Hi,

We have applied for my wife's family reunification visa for zurich. Embassy told us that it will take maximum 8 to 10 weeks to approve the visa application and thereafter shall issue an authorization letter and then you can proceed to get your visa stamped on your visa.

My query is that does the embassy takes such long time to give the approval or it can be done before that also.

Thanks.
Waiting for your kind revert.

Sorry this isn't what you want to hear, but it takes as long as it takes. 8-12 weeks is quite common, and from what I've read, family reunification for Indian citizens seems to take a bit on the longer side due to some of the apostilles and checks they need to make.

Unfortunately not. I know it's frustrating, but you just have to wait it out. There is literally nothing YOU can do about it, except to quickly furnish additional docs if at all asked.

Okies...thanks

hi..
ive applied for a family reunification visa in India to join my husband in lausanne.. ive completed 13 weeks.. when my husband enquired what is the visa status. they asked him to.submit additional documents and they did send a letter asking for them which my husband missed it.. as he shifted his residence. now we have submitted them by post only.. so hoping will get the visa soon.
so pls keep a check on any communication from the canton or fedral office to ur address.. to avoid any further delay. all the best.

Ours has taken more than 5 months
Make sure all paperwork is fully in order - we had some stuff which was outstanding; it turns out the Authorities do not class it as Minor, and it held up the process. The more info, the better.

thank you ..yes they neede some more documents.. and yes it did take 5 mnths .. now im in suisse..

What was the additional documents submitted ? something like Credit report, salary slip ? My dependent details are submitted in Swiss embassy overseas on 12th March and It reached Geneva canton on 19th March. Later I submitted volunteerily these documents last week.

I'm a Ph.D. student at EPFL living in Denges on B-permit.

My wife has applied for a dependent visa at Swiss embassy New Delhi on June 24th and we are yet to receive any update from the Visa office.

Can anyone please tell if I need to submit any documents to the local office here? Is there any point of contact to track and status of the application.

hi
yes, you would have to submit some more documents here. But you will receive a letter asking for them, only then would you know when and where and what you need to submit.
you could also go to Lausanne centre for etrangers and ask for any update on the visa, but ideally they only say, it's still pending or nothing at all.
All the best, it's all about waiting...

Could you perhaps list the kinds of documents that might be required? Perhaps that could help others begin to collect them, in anticipation, for when they might be asked.

yes
primarily
- husbands permit
- employment papers
- rental agreement papers
- bank statements for last 3 mnths
- marriage certificates
These documents
rgds
saai

We are moving to Basel and I waited longest for my work permit (final copy). I talked via email to the very, very nice Swiss Consulate in my area (Atlanta, USA) and asked questions about visas as we read the 8-10 weeks for family reunification visa as well (for my husband.) They were very nice and told us to already send in his family reunification paperwork/ applications (triplicate). We also added an FBI check, my work contract, etc. As soon as I got word of my work visa final paperwork was approved - I told the consultate and they just said to send in his passport & mine. They did the visas in 2 days. Amazing.

I had asked as a backup (before the above happened) if my husband could just enter for up to 90 days( as allowed by a US citizen) and then when his visa was ready, could they transfer the visa to a more local country consulate (France or Germany) where he could travel there, pick it up, and then enter the country "formally" with his visa. They said that was totally doable & fine too

Good luck!

Maybe this is the right thread to ask the question:

I plan to submit for familiy re-unification for my wife, or probably it is even opposite: she will submit the papers in our home country, and I will have to sumbit some documents here in Switzerland.

I studied the web-site of Zürich migrationsamt (Migration office) with regard to the list of documents that have to be submitted. And at the same time there is a list of the documents, mentioned at Swiss Embassy web-site when applying for D-Visa. These lists are of course different (no surprise as D-Visa also applicable for work/students/etc). I did not find anywhere the clear guidelines which documents have to be submitted by whom. My question is following (as example): if the apostiled marriage certificate has to be submitted: I assume it can be done by my wife in Swiss Embassy in our home country, rather than I submit it here to Zürich Migration office (though I may do it, if my wife posts me this paper). And opposite: I assume my salary slips, or Appartment rent agreement: this can only be submitted here in Switzerland. As I said I did not find any clear rules with this regard, and I just do not want to appear in the situation, when some documents in original should be ultimately submitted in Swiss Embassy or to Migration office.
And the other question: shall I wait for "invitation to submit my part of documents", or I can proactively submt the application to Zürich Migration Office?

Thanks in advance for feedback from those who already went through this process.

Hi, let your wife submit marriage certificate etcs there at Swiss embassy - eventually it will come to the cantonal migration office in 2-4 weeks time and then you can go voluntarily to submit the paper without waiting for the letter from office(it can save some days for you) - you can submit rest of documents such as rental agreement, salary slip etc (at times more documents such as a letter from employer are asked).

Proactively submit the application in migration office which makes things faster. And when we did the process, we submitted every document thats asked in embassy as well as in the migration office. Its better to submit both in parallel to speed up things

Thanks for your advise! I also think that submitting the docs in parallel would make things easier/faster. Unfortunately not all docs could be submitted in parallel (lile mariage certificate, or criminal record(s), etc)

Actually I just called to Zürich migration office. The Lady told me: "Your wife should first go to Swiss embassy abroad and apply for D-Visa. You then shall submit the application form, nothing more. As soon as we have received the documents from Swiss embassy abroad, we will send you the letter with the precise list of documents you need to submit".

So they do not want things to become easier, neither faster for me