₦airaland Forum

If you are certain that your aspiration is to relocate, work and thrive in Germany; then the best advice I have received is to learn the German language. Perhaps A1 is a good start if you hold the EU Blue card and work in an international org. where English is widely spoken.

Nonetheless, a German proficiency of at least B1 makes all the difference, especially if you are thinking long term. You will stand out and a whole lot of subsequent opportunities will be open to you. If you can learn the language to a good level of B1 while in Nigeria, then you are of the lot most fortunate.

funtaro:
Hello everyone, I have a question concerning health insurance coverage for work visa application.

Please, for anyone who applied for the EU blue card, did you submit a health insurance coverage in your online application? If you did, was it obtained from your employer or did you purchase a private insurance in order to get pre-approval for the appointment?

Thanks.

I believe the health insurance is part of the documents to be submitted on the online portal. Insurance coverage for at least 90days starting from your employment start date.

The insurance certificate can be easily gotten from AXA Mansard (Travel health insurance for Schengen areas) and is not too expensive, so you can purchase it by yourself.

When you resume in Germany, your employer will inform you how to enroll for the German public health insurance, as this is compulsory and contributed for by both you and your employer. For your interview in Nigeria and travelling, the health insurance from AXA Mansard (or any other trusted health insurance company in Nigeria) is sufficient.

Insurance is always a compulsory requirement to get any type of German visa for travel purposes.

Kinglaz:
For those that havent gone for the Interview, can we buy the Prepaid Envelop at the Embassy or do we have to get it before going to the Embassy?

Yes, can be gotten easily and without stress at the Embassy. By “at the embassy” , I mean at the DHL or FedEx office close to the embassy’s location. There is a car park close (less than 7 minutes walk) to the embassy; this is where you’ll find the DHL’s mini office (kiosk). Sometimes the clerk/worker from FedEx will be at the front of the security post beside the embassy (earlier in the morning) selling to interested parties.

There is also the possibility to get it immediately after your interview, if you somehow forgot to bring it during the interview. The consular officer who conducted your interview will give you a note with a time limit (30 - 45 minutes) that allows you to quickly get the prepaid courier envelope and submit it to him/her at the Embassy through the officials at the gate.

DevAhmed:
Hello guys,

I am trying to get prepaid envelopes for my wife and 2 kids (13, 10) . Do they need separate envelopes? Should the receiver of the envelopes be their mum or should be address to each child?

I think they can use one prepaid envelope since it would be one address and their appointment is at the same time. The key thing is to inform the consular officer (in the case they conduct the interview in a different room from each other) that the family will be using one prepaid envelope. I know of a group of six colleagues from one company (sponsored by it as well) that had their interview at the same time and used one prepaid envelope.

pepakov581:
Hello,

I’m about to schedule an appointment at the embassy for blue card application. I already uploaded my documents to the German portal and it passed preliminary review.

However, I don’t have the “original” WAEC hard copy certificate but I have the digital certificate which was obtained from the WAEC portal.

Is a printout of this digital certificate sufficient or do I need to physically go to the WAEC office to get the hard copy? Or can I notarise the printout from the Lagos High Court, for example?

Why not get the original copy of this certificate from WAEC? It would be good to have this for both the interview and the future. Since you asked, I’d advise you get the original hard copy certificate, especially as I do not see why WAEC wouldn’t give you if you have not collected it already.

The stress in notarising the print out is almost the same as requesting for your original WAEC certificate. Unless the digital certificate has same value as the hard copy? Which if this was the case, you would not need to stress about notarization.

On another note, why are you about to schedule an appointment?? Please schedule your appointment first then ask any questions later.

wallmosh:
I would be glad for your inputs. If one is applying is for research stay visa and needs to go with his/her spouse (as dependent), is the requirement(s) same as the family reunion but this time they are applying at the same time?

I read a comment here that it is possible to travel alongside your spouse/family if you got the pre-approval documents for you and your spouse/family. Not sure if it was for a specific visa type, but give it a shot. Better still, check through the comments on this thread if someone has mentioned this case already.

annieezeh8:
Please has anyone applied using the foreign portal here for blue card

@Tejiri has answered this. I have also mentioned the process for this in a previous post.

When you use the online consular portal, the booking of appointment dates is provided by the consular on a different calendar from the general online booking page. What does this mean? When you register on the consular portal to apply for a Blue card visa, there are steps: for instance:

1. you will first be required to fill a digital form by answering questions and providing information. Then you will be required to upload documents as well. This process can be saved and you can login again to continue and finish up. When you are done with both sections , you submit it. Next step:
2. Your submission is reviewed by the consular officials and if they have questions or you need to correct something then they will leave a comment on the section on the form affected. You will be notified via email that there is an update. After you have done all corrections and the consular considers your submission and documents to be complete, then you move to the next step.
3. The next step is booking an appointment. On that same portal, the step for booking appointment will become clickable and when you click on it, it will redirect you to their own calendar where you can pick a date out of many dates available in a month. You can be lucky and get a date in a week or 2 but there are always dates available. Once you have selected and booked the date then the next step is:
4. Attend your interview appointment with only the documents listed on this consular portal that is to be brought which should include a prepaid courier envelope, many people on here say they use DHL and FedEx, both have almost same price while DHL is a German company.
5. Next step is the consulate decides on your visa. If approved they send your passport and documents back to you through the prepaid courier envelope. This courier can be tracked, so you will know when the consulate sends back your documents and when you will receive it.

In a nutshell, your question on how long to get an appointment via the consular service portal? It depends on when you get the “OK” that your form and the documents submitted are okay, it is only after this “okay” that the calendar to pick dates becomes available. If you submit and have no corrections that require “back and forth” then you can get to the calendar in less than two weeks, because the consular officer reviews and in many cases responds promptly to submissions on the consular service portal.

Another alternative to the above consular service portal, is to get the pre-approval documents from ZAV and registering for the appointment under the fast track skilled immigration act…. You get an appointment date within three weeks and visa processed within three weeks after your interview (ideally).

Singlefile:
Please some one should help me with these answers

@Singlefile, you keep asking the same questions and I’ve answered all of them. There is a requirement to be classified under the EU Blue Card. Check the German embassy’s website and you can conclude for your self if you qualify.
- You said you got a job, does the salary of the job meet the criteria for the Blue card based on the requirements?
- The EU Blue card is under the skilled immigration system and so your bachelors and masters degree should be recognised under the Anabin database, as well as the university/institution.

I do not work at the embassy and can not instruct you with certainty. I can only offer suggestions based on my experience, as well as those I know who have shared other experiences. The onus is for you to take action after extensively checking the German embassies website and checking through all these suggestions and experience on Nairaland.

@SingleFile

I think ideally when you are employed in a German organization you can enroll for public insurance from your employment start date. However, the German consulate in Lagos would require you to submit a health/travel health insurance for at least 90 days starting from the date you intend to enter Germany. So in many cases as seen on this thread, people have mentioned using AXA Mansard and another foreign one, is it FINTIBA? I am not sure and can’t remember (read through this thread on Nairaland, I’m sure you will find very useful information).

The approval from the federal employment agency is the “pre-approval document” I mentioned earlier. I do not think it is a compulsory document your employer MUST provide to you, because it is not a contractually binding document between you and the employer. It is most useful to you because it helps you fast track your visa application and you get an interview date in at most three weeks if you have obtained the pre approval document (this is backed by the German laws as well).
I would like to think that your employer would like you to resume in good time, so you can inform them that this document is necessary for this to be possible. You are right, this document is applied for by the employer and when the preapproval is obtained, then it is given to you. Someone in a previous post mentioned it costs about 411 EUR, if I remember rightly, not sure.

@SingleFile

Please read through the requirements for the visa class you are applying for. It is stated expressly on German Embassy’s website. In addition to the employment contract, there is also a document that has a German title that starts with “Erkalung bla bla”, it is declaration of commitment, usually filled and signed by your employer. The respective HR officer responsible for your recruitment will have their details on the form.

This document is also required. The employer I suppose sent you a scanned copy of the employment contract for you to append your signature. If this is the case then it would be done via email. Seems to me as the most cost efficient means, as you’d eventually go to Germany and sign other documents in person.

I do not know if the consulate wants the original hard copy document. I would have thought a coloured print out/ photocopy suffices. Not sure, so check the requirements for your visa option to confirm if it is compulsory to bring the original hard copy of your contract.

@annieezeh8

It probably works. The person who talked about it had mentioned that you will fill the online form on the consular service platform and be required to attach the scanned copy of the original document you would have otherwise submitted in a physical interview. On submission, The consulate will then review and if you omitted correct details or documents they will communicate with you the corrections or additions you have to make. It is only after they have reviewed and confirmed that your submission is okay, they will now send you a link to select a date out of the available dates for an appointment. I think it is maybe a step by step process: Apply > submit > consulate review > book an appointment > interview > visa decision. The succeeding step is available only after you have satisfied the preceding step.

@Singlefile,

Regarding your question about the visa process on getting an employment contract for a role in Berlin; I would say there are two categories:
1. A Blue card visa/skilled workers immigration bla bla
2. Job work visa

For the first category, the appointment wait time and the visa processing after interview is relatively shorter. From booking an appointment to receipt of your visa, this can take anything from 4/6 weeks to 3 months. If you meet the requirements for this category (please read it up); The catch here is that you will need to get from your employer a so called pre-approval document (vorabstimmung, not sure of the right name😂) from ZAV or so. This process can take anything from 2 weeks or months and it can only be applied for by your German employer to something similar to their ministry of education (don’t ask why). Anyways, after you have this document, then you can boldly follow the link to the consulate’s online booking system and select the category for the “workers that meet the skilled immigration act bla bla with preapproval”. You will be required to book an appointment as usual and put some information from the preapproval document ( I’ve forgotten if you’d also have to upload it). Once this is done, you get an email confirmation, then you can expect to get an interview date within three weeks and if you’re lucky you can get your visa after the interview in 2 to 4 weeks (it can be more). This is the fast track process and it should be quick and fast, but sometimes 😞.

The second category is the normal route for work visa (au pair etc) that do not meet the above category’s requirement. The wait time for an appointment is more than one year (I hear this is now 17-19 months, not sure). You only need to register or book an appointment under this category in the consulate’s online booking system. They will reach out to you 17-19 months later with the date for the interview.

The documents required for this interview can be easily found on the consulate’s website, likewise instructions/guidance.

I heard from someone that there is a pilot program where work visa under the Blue card visa category, can be applied for online. This means you’d register on an online platform for this visa, fill then submit the usual documents you would have submitted in a physical interview. After which your submission will be reviewed and if there are any concerns they would be communicated to you through the portal/platform. Once your documents and submissions are found okay, they would communicate a separate booking platform to pick an interview date from available dates and then you prepare and attend your interview.

The key is to always start on time, because patience is both important and required in dealing with the consulate.

So your question on what time frame to give your potential employer?

Tell them 2 to 3 months and this only dependent on if they are willing to apply on your behalf to get the preapproval document I mentioned earlier. Time starts counting only after you have received the preapproval document. Otherwise you wait for more than a year. I am also hoping you have already confirmed that your degree and university is on the Anabin website and is equivalent to a commensurate German degree and university.