Germany for family

OpenLast checked 2026-11-03

Everything here depends on which permit your sponsor holds. Everything.

Generic advice about German family reunification is usually wrong, because it answers as though there were one set of rules. There is not. Two of the three hard conditions — the spouse's A1 German test and the adequate-housing test — are switched off entirely when the sponsor holds one of a named list of permits: the EU Blue Card, an intra-company transfer, the skilled-worker permits, the researcher permits and the self-employment permit. The same list appears in both provisions. Join an engineer on a Blue Card and you need no German and no housing test. Join a student and you need both. There is a second trap in the same provision, and it costs people a year. For a student sponsor and for an ordinary skilled worker, the marriage must already have existed when the sponsor's own permit was issued. Someone who moved to Germany single and married afterwards does not satisfy that, and must instead wait out the two-year route — or move onto a Blue Card, which qualifies immediately. The good news is the part most people worry about and should not. Your family member may work from the day the permit is issued. There is no waiting period and no labour-market test: the Act gives any title-holder the right to work unless a law forbids it, nothing in the family chapter forbids it, and the Federal Office states it in terms. The entitlement is printed on the card itself. What will actually cost you time is paperwork, not law. If you are in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Nepal, Sri Lanka or the Philippines, Germany does not accept your civil documents at face value: it runs its own verification through a local lawyer, and that alone takes months.

Where you stand

Make this page about you

1. What is your path?

2. Which country are you applying from?

0 paths are named in Germany's official demand list, ranked below.

What Germany wants, in its own order

This order is the official shortage analysis, not our opinion. The source is linked under the list.

The routes

Each route below is a separate permit with its own hard requirements. Failing any one requirement means that route is closed to you, however strong the rest of your case is.

Spouse of a skilled worker, Blue Card holder or researcher (§ 30 AufenthG with the § 29(5) list)

Open

The easy version. No A1 German test, no adequate-housing test, and the right to work from day one.

Who this is for

Spouses of EU Blue Card holders
Spouses of skilled workers on the §§ 18a, 18b or 18c(3) permits
Spouses of researchers on the § 18d or § 18f permits
Spouses of intra-company transferees, and of the self-employed on § 21

You must have every one of these

Both of you are at least 18
The sponsor holds one of the named permits. That single fact removes both the German-language condition and the living-space condition
A valid marriage, recognised under German law, with the certificate verified where your country is on Germany's verification list
Health insurance and a secure livelihood

How long it lastsTied to the sponsor's permit.Work allowedFull, from the day the permit is issued. No waiting period and no labour-market test, and the entitlement is printed on the card.Government feeEUR 75

Source: § 30 AufenthG — spouse reunification (checked 2026-11-03) · § 29 AufenthG — conditions, including the living-space waiver (checked 2026-11-03) · § 4a AufenthG — the right to work attached to a residence title (checked 2026-11-03) · BAMF — family reunification, including the right to work (checked 2026-11-03)

Spouse of a student or an ordinary permit holder (§ 30 AufenthG, standard conditions)

Restricted

A1 German is required, housing must be adequate, and there is a timing condition that catches people who married after their partner moved.

Who this is for

Spouses of students and of permit holders not on the privileged list

You must have every one of these

Both of you are at least 18
You can demonstrate basic German at A1 level, unless one of the statutory exemptions applies to you
Adequate living space. No official square-metre figure exists that we can cite: the Act sets a ceiling by reference to social-housing standards, which are set by each state, and Berlin's own pages publish no number. Ask the authority that will decide your case
The timing condition that catches people out: for these sponsors the marriage must ALREADY have existed when the sponsor's permit was issued, and the stay must be expected to run more than a year. If you married after your partner moved, you do not meet this and must either wait out the two-year route or wait for your partner to move onto a Blue Card

Work allowedFull, once the permit is issued.Government feeEUR 75

Children joining a parent (§ 32 AufenthG)

Open

Straightforward under 16. At 16 and over, travelling separately, two German missions are requiring C1 German — a level the statute itself does not name.

Who this is for

Minor unmarried children of a parent holding a German permit

You must have every one of these

The child is unmarried and under 18
Both parents hold the right of custody, or the moving parent holds it alone
Under 16, and moving together with the parent: no language condition
16 or over and travelling separately: the Act says only that the child must command the German language, and names no level — but the German missions in Dhaka and Islamabad are requiring a C1 certificate, and Islamabad applies it to a child who turns 16 while the application is being processed. Moving the child before the 16th birthday, or together with the parent, removes the condition. Plan the family's timing around this, because it is the difference between a formality and a year of language school

Work allowedEducation. Work rights follow the general rule on reaching working age.Government feeEUR 37.5

Source: § 32 AufenthG — children joining parents (checked 2026-11-03) · § 46 AufenthV — visa fees (checked 2026-11-03) · German Embassy Dhaka — family reunion visa information (20 July 2026) (checked 2026-11-03)

What it actually costs

National visa for the family member

Minors pay half, so EUR 37.50 per child.

Source: § 46 AufenthV — visa fees (checked 2026-11-03)

EUR 75You pay

Residence permit card in Germany

EUR 100 to issue, EUR 93 to extend.

Source: § 45 AufenthV — residence permit fees (checked 2026-11-03)

EUR 93 to EUR 100You pay

Document verification, India (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry)

Germany does not take your marriage certificate at face value. A local lawyer instructed by the mission verifies it, which takes up to four months plus about two weeks for each postal leg. Chennai also asks for six to eight wedding photographs, and prefers certificates that are not laminated.

Source: German Consulate General Chennai — document verification procedure and cost (checked 2026-11-03) · Federal Foreign Office — states where legalisation is not possible, so documents are verified instead (2 May 2025) (checked 2026-11-03)

EUR 550You pay

Total to budgetEUR 718 to EUR 725

Where a blocked account appears above, that is your own money and it comes back to you monthly after arrival. It is not a fee to anyone. No agent needs to hold it for you.

How long it really takes

8 to 18 months

Only one German mission publishes a figure we can cite: Dhaka states roughly eight months as a minimum. India and Pakistan say only 'several months', Nigeria says applications are taken in strict waiting-list order, and Manila publishes nothing — so we will not print a number for those. The duration you CAN plan around is document verification, which is sourced: up to four months in southern India, ten to twelve weeks in Bangladesh, five to six months in the Philippines. Start that before anything else.