German EU spouse visa

Hi guyz, Could anyone who has knowledge about the german implementation of the directive kindly assist with the necessary information.
I am a ghanian married to a British citizen, we applied for an accompany eu citizen visa at the german embassy in Ghana, though it was a straight forward application, just that the visa office said I have to purchase insurance which is mandatory for all applications. I purchased an insurance for a month and was subsequently issued a Visa for the insured period with the following wordings (Familienangehoriger Eines UnionSburgers/EWR-burgers)

My wife, however has travelled to germany before me , to make arrangements for accomondation, my questions now are :

With the wordings on the Visum stamp, do we actually have to travel to Germany together or I could be joining her in germany.

Secondly would I be able to get an extension for my one month visa once in germany before being issued a residence card.

And lastly, do we need to legalize our marriage certificate from Ghana ahead before moving to Germany.

Thank you

frei wrote:Hi guyz, Could anyone who has knowledge about the german implementation of the directive kindly assist with the necessary information.
I am a ghanian married to a British citizen, we applied for an accompany eu citizen visa at the german embassy in Ghana, though it was a straight forward application, just that the visa office said I have to purchase insurance which is mandatory for all applications. I purchased an insurance for a month and was subsequently issued a Visa for the insured period with the following wordings (Familienangehoriger Eines UnionSburgers/EWR-burgers)

My wife, however has travelled to germany before me , to make arrangements for accomondation, my questions now are :

With the wordings on the Visum stamp, do we actually have to travel to Germany together or I could be joining her in germany.

Secondly would I be able to get an extension for my one month visa once in germany before being issued a residence card.

And lastly, do we need to legalize our marriage certificate from Ghana ahead before moving to Germany.

Thank you

Welcome! This is actually in the wrong section, but that's ok. I will ask that it get moved to the right place.

You can definitely fly without her if she is already there.

Your visa is only important for your initial entry into Germany. You do not need to get an extension. Your stay there is completely legal as long as your wife is legally in Germany. For the first 90 days she has to do nothing specific other than be your wife. After that she should work or be looking for work or be self sufficient.

When you get to Germany, you and your wife will need to go an register your address at the local city hall.

I do not see why you would need to legalize your marriage certificate in Ghana. If the embassy accepted it, then the local Behorde (offices) should accept it too.

Note that I am a personal believer in having 3-5 copies of your marriage certificate. If you can get a few extra now, easily and cheaply, then I would do it. It is always hard to get one once you are resident in Germany or the UK or whereever.

If you have any problems or further questions, please come back to us.

Thanks a lot Directive, I will revert to you if i have further questions. Do you know if in Germany EU citizens and their family members qualify for free German course. Thank you

There was a (if I remember the name) "Handbook for Germany" which the government put online.

It was talking about free language course for foreigners. Interestingly
it recommended that European citizens take advantage of the courses, but said that if the local city did not have space or did not let you in, that you should sue them.

frei wrote:Thanks a lot Directive, I will revert to you if i have further questions. Do you know if in Germany EU citizens and their family members qualify for free German course. Thank you

Yes they do qualify, but u need to apply a couple of months before u start, because it takes a while to process ur papers, in the sense that they approve to pay ur course.This is usually at Volkshochschule, the course is called an integration course until the level of B1 and is usually 2 times a year depends on the city.

Thanks guyz for your inputs.

I would need you guyz to kindly advice me as my situation has slightly changed, I am now in Germany with my wife, we are staying with family as we are still house hunting at the moment.

My wife is 3 months pregnant, she would not be able to exercise her treaty rights for some time by being in paid employment for this reason, I am however searching for job, attended some interviews, and am hopeful. My questions are as below:

If I do secure a job, can i still apply for residence card on the basis that my wife would be self sufficient, or how would this play out.

or we do not have a right to be here as it stands, its not very clear to me at this time, could anyone who knows of this kindly advice.

Thank you.

frei wrote:If I do secure a job, can i still apply for residence card on the basis that my wife would be self sufficient, or how would this play out

Yes.

In fact you can apply now assuming you have some savings.

Also, if your wife gets a part time job now (difficult, I know), you could also apply now on the basis that she is employed. Her future plans (in 6 months) are not taken into consideration by the law.

Thanks Directive, we do have some savings actually am not sure how that will play out, we have some savings of around EUR3000, and my wife will be getting maternity benefit from Ireland for at least 6 months as she has been working there for over a year.

My wife will try and look for job, just unsure due to her condition employer will be less willing to give her a job. Do we have to use the service of a lawyer or we could apply by ourselves.

We were told at the foreign office that one of us must find a job, and that if my one month visa expires before securing a job (normally) I have to go back to Ghana and reapply to enter, but he was careful with his choice of words as he wasnt asking me to go back even if the one month expires.

Thank you.

frei wrote:Thanks Directive, we do have some savings actually am not sure how that will play out, we have some savings of around EUR3000, and my wife will be getting maternity benefit from Ireland for at least 6 months as she has been working there for over a year.

My wife will try and look for job, just unsure due to her condition employer will be less willing to give her a job. Do we have to use the service of a lawyer or we could apply by ourselves.

We were told at the foreign office that one of us must find a job, and that if my one month visa expires before securing a job (normally) I have to go back to Ghana and reapply to enter, but he was careful with his choice of words as he wasnt asking me to go back even if the one month expires.

Wrong wrong wrong. If, and only if, they kick your wife out of Germany, which is very unlikely, will you have to leave. If your wife remains, so can you. End of story. If anyone even suggests you leave, just say politely "No thanks. I am here with my EU citizen wife".

Who told you this? What office were they from?

I would however encourage you not to travel outside of Schengen until you have applied for and received your Residence Card.

You apply for the Residence at the local city office. I would not bother with a lawyer personally. I think it is a waste and many do not know enough about the topic to be worth the money.

Thanks a lot Directive, I will keep you posted on how things evolve. I have heard a lot about how rigid the Germans are, and the more you try to prove them wrong they might make things a little more difficult. It was a guy at the foreign office that told us we might have to leave and stuff, his English is not as such good, and I only try to avoid any conflict by trying to concur with his opinion albeit wrong.

Thank you.

frei wrote:Thanks a lot Directive, I will keep you posted on how things evolve. I have heard a lot about how rigid the Germans are, and the more you try to prove them wrong they might make things a little more difficult. It was a guy at the foreign office that told us we might have to leave and stuff, his English is not as such good, and I only try to avoid any conflict by trying to concur with his opinion albeit wrong.

Do not worry about avoiding conflct. Germans do not mind a good strong discussion. Some of them are rigid, but they have a very strong belief in the rule of law. You just need to show them the law, and they will bend!

I am curious how you talked with somebody at the foreign office. What sort of public office was able to talk about immigration stuff? What exactly did you ask them?

Your position is very strong, at least with respect to not having to leave your wife.

[quote=" I am curious how you talked with somebody at the foreign office. What sort of public office was able to talk about immigration stuff? What exactly did you ask them?[/quote]

when I arrived at Munich Airport, the immigration police after seeing my visa then asked for invitation letter, I said I do not need one, she looked again, and said she needs to see something, I brought a copy of our marriage certificate attached with the change of name of my wife. She then asked are you going to the foreign office? Which I answered yes .

we went to the foreign office, and that's where the guy was saying those things, he even gave us his complimentary card, he also gave us a form for resident to fill in when we are ready, he said a lot of wrong things and as I wasn't ready to apply now it didn't really matter to me what he says.

He said on applying on the form he gave me, I will receive residence for one year, and I have to renew when it expires, and I will keep the routine for 5 years after which I will be due for permanent residence.

From my understanding I think the foreign office handles immigration related mater for foreigners.

Please do tell me if you know any website for the German government that well details the requirements for making an application under the Directives.

Thank you.

frei wrote:we went to the foreign office, and that's where the guy was saying those things, he even gave us his complimentary card, he also gave us a form for resident to fill in when we are ready, he said a lot of wrong things and as I wasn't ready to apply now it didn't really matter to me what he says.

What is a "complimentary card"?

You went to the foreigners immigration office. Auslanderamt.

(The "foreign office" (in English) means something different.)

frei wrote:He said on applying on the form he gave me, I will receive residence for one year, and I have to renew when it expires, and I will keep the routine for 5 years after which I will be due for permanent residence.

He is very wrong. You get it once, it is valid for 5 years, and then you get PR.


Please keep me closely informed as this progresses. I know the place well and I really want them to do this well.

Exactly what did you tell the Auslanderamt?
And what exactly did they say?

Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Exactly what did you tell the Auslanderamt?
And what exactly did they say?

Sorry for my late response, The complimentary card is his business card, we went to the office to confirm if I could work with my visa which she looked at it, and reconfirmed, that I could work with it, that was when my wife asked about applying for residence.

He said one of us must be working in other for me to be able to apply for residence (permit) as he called it, I just thought I would just go in with the copy of the Directive when I am ready to make my application.

frei wrote:

Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Exactly what did you tell the Auslanderamt?
And what exactly did they say?

Sorry for my late response, The complimentary card is his business card, we went to the office to confirm if I could work with my visa which she looked at it, and reconfirmed, that I could work with it, that was when my wife asked about applying for residence.

He said one of us must be working in other for me to be able to apply for residence (permit) as he called it, I just thought I would just go in with the copy of the Directive when I am ready to make my application.

Key for you be able to apply for a Residence Card is that the EU citizen either be working, or be a student, or be self sufficient. If you are working, then you wife can be considered self sufficient, or if you have (lets say) 10,000 euros in your bank account.

And this person told you that the Residence Card would only be issued for one year at a time?

Thank you for your input, yes he said that I would only be issued residence for one year at a time, please clarify these: If I am working? will my wife need to have insurance cover? And if so Would I need to also have one? or will i be covered by the state social system as I am a contributor?

thanks

frei wrote:Thank you for your input, yes he said that I would only be issued residence for one year at a time, please clarify these: If I am working? will my wife need to have insurance cover? And if so Would I need to also have one? or will i be covered by the state social system as I am a contributor?

In Germany everyone has to have medical insurance. So yes. He is wrong about the residence card being for one year at a time, unless you told him you were staying for only one year.

so that means residence card can be applied any time when eu national and non eu spouse are present in country there is no requirement like that eu national needs to be exercising traety rights for 3 months before they can apply for the residnce card.
like eu national needs to be working for 3 months before they can apply the residence card or they can apply as soon as they arrive in host state and start job thanks

sierra wrote:so that means residence card can be applied any time when eu national and non eu spouse are present in country there is no requirement like that eu national needs to be exercising traety rights for 3 months before they can apply for the residnce card.
like eu national needs to be working for 3 months before they can apply the residence card or they can apply as soon as they arrive in host state and start job thanks

You can apply for the RC on the same day as the EU person begins to work. But the member state can not require you to have it before 3 months are done.

hi frei so what was the proces you have to gone through before you could take employment in germany as you arrived in germany on a one month visit visa did they give you some letter explaining that you family member of eu national and allowed to work for employees or any card like over here in uk you get ni no etc.

sierra wrote:hi frei so what was the proces you have to gone through before you could take employment in germany as you arrived in germany on a one month visit visa did they give you some letter explaining that you family member of eu national and allowed to work for employees or any card like over here in uk you get ni no etc.

Not much of a progress we have made so far, here in Germany houses to let are a bit difficult to come by, and thats what we have devoted our resources into finding that at the moment, most things still looks blurry to be honest.

Although I have been told by the foreign office that, there were no restrictions on my right to work on the one month visa noting much than that as I have not applied for the residence card.

@ Directive just an update if you would have any idea on this,
we went to the town hall for our anmeldung, my wife included my name on the form, so we have an address now, getting a job for my wife would be the hard bit as she is pregnant and also her profession requires knowledge of the German language as she is an NHS registered Nurse.

My wife has been providing some services here and she is being paid in cash, (Hair stylist) her number of clientele is growing, and the pay is considerably good, I am wondering if my wife could be deemed self employed on that basis, and if so as she is being paid in cash for these services how would she be able to declare income for tax purposes if you have any idea on this.

Thank you

I am not sure what the German self employed rules are. Sorry. Is she being paid illegally (schwartzarbeit) or is it being transferred to her bank account and reported to the authorities?