adeotun:
Most of my questions have been ignored but please I need an answer for this one ... I received the original documents from Germany today and I am to proceed to book an appointment for a skilled immigrant visa. The issue is my certificate is not ready yet but I have my Notification of Result. That is what I used to register for NYSC too. I contacted my school and they said certificates for 2020 graduates are not yet ready. WIll this be an issue or Consulate won't bother since my Notification of Result was issued by the school to stand in for my certificate?

I need a response before my dad gets back this evening please so when he comes back I can book the visa interview ish today with him

My advice is to forward it to your company in Germany, explain everything to them and tell them to ask the Immigration authorities if it's okay.

I believe they will accept it but if it doesn't work out, prepare for a plan B and apply for a regular work visa. (Here you'll have to present your WAEC and primary school certificates) and then you can sort it out when you get to Germany

pidgintutor:


What airline you used?

Lufthansa. It's more expensive but I wanted a direct flight to Germany and I didn't want to apply for a Transit Visa from the other Embassies
But if you want to save some $ You can use Turkish airlines or British airways.

Just check if you need a Transit Visa

beatemp:


Hi Jkong

Did you have to show the immigration officers your contract or any other documentation at the airport?

Thanks

sorry for the late response. Yes (Not the Nigerian officials) but In Germany.

I took a direct flight but if you're using a connecting flight then, you'll have to show it twice

beatemp:


Congrats jkong!

I'd like to know how long after you submitted travel insurance and dates before you got your passport back?

8 days (6 working days + weekend)

but 3 of those days were "Transport days". If you stay in Lagos, it should take 5 days or less since you've essentially cut out the extra days for transporting your documents

pidgintutor:


beatemp

Guys.. My documents came today

Visa is approved.

Thanks so much nuel80

Congrats!!

Guys I made it to Germany.

It's just over a week since I got here so I'm still settling in. The weather is nice and Warm, no complaints about that.
The entire process took 1 month and 1 week after my Visa interview

And concerning the issue with my change of name (check page 59 and 60). It wasn't an issue. I asked the Embassy officer directly and he said it's not a problem as long as your academic documents BEAR THE SAME NAME AS YOUR PASSPORT.If your birth cert has a different name Just take the legal change of name document along with you. He looked at it but he said there's no need to submit it.
NOTE: This is for work Visa. I don't think it applies to family reunion since your name is the only way of establishing the relationship.

Thanks for all the Info and encouragement guys! I don't have much experience with the system here but I'm open to other questions before the Visa i.e Application process, requirements, Travel Insurance etc

kosky:
Goodness gracious! I can feel your anxiety all the way from here. Calm down. Take deep breaths. Court affidavits should be least of your problems. I'm still curious how you deemed your initial affidavit as fake because you do not have a receipt. Mine did not have a red seal on it. It was not a problem. It was also gotten after my passport was obtained. Not a problem. Just calm down, take one of the affidavits and go for your interview.

Thank you for your reassuring message.

I was almost having a panic attack (for several reasons) when I posted that long message yesterday. I'm calmer now
Calling it "fake" might be an exaggeration but there's certainly a difference between mine and the others that I saw that day. The lady even asked me why I'm so bothered about the receipt If I'm not using it for Immigration purposes (She wasn't aware).

Anyway, I have another potential "problem" and it's with the legalization or authentication of my documents. I wasn't even aware of this until I started reading Nairaland a few days ago. ALL my official documents are not legalized (birth cert, certificates etc)

I assumed that you just need to present your documents and then it's the embassy's job to investigate and ascertain that they're not fraudulent. That's what I understood from the German embassy's website: https://nigeria.diplo.de/ng-en/service/verification-of-nigerian-documents/1015552

I spoke to two friends (one left last year and the other left in 2018) and they both said they never authenticated/legalized their documents (One said he never set foot in Abuja for anything. That's how explicit he was). They just submitted them to the Embassy on the day of the interview and it was fine. This seems strange to me because other peeps on Nairaland have hammered the point down repeatedly that your documents need to be legalized. Although most of them were prospective students and I understand that it's required by the German universities first before you apply for the Students Visa.

I applied for a Work Visa, not the Students Visa (Maybe the requirements concerning legalization are different?). At this point, it's too late for me to authenticate/legalize my documents; I'm already in Lagos and there's simply no time to do it (Thanks to the public holidays). This is the first time that I've hated a public holiday

I'll present them at the Embassy and see how it goes. Whatever happens, I just want to make sure that I show up because I read that you could get a 6months ban If you don't show up for your appointment.

I'll keep you guys posted.

PS: We need a FAQ section for all visa-related questions. There are tons of good information here but it's scattered. There's only so much that Google can do.

Guys, I'm becoming paranoid now (The Interview date is getting close lol)

I have a problem with my Birth name and my court affidavit. The name on my birth Cert isn't the same as most of my documents. As expected, I swore an affidavit and I've been using that (since 2018). That's what I used to Obtain my International passport.

In the past, I used this same affidavit to apply for a Schengen Visa to Spain (not Germany) but I didn't get the Visa. My Documents weren't deemed as fraudulent though (do they tell you if your documents are fraudulent).

Recently, I found out from Nairaland that these court officials sometimes do fake affidavits (without the knowledge of the person swearing the affidavit). They take the money, publish the new name in the newspaper but they don't actually register it in the court. A big sign of this fraud is the lack of a court receipt which I don't have (The court official that did it never gave me a receipt).

I just swore a new affidavit and this time, I made sure that I asked for a receipt; lo and behold, it was a fake one. The lady just pocketed the money that I gave her and there was no receipt. After paying for it officially, a red seal was placed on the affidavit and it was stamped again (Two stamps instead of one for the fake one).
Nigerians!!! wouldn't it be better to just ask the person directly for money (which is already bad on its own), Instead of secretly doing something wrong that could cause the person further problems down the road. I looked around me that day and all the affidavits that I saw with other people didn't have that red seal on them and they were Oblivious to it (I can't blame them because, like me, they trusted the court officials to do their job and do the right thing) Jeeez!!
Side note for anyone reading this: If you or anyone wants to swear an affidavit, request for a receipt and make sure it's registered properly with the court

Calling it "fake" might be an exaggeration because it's not actually fake. It's still signed by the Court but it isn't properly documented and if the Embassy wants to be meticulous and they ask for the receipt, it will definitely be an issue. So make sure you collect receipts for every "affidavit-related" thing that you do.

My gut feeling tells me that the old one was done the same way and now I'm worried that presenting this new one might raise some red flags because:
- It's different from my old one. Why
- It's new (Newer than my passport; so I couldn't have used it to get my current passport) what happened to the old one

I'm aware that they already have copies of my previous Visa application in the Shared Schengen system. If I hadn't applied for a Visa before now then this wouldn't bother me at all and I'd just go with the new one.

What do you guys advise me to do?

- Just go with the old one and hope that everything works itself out (since they never raised any issue concerning it)
- Try and obtain a receipt for my first affidavit and make sure it's registered properly (I don't even know if this is possible because I did it in 2018)
- Be 101% honest and go with both of them and explain why I had to do a new one (Will I get a chance to explain? Having two affidavits just seems weird and is a red flag on its own)
- Go with the new one (That I'm pretty certain is Authentic) and ditch the old one totally.

Maybe I'm just overthinking this thing.
The fake affidavits (I don't actually know if mine was fake) are accepted almost everywhere in Nigeria even at the Immigration office (after all, I used it to get my passport) No one has the time to verify every affidavit individually (down to the receipt level) except the Embassies. They'll probably send a lawyer to the court to check the affidavit (That's the root of my fear)

I'm thinking of going with both affidavits but I'd like other people to weigh in on this. Thanks!