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TL;DR: Read the last paragraph.

My girlfriend lives in Thailand and I live in Germany. We're both nationals of Thailand and Germany respectively and not of any other countries. I visited her in Thailand recently; now we're looking into finding a way for her to visit me.

Our long-term plan is for us to marry and for her to move in with me but we're not ready for marriage yet (we are ready for moving in together, though). As I understand the marriage visa ("Visum zur Eheschließung / Eingehung einer Lebenspartnerschaft"), it does not allow her to visit me simply on the basis that we are in a relationship, I can provide for her living expenses, and we want to marry at some point, but does instead mandate that the marriage is already planned and applied for. Please correct me if this is wrong.

She does have a university degree in biotechnology but as I have previously learned that university degrees of a different Asian country (Indonesia) do not have any basis in real qualifications, I'm not too sure whether that Thai degree is of any value for finding a job in Germany. Our plan therefore is for her to enter Germany without working in Germany.

In any case, she currently has a job in processing orders for a German chemical company at a branch in Thailand. She cannot take a lot of vacation time but she might be able to work remotely while in Germany. However, the way I understand the Schengen visa requirements, Germany mandates that employees be on vacation while visiting Germany. Please correct me if this is wrong.

If Germany does not allow her to work remotely, she will have to quit her job and she is willing to do so as she is not particularly happy with it. However, the info page about the visitation visa (https://bangkok.diplo.de/th-de/service/besuchsvisum/1372806) says "Beschäftigungsnachweis" (proof of employment), making the impression that in order to be granted a Schengen visa, she needs to have a job. Is this the case even if I send a letter of invitation saying that I'll cover her expenses ("Verpflichtungserklärung")?

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  • @Willeke Thank you for the hint! We'll use that site for building a long-term plan if necessary.
    – UTF-8
    Mar 19 at 10:48
  • On second thought, if your lady wants to stay in Germany for three months this visit, this question will fit on Expats. Do you want me to move it there? I think the answer you got here already (which will move with the question) does answer the short term nature for this visa.
    – Willeke
    Mar 19 at 13:05
  • @Willeke Yes, move it there, please. She wants a long visit, so getting the 90 days would be great.
    – UTF-8
    Mar 19 at 13:58
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    @Willeke a visit authorized under a Schengen short-stay visa is on topic for Travel, not for Expatriates.
    – phoog
    Mar 19 at 18:26

1 Answer 1

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No, but ...

To get a visitor visa, she has to convince the visa officials that she is genuinely a visitor, i.e. that she plans to leave again. A job is not absolutely necessary for that, but having no job is going to hurt her chances.

  • She cannot work remotely while she is in Germany. Not for a Thai company, not for a German company. To do that, she needs an Aufenthaltstitel with a work permit.
  • As I understand it, you plan to live together for a time to find out if you really want to marry. This is not, usually, covered by a short-term visa up to 90 days. You should think carefully about how you think of this visit and how you describe it.
    "Visiting to meet a friend and his family" might be reasonable for ten days, twenty days, maybe, but not for three months. "Living with a partner" for long enough to find out if you are really compatible tends to last longer than 90 days.
  • A Verpflichtungserklärung will increase her chances to get the visa, all other things being equal. But even with a Verpflichtungserklärung, she has to convince the officials that she wants to leave again.

The answer with a short-term visa is to plan for a short-term visit with a return to her homeland. That implies keeping her job for now.

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  • 1
    Providing the GF can show compelling ties to her home country, and is honest about the purpose of the trip (“to visit my long distance partner, whom I have known for xx years and who has previously visited me in Thailand xx times’) the OP might be able to justify a longer visit on the basis of eg the cost of applying for the visa and booking a flight, and the length of the journey.
    – Traveller
    Mar 19 at 17:49
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    "This is not, usually, covered by a short-term visa up to 90 days...'Living with a partner' is not a brief visit": citation needed. "Living with a partner" is allowable under a short-stay visa if the duration of the stay complies with the 90/180 rule.
    – phoog
    Mar 19 at 19:33
  • @phoog, in my experience, couples need more than 90 days to find out if they want to marry. I'll edit.
    – o.m.
    Mar 20 at 5:23
  • "she needs an Aufenthaltstitel with a work permit" - this sounds misleading. work permit and residence permit are different things. Also there ARE visas that allow to work immediately (not tourist visas though).
    – Andrey Sapegin
    Mar 21 at 22:39
  • @AndreySapegin, which one are you thinking of? Aufenthaltstitel covers most other than documents for family members, a Duldung, or a Fiktionsbescheinigung, and those do not apply here.
    – o.m.
    Mar 22 at 5:19

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