New visa application process from Germany

Finally the visa application in Germany is outsourced now, too:

Applicants have to go via agency "Cox and Kings":

http://www.in.de.coxandkings.com/

On their website they're providing infos about visa types and application process in English and German for their offices in Berlin and Munich

yeah, I have found out about this a couple days ago also.
Curious to try them soon and hope that everything is as hassle-free as before.

I met in KTM German lady, avid trekker who was keep coming to Nepal since 1980's every year. As many foreigners in Nepal she did not like to go to India because of its unfriendly visa service back in Germany. No, they give her 6 month visa but experience was not good to think about second visit. Hopefully new outsourced service should improve on abysmal (by un-friendliness) track record of Indian embassies.

This change seems new for Berlin and Munich, but they already outsourced it in Hamburg, Frankfurt and Köln to IGC (http://www.igcsvisa.de/) quite some time ago.

Thankfully the consulate in Hamburg has always been friendly to any of my (and my friends') needs. My fiancé just applied for a visa in Hamburg, through IGC, and got the passport back in the evening and even has a "Gap of 2 months between visits not required" endorsement on the visa, without any special application for it.

I suspect the larger embassies are unfriendly in general. Being an Indian I have rarely encountered friendly embassy staff (except the Moroccan embassy in Berlin).

That's pretty good to know. I've been web conferencing with some friends in India I'd like to visit but they couldn't tell me. So thanks!

Has any non-German here tried applying for their visa in Germany through the new outsourcing agency?

I, an American who is frequently in Germany, have gotten two visas in the past two years from the Indian Consulate in Munich before it was outsourced. After calling Cox and King, I am now told that I must first be a registered resident in Germany before I can submit an application for an Indian visa. I'm not exactly convinced and from experience, know better than to take word of mouth in the realm of Indian visas. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Any insight is very much appreciated!

You must have given some address in Germany when you made your previous applications. I am not aware that they are asking for a "Meldebescheinigung" nowadays but it is possible.

I'm also American, got an India visa last year in Berlin before they outsourced it, and applied for another one here in Berlin two weeks ago... just like last time, I did not need to be a registered resident, but had to fill out that form for them to fax to the US... the only difference is that last year the visa was ready in about a week, and this year after two weeks they say they are still waiting to hear from the embassy in the US (despite the fact that they had told me it would be ready in "5 to 7 working days")...

I don't know if Munich procedures could be different from Berlin procedures, I guess you never know...

Well, so far that's not my experience... when I call, they're kind of, um, "abrupt"... they won't even tell me the status of my application... which is even worse considering the fact that the application status tracking page on the Cox and Kings website is not working (that's the only reason I even bothered to call)...

Today, because of the almost-two-week delay in hearing any news about my application, I basically had to start raising my voice at the person on the phone to just to get her to finally tell me the application status...

I actually had no problem with the process last year when it was done by the embassy...

Hi all,

We just got our visas via Cox & kings in Berlin last week. Its not that you need to be a registered resident, what you need ( as a non german ) is an " anmeldebestätigung " ( Basically, when you move somewhere in Germany, you need to register that you are living at address X ) Without this, the embassy will refuse your application. You have to be registered at an address and don´t neccessarily need to be a resident of Germany ( A fine line but important difference )

The process took 24 hours - delivered the passports etc on Tuesday and picked them up wednesday afternoon

Could you clarify this please? Do you mean they will issue you a visa as long as you are polizeilich gemeldet even if you don't have an Aufenthaltstitel?

Yes, Assuming you are an EU national, I´m from the UK and don´t have any aufenthaltstitel or residence permit ( don´t need one as an EU citizen )

All we needed was to be polizeilich gemeldet ( registered at that address )with the local Rathaus

= Applicants with Foreign Passports must provide an Anmeldebestätigung that is at least one year old ( rough translation )

( From Cox and Kings )

i'm not sure if this is good news, since i was very happy with the service provided in munich...2 years ago, i got a one year visa just by asking nicely for myself, and then i got one for my girlfriend as well, even with her beeing austrian and living there as well just by telling them that going to munich is much faster (2hours) then going to vienna (5 hours...), beside that the embassy in vienna really is horrible, my mother in law tried to get a visa from there last year and sent everything to the embassy by mail, and in the end had to go there anyway and hassle them for 2 days for getting her passport and visa back...

i go to India along with my yoga group and i had never faced such issue with Visa,,,

Im at working day 7 of waiting for my tourist visa to be approved by the consulate in Munich...Im a Canadian National and do not have a residence in Germany, hence the long wait so far. The lady said it would take 7-8 working days....lets hope she was right.....


I fly next week!

The Meldebestätigung really speeds things up. Thus far the experience for my fiancé is that she always gets her visa on the same day, without troubles. But, she is from Romania (as such, an EU national) and this experience is from Hamburg. Three years and counting, but no troubles yet.