Fighting a Denied Visa

We fully agree that the authorities could communicate more clearly. The services for fighting a denied visa are varied and complex. We have two general routes:

1. appealing in court,
2. applying anew with my support to "remove" this black mark from your guest vitae.

Appeal in Court

My main tasks in regard to appealing in court will be to:

• Formally appeal on your behalf in court, to make sure all formalities have been met and the correct applications are filed,
• Inspect the file, and report to you on the results of this inspection,
• Arguing in your interests in court, after discussing the results of the file inspection with you,
• Discussing a strategy with you to make sure that your interests are really brought forward to the court,
• Seeking a resolution with the ministry in Germany to possibly obtain a quicker resolution/solution.

Would like to know what your chances are of winning. Sorry, we can’t answer this now. We are lawyers and not fortune tellers. We will only be able to tell what went wrong with your application, when we have inspected the file. We need facts to provide legal advice. This is the first thing we intend to do when you take our services.

In visa matters, it is common practice to file a complaint without full arguments upfront and request that we review the file. Once I have studied the file, I will be able to consult you.

N.B. You only have one month to file the appeal; otherwise, their decision is final. When their decision is final, then you can only reapply.

Applying from Scratch

The services for applying for a visa will contain the following support:

• determining which kind of visa is best for your interests; don’t forget you only have this one chance; otherwise, you will be negatively “brand marked”,
• supplying a checklist for any documents to be submitted so that your application will be complete; case deciders are extremely annoyed if anything evident is missing; however, sometimes they might want more information,
• double-checking documents to be submitted; German authorities want to have your story proven, and I will make sure you show the really relevant documentation,
• general instructions for the application proceedings (duration, fees, consulate’s opening hours and address, etc.), for you to know what will happen when and why,
• Providing the mandatory application form pre-filled out; German authorities hate sloppiness, and chances decline when the application form evidently misses important information,
• Discussing how to best show objective proof of your willingness to return and not go into hiding. This is most important.

The services will cost € 800. If the consulate denies it, this will be another case.

Overview of Costs

Court fees are flat and mandatory. They cannot be negotiated! Lawyers' fees are governed by the Attorneys' Remuneration Act (RVG). The fees determined therein for representing your interests in court are the statutory minimum. On average, they are pretty fair. Yet, they assume everything is done in German. When you review this page, it is clear that your German may not be sufficient. Since we may negotiate for more, I would request a minor surcharge as described below. This surcharge is for an additional 0.1 of the statutory fee. It includes the machine translation of the correspondence and our communication in English.

Let us briefly explain what the "procedural" and "hearing" fees are for.

The procedural fee covers filing the complaint and pursuing your rights, as long as it occurs outside a hearing. 

As the name suggests, the hearing fee covers any and all live hearings in court. The court issues a summons for a hearing. This "hearing fee" remains unchanged when the court calls all in for one or more appointments to discuss the case verbally and live.

The above fees will be applied for one person – regardless of age. As mentioned above, court fees are not eligible for negotiation—also not my surcharge. A residence permit is issued on an individual basis; the Residence Act does not provide for a uniform “group permit” for a family. Therefore, a separate subject matter of dispute comes on top of the first one for each residence permit sought. This means the fees for the second, third, and fourth person of a family are higher and will be as shown in the table below.

N.B. The hearing fee does not change—regardless of the number of persons in the attorney's case. Since everyone tries to avoid a hearing, it will only seldom occur.

As an advance, we only want the procedural fee and the postal flat fee per person.

When you win the case, which is our intention, you will receive that statutory value and the postal flat back.

Cultural Remark

We recognize that some cultures prefer to avoid court / argue but seek harmony through compromise. This does not work in Germany with the authorities when they have denied an application! There is no longer a chance to discuss anything because the case is over – “GAME OVER”.

Maybe you fear negative consequences from appealing? Relax! Germans take it very sportingly. They are not allowed to treat your application negatively on purpose because you “dared” to appeal/contradict. It is a right in Germany to file an appeal–to get a second opinion from a higher authority. If the consulate loses the case, they will continue processing your application – as if nothing happened. Okay, the individual case decider shall be changed. If you lose the case, it will make it clearer what was wrong with your setup and how to remedy it in the next application.

How to hire us

Please hire us through our online assignment form, where you can also upload any documents you'd like to share with us now. After you complete the form, you will be taken to the payment page, and you'll also receive an email confirming the assignment and invoice, along with the power of attorney form. Please sign the power of attorney and return it to us.

We are flexible about how to get started. If you'd like to discuss your chances first, book an initial consultation. Don't ask us first whether you have any chances, because that is what the initial consultation is for. During this initial consultation, we will determine your chances at first glance. The initial consultation fee is an advance on your court representation. If we determine that it's not a good idea to go to court, we will consider these fees as a prepayment for a different approach. During the consultation, we will develop this new approach.

Book your initial consultation

Assign us for your complaint in court here for

1 person 

2 persons

3 persons

4 persons

What to upload?

Please upload your documents through our online assignment form. As mentioned above, we need to learn what you have shared with immigration. Depending on your situation, we would like to have:

• a copy of your passport (the page with the personal details),
• a copy of your D visa, aka entry visa,
• a copy of your expired permit (both sides of the card and the green slip),
• the application forms and supporting details,
• any correspondence in the interim,
• anything else you might consider relevant.