Preparing for a trip abroad is associated not only with pleasant experiences, but also with some work in collecting the necessary documents and submitting an application. However, there are also enough worries. Germany is part of the European Union, a visa to this country allows you to travel throughout the Schengen area, and the requirements for obtaining it are quite strict. They may refuse, so checking the readiness of a visa to Germany is considered by many to be an important point in preparing for a trip in 2021.
Track your status through the Visa Application Center
If you are going on a tourist trip, you usually trust the agency to issue visas; in other cases, you contact the German diplomatic missions in person or through a visa center. It is possible to check the readiness of your visa on the website of the German Visa Application Center.
It makes sense to check the status of your visa only when all the documents for obtaining it have already been prepared and submitted.
Those who have gone through this procedure know that the VFS Global visa center is in charge of issuing German visas in Russia: this is the only organization accredited by the German Embassy.
The rest work through it or directly with diplomatic missions, if, of course, they issue real visas. The cost of VFS Global services is about 20 euros, but they provide high-quality service.
The most convenient way to monitor the progress of your visa application is to track your German visa passport through VFS Global.
- In the middle there is a list of diplomatic missions of Germany in the Russian Federation. By hovering your cursor over any of them, you will see a drop-down list listing the Russian territories served by this representative office.
- Select a representative office and activate it with the mouse button.
- The following page will open. You should select “After submitting your application.”
- Activate with the mouse button “On our website”.
- Enter your registration number, last name, confirm that you are not a robot and activate the “confirm” button.
- You will find out what stage your visa application is at.
You can also access the site via . There you will need your registration number and date of birth.
Please note that you need to enter not only numbers, but also the series of your registration number. If documents for a visa are tracked in Moscow, most often these are the letters MOAC.
When for some reason it is inconvenient for you to use a computer, you can call the VFS Global contact center on one of the numbers.
The call is paid according to the operator's tariffs.
Phones are open on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Contact center operators will help you track your visa processing at the German visa center.
Is it possible to find out the readiness of a visa via the Internet?
Surely it is possible. Moreover, obtaining a ready-made visa is limited to a certain date, after which even a previously approved permit may be revoked. Therefore (among other things) there is a need to monitor the degree of readiness of the visa. You need to understand that depending on the type of visa - national or Schengen - the methods for determining the status of a visa application also differ.
Online resources
If you applied at one of the regional visa branches, information on the status of your application can be obtained from the following link.
In the form that opens you will need to enter:
- a special number, which is indicated on the receipt (or check) issued upon acceptance of the application;
- applicant's surname;
- test text shown in the image on the left.
Then, after checking that the data has been entered correctly, you need to confirm your actions with the button at the bottom of the form. When applying through travel agencies, the applicant for a German visa must be explained in each individual case their online methods for tracking the readiness of the passport.
In this case, the applicant on the company’s website page will need to provide information about himself such as:
- surname and initials;
- application registration number;
- date of birth;
- series and number of the internal passport, etc.
Agencies are interested in the demand for tourist visas in Germany, so they provide additional services. In addition, there are local online resources that only residents of certain regions can use.
For example, applicants from St. Petersburg, as well as its environs, have the opportunity to track the fate of their visas through a service called “Unified Document Center”.
Step by step procedure:
- Go to the “Unified Visa Center” section.
- Click in the “Check visa readiness” window.
In the form that opens, you must indicate the code from the check issued when submitting the application and control characters. You can send data by selecting the appropriate button. This will open a page with information about your visa being processed.
Keep in mind that when submitting an application to the consular section of the German Embassy, it will not be possible to check the readiness of documents online.
Other ways to track the passage of documents
The method we described above for checking the readiness of a permit to enter Germany is the simplest and fastest, but there are other methods.
Travel companies
If you purchased a tour and a visa is issued to you by the company that sold it, it would be logical to find out the status of your application for a visa to Germany there. Call the travel agency staff and ask. True, you should not expect that you will be recognized by your voice, and that all the information you are interested in is available instantly. You will need to introduce yourself, perhaps provide information about yourself, for example, from your passport, and wait until a company employee checks the status of your visa, again via the Internet. In all cases, you will be informed without any reminders that a visa has already been received.
Other Internet services
The ability to check the issuance of a visa to Germany by number online is also offered by some other Internet sites, for example the site. But only visas ordered from this organization are available for verification through it.
If you ordered a German national visa, you can check its readiness on the website.
When ordering a visa from VFS Global, it is possible to order a notification about the readiness of the visa via SMS and others.
How long does it take to get a visa to Germany?
Visa applications are submitted to one of the five German missions in Russia or to one of the regional branches of the accredited network of VFS Global visa centers.
The Visa Code determines the period for issuing a single Schengen visa at 15 calendar days from the date of delivery of the package of papers to the Embassy. However, the EU has bilateral agreements to simplify visa relations with Russia, according to which decisions on visa applications should be made no longer than 10 calendar days.
Applicants wishing to obtain a national visa to Germany most often have to wait a week to a month for a response from diplomatic missions. Sometimes the waiting time increases to two months.
This is due to higher requirements imposed by the German side on a citizen who wants to stay in Germany for a long time.
Speeding up processing
Citizens of the Russian Federation can also apply for an express visa, the processing period of which does not exceed three working days.
There is also an urgent option for obtaining permits. In the most exceptional cases, for example, for medical reasons or a sudden tragedy in the family, a visa can be issued in one day.
For expedited consideration, a regular set of documents is collected. However, if you choose a short waiting period for your visa, be prepared to pay double fees for diplomatic mission services, which will amount to 70 euros.
Processing slowdown
The increase in visa processing time is most often influenced by:
- Preferred visa type;
- A carelessly collected package of papers;
- Place of residence of the applicant.
In addition, when receiving a long-term German visa, all information about the applicant provided in the set of documents is additionally checked.
It often happens that consulate representatives check the information with the applicant’s relatives. They called a friend on his home phone and asked questions to one of his family members, since he himself was not at home.
Moreover, they called his office to talk to the boss. However, the German side was satisfied with all the answers received and quickly issued a visa.
Waiting times also increase due to an inattentively completed visa application, when shortcomings are discovered in the prepared set of papers:
- Some important information is missing;
- The documents are available, but they lack someone’s additional signature or seal;
- One (or more) of the documents is already expired.
These discrepancies will force you to send the submitted package of documents the other way - from the consulate to the place of filing the application. Then, when the package of documents is formed again, the papers will again be delivered to the diplomatic mission. Therefore, the waiting time for a decision directly depends on the applicant’s place of residence.
Sometimes I come across bravura posts online about how some people received a German visa at the visa center in just a day or two. You should not take such messages seriously. The visa center does not directly issue visas at all.
Visa service centers scattered throughout all Russian regions only help to correctly prepare a package of documents and send them to the consulate. And only there visa officers formalize the procedure for issuing (or not issuing) visas to applicants.
Source: zabugor.club
Obtaining a ready entry permit
In order to pick up a foreign passport with a completed visa, you will need to present a Russian civil passport and give the employees a photocopy of its first page. If you are collecting your children's documents, you will need their birth certificates. It is possible to obtain a foreign passport with a visa by an authorized person: then you will need a document proving his identity and a notarized power of attorney.
The VFS Global visa center offers an additional service for courier delivery of completed documents. If you did not think about this at the time of submitting documents, you can order the service later. You can learn more about this and other VFS Global services. The standard time frame for obtaining a visa to Germany is 3-4 days on an urgent basis and 10-15 days on a regular basis.
What you need to have with you when applying for a visa
The issuance of ready-made permits is carried out at the place of initial application. If the visa center does not issue documents, branch employees will definitely indicate at which address you can pick up your passport. The application procedure requires you to take with you only the receipt that the consular officer presented when applying for the visa. The applicant will be required to:
- come to the German representative office and get a coupon (electronic queue number);
- wait for the call and go to the window;
- present a receipt (green document);
- obtain a passport with an open visa.
Immediately after this, you should not rush about your business. First of all, you need to carefully check the documents, paying attention to the instructions:
- FULL NAME.;
- dates of birth;
- visa duration;
- its categories.
At this point the procedure is considered complete. In general, if the applicant meets all the criteria established by German law, applying for a visa to Germany and picking up the completed document is not difficult.
