Refused: what to do first
If your family-reunion (Familiennachzug) or spouse visa was refused, do two things before anything else. First, read the refusal letter line by line — it states the legal grounds for the refusal and, where one is required, a Rechtsbehelfsbelehrung (the notice telling you the deadline, the court, and how to challenge it). Second, note the date you received it: any court deadline runs from that day. The single biggest mistake at this stage is treating a refusal as final — most are fixable, but the path changed in 2025, so don't follow old advice that tells you to "remonstrate".
A quick but important fork: if your sponsor in Germany is an EU citizen, you are usually not on this §27–§30 AufenthG route at all — a non-EU family member of an EU citizen receives an Aufenthaltskarte under the Freizügigkeitsgesetz/EU, a different and more generous process. This guide is for reunion with a non-EU sponsor (or a German citizen) under the Aufenthaltsgesetz.
Why family-reunion visas get refused (and which to fix)
Family visas rarely fail on the form — they fail on proof. The recurring grounds map directly to the law:
- Sufficient living space. §29(1) Aufenthaltsgesetz requires ausreichender Wohnraum (adequate accommodation) for the family. Too small a flat, or no lease in the sponsor's name, is a classic refusal.
- Secured livelihood. The sponsor must generally show enough income to support the family without public funds.
- The A1 German requirement (spouses). §30(1) AufenthG requires the joining spouse to communicate at least in a simple way in German — usually an A1 certificate. There are real exemptions (illness or disability, the sponsor holding an EU Blue Card or another §18–§21 permit, or where learning before entry is impossible or unreasonable), so check whether one applies before you re-sit a test you may not need.
- Documents. Missing certified translations, an un-legalised marriage or birth certificate, or unverifiable documents are extremely common — and the easiest to fix.
Work out which ground was cited: a fixable evidence gap points to a re-application, while a refusal you believe is legally wrong points to a lawsuit.
Remonstration is gone: the post-July-2025 reality
For years the standard advice was to file a Remonstration — an informal objection asking the mission to review its own decision. That option no longer exists. The Federal Foreign Office abolished the remonstration procedure worldwide on 1 July 2025, stating it was a voluntarily granted remedy that was not provided for by law (Auswärtiges Amt). The Office is explicit that this does not shorten your statutory legal protection — and that you may submit a new visa application at any time. Any blog or template that tells you to "remonstrate within one month" is now out of date; ignore it.
Your two real options: re-apply or sue (Klage)
After a refusal you have two genuine paths, and they are not exclusive:
- Re-apply. You can lodge a new application at any time (the Foreign Office confirms this). This is usually the faster, cheaper fix when the refusal was an evidence gap — a larger flat, an updated income statement, the missing certified translation, the A1 certificate. Fix the exact cited ground, then re-book.
- Klage (lawsuit). If you believe the refusal was legally wrong, you can sue. The competent court for visas issued by German missions abroad is the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin, and the action must be filed within one month of receiving the refusal (§74 VwGO). If the letter carried no appeal instruction or a wrong one, that window stretches to one year (§58 VwGO). This is a formal court step — get advice before relying on it.
Because the one-month court clock is short and a re-application is not, many people re-apply to fix a clear evidence gap and reserve the Klage for a refusal they think is simply wrong on the law.
When to get a lawyer — and what is outside our scope
For a refusal you intend to litigate, or a complex case (hardship under §30(2), a disputed marriage, a tight deadline), a Fachanwalt für Migrationsrecht is worth it — the Klage is filed against the Federal Republic at the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin and the deadline is unforgiving. This guide is general information, not immigration or legal advice: we can help you assemble and time the re-application — the documents, translations, income and housing proof, and the family route's dependencies — but we do not file court actions or assess the merits of your specific case. If a clean evidence gap caused the refusal, the fastest move is often to build a family-reunion checklist so the next attempt closes the gap that the first one missed.