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I am non EU citizen. I have a tourist visa for 3 months. I am now in Germany. My girlfriend is Swedish and we were living together for 1 year in UAE. She got an offer in Germany and she is moving to Germany next week. We love each other and we want to stay together in any way possible. How can I stay with her? Can we get married here and we stay together? Or can we apply to live as partners?

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  • Could you provide some more information about yourself? What is your educational background? What is your country of origin? Are you working now? Would you plan on working in the near future if you moved to Germany and could find a job? Answering these questions will help us find a more specific answer for you.
    – lswank
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:03
  • I am from Lebanon i studied BHTM in the university but I didn't graduate yes I am staying as tourist in Germany waiting my girl friend to come so we can figure out something .yes off course I am planning to work I have a lot of experience in 5 stars hotels and I speak many languages so I think I can find job for sure
    – Jad
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:14
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    See also expatriates.stackexchange.com/questions/2774/…
    – Gala
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:18
  • Thank u Gala for the link I checked it but the case of that couple is different of my case they are married uk and American citizen but I am not married with my EU girl friend ... Any advice please ??
    – Jad
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 2:20

2 Answers 2

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Getting married would be the most straightforward approach. :)

The traditional answer is that for most countries, for a visit of up to 90 days, you won't need a visa. Many countries have an agreement that allows you to stay for 90 days every six months in the Schengen area. If you want to stay there for longer than 90 days, and it's clear that you do, you will need a residency permit for a country in the Schengen area.

For Germany, at least as of 2010, you could do it when you are there on a tourist visa. There's a good walkthrough of the process at this site. A good rule of thumb for these things is to contact the local German Embassy before you leave. They can help walk you through the process.

One quick thought is that you could get a job-seeker's visa. That's six months (or at least it used to be in Germany), and the only thing you have to do is to prove that you can support yourself during that time.

Edit: It sounds like the job-seeker's visa is the best option for you right now. You have lots of options, especially since you appear to be multilingual! Welcome to the German adventure!

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    Apart from EU rules, applying for a residence permit from within Germany is only permitted for citizens from a handful of countries (including South Korea and the US but not Lebanon).
    – Gala
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:16
  • Sounds like OP will have to do a visa run at some point to get that taken care of.
    – lswank
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:17
  • I am from Lebanon i studied BHTM in the university but I didn't graduate yes I am staying as tourist in Germany waiting my girl friend to come so we can figure out something .yes off course I am planning to work I have a lot of experience in 5 stars hotels and I speak many languages so I think I can find job for sure
    – Jad
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:20
  • So I cannot do anything from inside Germany ? Any advice please ?
    – Jad
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:24
  • You should go to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees/Bundesamtes für Migration und Flüchtlinge and speak to one of the officers in the advice center. They can provide you a lot of personalized assistance. That will be the best thing you can do.
    – lswank
    Commented Nov 29, 2014 at 1:28
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First read this official EU legal document: Right of Union citizens and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States.

This legal document from July 25th 2002 can also be very interesting for your case. In Dutch it's often called the "Brax decision", some info here.

It means that if you're married or have a legal partnership with a citizen from another EU country (in this case Sweden) you have the right to stay in the EU country that is not your partner's country of origin.

The details can vary across EU country, but overall if you both want to live in a Schengen country and you can legally enter one Schengen country without a specific visa (or on a tourist visa) and you are married (or legal partnership) you can head to the country where you want to live (Germany in this case), and you both register. Your partner gets a normal EU resident permit, you will get a short term permit. You're not allowed to leave that country (Germany) for 6 months, and afterwards which you will get a 5 year resident permit with which you can travel freely through the EU.

Best to look up the details for Germany before starting the process.

And overall it often means that you have a lot more rights in EU countries that are not your partner's home country. In 3rd countries there can be no restrictions about things like income.

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    “arrest” is a rather poor translation for “uitspraak” (seems modelled after the French “arrêt” which means “judgment” or “decision”). But the right to live with your family is really an important part of EU freedom of movement as defined in the relevant EU directives, the Brax case is just one of many that spelled out some aspect of it but it did not create it.
    – Gala
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 23:19
  • I guess it's not as poor a translation in Flemish. And somehow "Brax arrest" is also much more used than "Brax uitspraak" in the Netherlands.
    – the
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 23:24
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    In what language? Dutch? It's certainly not proper English!
    – Gala
    Commented May 8, 2015 at 23:26
  • @Gala yes, Dutch (see the link provided in the answer). Note also the second definition for Dutch at Wiktionary; this meaning is absent from the list of English definitions: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/arrest
    – phoog
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 23:54
  • @phoog I see. I thought guaka meant it as an English translation of the Dutch (the third link is in English, not Dutch, which makes it look like a bad translation; and the second one is in English too, at least on my machine, even though a Dutch version is available). The court itself indeed calls its decisions “arrest” in Dutch. In any case, I would still recommend removing the whole thing from the answer because it's not obviously relevant.
    – Gala
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 0:46

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