read our information sheet on your visa category carefully and in full.
- Information sheet on family reunification - reuniting spouses
- Information sheet on family reunification - reuniting children and parents
- In principle, there are no other options for family reunification (e.g. to go and live with an aunt or an adult child). Except in cases of hardship, no exceptions can be made.
- Register in our appointment system. Click here to book an appointment. Please note the instructions below for making an appointment!
- Fill in the visa application form for VIDEX national online here. Questions about VIDEX? Our VIDEX information sheet will help you!
- Gather your application documents. Any missing documents or supporting evidence may result in the application being rejected. Our information sheets (see 2.) contain all the steps involved in preparing the application file and the documents to be submitted when the application is submitted.
- Please take note of the remarks relating to the General Data Protection Regulation.
Important note: All requested documents must be submitted in original with three additional photocopies (2x visa application, 1x Verification of documents) Original documents will be returned to you as soon as the application process will be finished. All documents written in languages other than German, English and French must be translated into German.
Important information: Please do not send any unsolicited documents to the visa service. Unsolicited documents will be deleted and cannot be linked to any file.
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.
For the reunification with a family member (to Germany), you need for the following cases a language certificate.
- For the reunification with a German or a foreign spouse or fiancé*e, knowledge of German language on level A1 is required. In exception 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
Information: Only certificates ALTE (Goethe-Institute, ÖSD, telc, TestDaf) will be recognized.
If you don’t have the certificate at the moment of application, it is possible to submit it later (normally within 4 weeks). If you don’t prove the necessary language knowledge after a reasonable period of time, you application will be rejected.
In case of parents with joint custody but the reunifcation will be only with one parent, a personal declaration of consent of the parent remaining in Cameroon will be necessary. This consent can be recorded at the same moment the application is made on presentation of an identity proof.
Otherwise, the declaration of consent must be submitted in an official authenticated form.
50.000 FCFA for applicants from the age of 18.
25.000 FCFA for applicants up to the age of 18
Relatives of German spouses or children and relatives of EU/EEA citizens are exempted from fees.
Additional costs for the verification of documents:
Verification of documents within the city of Douala or Yaounde (+50 km): 230.000 FCFA
Verifications of documents in any other part of Cameroon: 400.000 FCFA
Foreign documents are not readily recognized within the field of German law. Since the requirements for the legalization of documents in Cameroon are not given for the time being, the legalization has been stopped with the approval of the German Federal Foreign Office.
The Embassy examines therefore in the course of an identity check whether the attested facts are true. You can find a checklist with the required documents here.
Questions concerning the state of the process are not answered during the regular processing time.
For reasons of date protection, information by phone will not be provided and can only be given to applicants or a third person by submitting a written power of attorney.
Please indicate in case of any question the reference number (barcode on the receipt).
You can remonstrate against the decision of the embassy or at the competent German administrative court.
All necessary information about the remonstration procedure can be found here.
Since the identity of callers cannot be verified and in regard of data protection, no information will be given per telephone.
Information will only be given to the applicant himself or to third parties under the presentation of a proper written power of attorney from the applicant.
Please note that, for reasons of the high demand, the processing time for remonstrations at present may take several months. But you are free to submit a new application at any time. If you submit a new application and you have already applied a remonstration, it will be considered as withdrawn.