Applying for visit visa for family (Parents and brother)

Introduction

Sometimes there are cases when you would like to invite your family members / friends / relatives to Germany. Some reasons for the same could be:

1. Birth in your family
2. Tourist visit
3. General meet
4. or any other reason

Visa Options

There are two options
Tourist Visa
Visit Visa (Visit to Relatives or Friends)

I am sharing my experience for the above visit visa process. I started the process 2 months in advance and it is recommended that you start it at-least 3-4 months in advance. I am a based near Stuttgart Germany and my experience is related to this area and Germany. I applied for my parents(around 55 years old) and my brother(around 18 years old). This is my experience and should not be considered as legal advice and other people may face different experience. This blog is intended purely for help and guidelines.

How to get such visa for your family members?

Prerequisites

Before you apply for any visa it is recommended that send them formal invitation letter. (Verpflichtungserklärung). You get the letter on the spot from the Rathaus. Depending upon your area you will need to get or an appointment or go directly. I took the appointment and got it after a week.

For that following are pre-requisites

1. Following info about the family member you want to invite to get 
• Passport No.
• First Name
• Last Name
• Date Of Birth
• Place of Birth
• Scan copy of first and last page of passport
2. Your own passport and residence permit
3. House Rent agreement : Your flat area should be sufficient to accommodate guests. The definition is that for each person 12 square meter. So if you have 2 guests + 2 hosts . It should be 48 m2
4. A letter from the house owner stating the visitors name along with currently living people (this was required for me may not be in your case)
5. Last 3 months Salary slips to prove that you can sponsor their visit.
6. Euro 25
7. Knowledge of where your local Rathaus is located and opening times (Go to the office in your city)

To be more specific, This required documents can be asked to the local office. I got a email from the office stating the necessary documents. 

Procedure

1. If required take a appointment for the letter
2. Go to your local office and get the sponsorship/invitation letter
3. Send this letter to India (by post(min. 3 weeks), as I had less time I sent the letter by DHL express which took 2 days)
4. Get health insurance from India(please see the requirements on the vfs)
5. Book air tickets(During booking the tickets be sure to book the flight where your transit country does not have any visa requirements or no stop overs visa requirements, best is a direct flight)
6. Gather all the documents mentioned in the check-list(my experience is that you need all this documents and some more so please keep as much as documents as you can)
7. Apply for VISA in india at VFS office.
• Tip: Tourist visa is valid for 90 day

Gathering documents required:

The image has the documents required with annotation about my experience, please check on vfs site for up-to date information. 

Apart from the standard check-list I had to also submit my 3 months payslip, bank statement and house contract and my own invitation letter(On a A4 size paper) along with the Verpflichtungserklärung. 

VFS procedure:

We took an appointment online and got it the next day. Please arrange the documents as per check-list and in the same order.

Arrive at the vfs centre 20-30 minutes before your appointment.

If all your documents are in order they will accept the application and will ask few questions like who are you visiting, why are you visiting etc.

 A strong documentation is equals to strong chances of visa approval but still it depends case to case and on individual merit.

The fees can be paid in cash but still be sure to check the amount you need to carry.

We availed the courier service so that the passport after process is delivered directly at your doorsteps.

You can also track the application status on the vfs.
We got the visa approved and stamped in 5 working days.