The German national visa: appointments, the fee, and waiting times in Kathmandu, New Delhi and Manila
A German national visa costs 75 euros (Federal Foreign Office, 2026). Kathmandu has run a waiting list since December 2025 and Manila quotes up to three months.
A national visa for employment in Germany is applied for in person, by appointment, at the German mission in the applicant's country of residence. The Federal Foreign Office sets the fee at 75 euros, payable at the counter when the application is lodged. In most corridors the appointment, not the decision, is the longest stretch.
Who decides, and how long the procedure runs
Three authorities sit in a national visa file. The German mission abroad accepts the application and checks the papers. The foreigners authority at the future place of residence takes part in the decision. The Federal Employment Agency gives consent to the employment where the residence purpose requires it. Because the three work in sequence, the Federal Foreign Office describes the whole procedure as taking several months and gives no commitment for an individual case.
Employers who need a predictable start date use the fast track skilled worker procedure under section 81a of the Residence Act (AufenthG). The employer applies for advance approval at the foreigners authority, and once that advance approval is presented, the mission abroad issues an appointment for lodging the application within three weeks. The three week period is written into the statute and covers the appointment, not the decision on the visa. The full sequence is set out in the fast track skilled worker procedure.
Three missions, three routes to an appointment
The fee of 75 euros is the same everywhere. The route to an appointment is not, and that is where the delays visible in a staffing plan come from.
The embassy in Kathmandu ended direct appointment booking on 1 December 2025. Applicants register on a waiting list, and the embassy issues appointments according to available capacity in the order of registration. A date cannot be fixed in advance; a place in the queue can.
The embassy in Manila accepts applications by appointment only, Monday to Thursday from 8:00 to 14:30 and Friday from 8:00 to 11:30. It quotes waiting times of up to one month for nursing staff and other residence purposes, and up to three months for family reunification (manila.diplo.de, 2026).
The embassy in New Delhi routes appointment booking for national visas through the service provider VFS Global. The application and the decision stay with the embassy; the provider organises the appointment and the intake.
| Mission | Route to an appointment | Quoted waiting time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kathmandu | Registration on a waiting list since 1 December 2025 | issued by capacity, in order of registration | 75 euros |
| Manila | Embassy appointment, Mon to Thu 8:00 to 14:30, Fri 8:00 to 11:30 | up to 1 month, up to 3 months for family reunification | 75 euros |
| New Delhi | Appointment booking through VFS Global | depends on provider capacity | 75 euros |
| All three with advance approval under section 81a AufenthG | appointment once advance approval is presented | within three weeks | 75 euros |
What an employer closes before the appointment
The appointment is the point at which the file has to be complete. If a document is missing, the application is either not accepted or comes back as a request for papers, and in Kathmandu or Manila the next free slot sits weeks later. Three documents cause most of those requests.
The employment contract or the concrete job offer has to state the duties, the working hours and the pay in a form that lets the Federal Employment Agency run its comparability check. An offer carrying a salary range instead of an amount does not do that.
Proof of the vocational qualification normally takes the form of a decision from the competent recognition body. Those decisions take months of their own, and they are the most common reason an otherwise finished application cannot be lodged. The competent bodies and the timelines are set out in foreign qualification recognition.
The passport has to carry the required remaining validity. Renewing a passport in Nepal or the Philippines costs further weeks that appear in no official timetable.
One case shows the effect. A hospital plans a 1 March start for twelve nurses from Manila, registers the applications in December and budgets for the embassy's quoted waiting time of up to one month. Two recognition decisions arrive only at the end of January. For those two people the search for an appointment starts again, the start date moves by a quarter, and the ward reallocates two posts. The waiting time was calculated correctly; the lead time for the decision was not.
Where entry is planned without a signed job offer, the points based opportunity card carries its own requirements for qualification and means of subsistence. The assessment is set out in the opportunity card and its points system.
The planning order follows from this: first the recognition decision and the signed contract, then registration or appointment booking at the mission, then the travel date. Employers looking at a specific corridor can find the same detail under employers.
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