Welcome
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
We hope you understand that we cannot respond individually to questions featured in this section. Please write an email to the Visa Section if you have not found the answer to your question.
FAQ
You can apply for a National Visa (for e.g. students, family reunion, etc.) or a Schengen Visa for short stays (e.g. for business trips). If you are unsure which visa category is right for you please use the visa navigator provided by the Federal Foreign Office
Waiting periods vary according to your requested visa category. Due to the huge demand, both student visa applicants and family reunion visa applicants face a waiting period of several years to receive an appointment at the Embassy. Please note that any inquiries about individual wait times cannot be answered.
Visa for short stays up to 90 days (Schengen Visa) are handled via VFS. Please use this link to schedule an appointment to submit your Schengen visa application
Unfortunately no. The visa section is accepting and processing as many visa applications as possible. Waiting times occur when the demand for visa exceeds the capacities of the Embassy to swiftly handle the applications. An enlargement of these capacities is not in sight, due to budgetary and human resources related limitations. The Embassy is operating with a budget and a staff number fixed as a result of the annual budget law adopted by the German Parliament. Financial and human resources are scarce worldwide, and only German consular officers who have undergone a three years lasting specific academic training are legally capacitated to issue visa.
Your passport should be valid for at least 3 month after your departure from the Schengen Area. Please also note that your passport should have 2 free pages for the visa sticker and entry/exit stamps.
Required documentation can vary according to visa categories, so please check the information sheet provided for your category to find out which documents will be necessary.
On the day of your interview, you may pay your visa application fee according to your category in cash. Visa fees are payable in Bangladeshi Taka only. Please bring the exact amount. Credit card payment is not possible.
The Embassy currently works with waiting lists for different visa categories. Please klick here to join the waiting list for an appointment to apply for a national visa.
Depending on your visa category, it is possible that processing will take several months. Unfortunately, there is no option to track your application status online. You will receive a notification as soon as a decision has been made regarding your application.
After registering for the waiting list you have received an email stating an approximate wait time. This is only an estimate given at the point of registration. Please note that waiting times change frequently due to different factors.
The demand for student visa alone largely exceeds the capacities of the Embassy for swiftly handling all applications. Besides the student visa, the Embassy is equally dealing with a growing number of applications for family reunion visa as well as for visa for official missions or business trips.
Once an applicant has registered themselves with an email address in the waiting list, this email address has to be used until the applicant gets an appointment. Changes or alternations are not possible. Please be advised to keep the same mail address throughout the whole application process. If the email address changes for any reason, the applicant has to register themselves again and therefore start the waiting period again.
It is important to know that keeping the same mail address is also a way to ensure that there is no selling of waiting list spots and to prevent corruption.
No, the Embassy informed all applicants during the registration process on its website that enrolment and examination dates cannot be considered.
The Embassy has not the appropriate personnel capacities and resources for such kind of actions. Given the continuously and significantly increasing number of applications, short-lived ad hoc measures cannot reduce the waiting periods in a sustainable way: Extra hours by the consular officers would have to be compensated either financially (for which is no scope in the budget) or by time off which would not enhance the visa handling capacities of the visa section.
Accepting more documents at once would equally not result in speeding up the decision process. The Embassy is requesting the submission of documents some weeks before it is capable of processing the application, checking the documents and, in case the documents are complete, eventually giving an appointment in the Embassy. Earlier submission of documents would not lead to their earlier checking, but rather prevent students who applied early to present their enrolment in a German University. Experience has shown that at the time of the submission of the documents, nearly all of the applicants are able to provide a complete set of documents. No applicant receives an appointment whose documents have not been thoroughly checked. As a consequence, no precious and rare time for an appointment can be lost because of applicants without complete documentation at the time of registering on the Embassy’s website.
You will need to provide proof that you have adequate financial resources for your stay in Germany. One way to do this is opening a blocked account. To find out more about blocked accounts, please visit the website of the Federal Foreign Office: Blocked Account
If you have already enrolled at the German university using your current IELTS certificate, you do not need to submit any new IELTS certificates at the time of your visa interview. Please bring your current IELTS certificate for your interview.
No.
Yes, it is mandatory to submit an A1 certificate with your application for a family reunion with a German national.
Minors under the age of 16 applying for a family reunion visa do not have to submit a German language certificate.
Children 16 or older, who are not resettling together with both parents (or with one parent in case of single custody) at the same time, must submit a C1 certificate. There are some exemptions for this requirement.
Yes, all applicants must be present no matter how old they are.
If you intend to marry your partner in Germany, you must first obtain a certificate of marriageability (“Anmeldung zur Eheschließung”) issued by the competent German Civil Registrar. The certificate must state that a date for the intended marriage has been scheduled.
VFS Global has an visa application center in Dhaka to handle Schengen Visa applications for the Embassy. Please book your appointment directly with VFS here
Schengen Visa applications can be handed in up to 6 months in advance of the intended date of travel, while seaman may hand in their application up to 9 months in advance.
You must apply for the visa at the Embassy of the Schengen country that is your main travel destination. For example, a visit to a fair in Munich for 3 days followed by a holiday in France lasting 2 weeks: you are requested to submit your application at the French Embassy.
Airport transit visas are only valid for short stopovers while you are waiting a few hours for your onward flight in the airport’s international transit area. However, if a hotel accommodation is only available outside the transit area then please apply for a regular tourist visa.
Changes are not possible after the visa has been issued. You will have to submit a new visa application. Your current visa will be canceled and a new visa will be issued.
The refusal letter provided to the applicant by the Embassy not only states that the visa application was rejected but also gives the reason(s) on which it was rejected. At the same time, this letter informs the applicant about their right to appeal the decision. The applicant has the right to appeal this decision (to remonstrate) in writing (signature required) within one month after having received the refusal letter. Additional documents may be added with the appeal letter (which must be in German or English) for further clarification of the trip.
A third party (host/relatives, companies or a lawyer) may launch an appeal on behalf of the applicant only if they provide a relevant power of attorney signed by the applicant.
The Embassy will reconsider the application and take a new decision. In case the Embassy is not in a position to take a favorable decision, i.e. to grant the visa, the applicant will be informed accordingly by a Remonstrance Notice (so called “Remonstrationsbescheid”).
The applicant has the right to appeal this decision by filing a legal action with the Administrative Court in Berlin. Detailed information on the procedure is provided on the Remonstration Notice.
Please be aware, that the process of reviewing your visa application may take several weeks. Until a final decision has been taken on your visa application it is not possible to launch a new visa application. For reasons of data protection, information on visa matters may only be provided to the applicant personally or to an authorized Person.