Denied residency with spouse - Germany

I am posting on behalf of another TT member. I know many of us have spent so much time discussing this topic and telling others is it so issue of concern, but in her case it has become one.

She came to German to get married. She applied for a visa extension to the 90 rule and was granted one. She was told if she needed to extend it further she would need to provide a1 proficiency. She has since gotten married. She returned today to apply for residency with spouse but was denied residency with spouse due to not having completed A1 exam. She was given the fiktionsbeshinigung (sic), but without work permissions. They said she cannot return until January, and at that point must provide proof of a1 proficiency exam.

I am at a loss for words as I thought this was not a requirement for Americans. I was given my pretty little stamp and slapped into the integration course.

She was told she will not get residency or the right to work in Germany until this is completed, nor any subsidy as is given in the integration course. So she would spend close to a grand to complete it private, plus then pay again for the integration course at the subsidy rate.

We have tried calling the Bamf, and they said it was legit requirements. Yet no one can explain why everyone else including myself and a variety of American TTr's were never given such requirement.

So now she is between a rock and a hard place- no residency permit, cannot work, and cannot make income to pay for the over priced private courses she should be entitled to via the integrations kurs.

Anyone have any suggestions on this matter?

Thank so much

SJ1

Is the partner of your friend a German citizen?

Yes husband is German.

There are laws, Yes I agree. But sometimes, you just need to "do as told" .

A1 is the easiest exam amongst all. Husband is German. She need not need to even go for classes if money was an issue. There are plenty of A1 books out there. She could have study (self or with help of husband), pay 10 EUR and taken the exam at Goethe or Inlingua or etc..

What is an A1 exam? Hallo, ich bin... Ich komme aus...I wohne in ...seit....

we complicate sometimes our own lives
Story over!

Edit: it saves you time in dealing with the guys out there!

From the Munich KVR website (in German):

US is in the list of countries exempted from the special visa procedures.

The VHS allowed me to join an integration course at the rate of 1€ per lesson while I still had the status of a tourist. They said they are allowed to if there is space available. She could go to the VHS and ask about that.

She could also study herself at home. Get a library card and check out kids books and read them with a dictionary. Watch movies with the German language on but English subtitles. Watch movies in German that she's seen before in English. Go to the Deutsche Welle website and download their course. There is a lot of other free material available. Like you said, she has the time but not the cash.

One thing I don't get though.. why would she need to pass the A1 test before joining an intergration course? Isn't the integration course supposed to teach you that?

Wow, that is a bit weird. I also thought that US or Canadian spouses of German citizens get basic residency (without work permit) automatically just by being married. As Melf says, though, the A1 exam is very basic and I don't see why it should cost so much to pass that particular test. I would suggest that the friend try a few free A1 sample tests online, and then concentrate on the areas where there is weakness.

When dealing with German red tape, often the path of least resistance is the quickest. Just do the test and you're done. Or you can end up spending more money on lawyers than it would cost to get the A1 and perhaps still not end up with residency.

But I would still go to a different office in another town and see if another gov't official might not just grant the visa based on the marriage. I had an interesting problem where a [s]idiot[/s] highly trained government worker refused to accept my valid Canadian passport because it was issued in my maiden name yet still had three years to go. I went to another town and the next person accepted my passport with no trouble.

I gave you a positive point because I totally agree with you. The only difficult part of the A1 test is the cases (deklinationen) and she got a German husband who could help her a bit.

Well first things first I just took the a1 prufung which was a hell of a lot more than guten tag. I had to know dativ akkusativ, and a shit load more. My test had reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It covered past, present, and future tenses, as well as verb conjunction.

I was in Germany for over a year, teaching myself, and I still needed the integration course to get to the level in which I could pass the test.

She has done many online mock tests and it covers a variety of grammar topics that she has not learned.

The issue here, is that she is denied the right to live and work in Germany. She doesn't have a means to sit at home and play homeschooler. She would like to do what many of us had the right to do- find work and join the integration course.

That is my thought exactly, why the doubling up. I was not required to prove a1 proficiency. I was just given the nice paper and told complete the course in the next 2 years.

This post was for me, so I will be responding a bit to the questions. I have books, I use Deutsch Welle and LiveMocha, and living in a German household we either watch German movies with English subtitles or English movies with German subtitles. But the problem for me is, I can only learn so much on my own. There comes a point, which I am at, where I need to have some form of teacher-student interaction. I can understand a lot more than I can speak, and I can speak a lot more than I can write (or spell actually). I can tell you who I am, where I live, how old I am, where I come from, BUT that still doesn't get me a passing mark on my a1 exam.

As for the integration course, that's what we are trying to figure out. Money doesnt grow on trees in our backyard, though I wish it did, but paying for the integration course was already going to be hard enough. Paying for an a1 course and the integration course would be next to impossible.

Im just frustrated to the point of crying right now, and I don't know what to do. Why is it one way for some people and another way for others....

You have to try harder.

Today is not the day Krieg.

Sorry.....Deutsche Welle.....better.....I am a little scatter brained at the moment.....

No more asinine comments. You have a girl who should be ecstatic she just got married. And instead she is in tears scared she will be sent home because the fuck hole of an alien office guy is a douche. She doesn't have 1 grand to blow on a class, nor a German grammar teacher for a husband. So for once in your lives can you be a bit compassionate. Bitte!