Hello everyone,
I finally got my long term (D) visa approved today. I am Indian and my husband is Dutch who works in Belgium. I couldn't find any information on this or other forums for Indians who are joining their EU spouses, so I decided to create one myself. I hope this will help anybody in a similar situation for reference.
I applied for my visa on the 16th June 2015. It reached the relevant Belgium immigration office by diplomatic post on 8th July 2015. And I got the approval message on the dofi website on 14th August 2015. I am attaching screenshots for your reference to see what it looks like.
When visa is under process :
When visa is approved :
My husband was switching jobs before I applied for my visa. Although I could have joined him solely based on his bank savings that could prove that we are able to sustain ourselves while he moves to another job, I personally think this route would require much more effort and explanation. So my first tip to anyone moving to their EU spouses would be to wait till they have a job.
The paperwork is very simple and straightforward. BUT, the Belgian Embassy website (New Delhi) would be the least helpful place. The website is lacking any information long term visas, they just lazily direct you to the DOFI website for anything and everything. This is exceptional shrugging of any responsibility considering that their neighbouring EU countries like Germany and Netherlands (and I have both their D and Schengen visas, so I know for a fact) have a greatly detailed website on immigrant visas.
Add to this that there is a female visa officer you get often directed to when you ring the Belgian Embassy, who has the most attrocious attitude while answering any questions. She has a very condescending and arrogant way of talking to Indians (and she is Indian herself as she speaks only Hindi and English) which you'd expect from someone very racist actually. I'm mentioning this because she refused to answer direct questions asked about the visa process making my application preparation rather difficult and asked me check the empty website while I constantly reminded her that the site is void of any information on D visas. It was my personal hell dealing with her.
Anyways, moving on, following are the list of supporting documents I submitted and some tips:
1) First and foremost, your spouse MUST have a place to stay. It cannot be a hotel, it has to be a long term living arrangement because you both will need the rental contract for future paperwork. My husband had rented an apartment and signed a year long contract. The contract has my name on it too(I gave my husband my signed passport photocopy saying that my name can be included in the contract through him, this was demanded by the landlord).
2) If your EU spouse is not Belgian and is living in Belgium for long term, he/ she must register to the immigration office in his area of stay. For this he will need a rental contract amongst other things. This registration will provide him with a paper (Verklaring Van Inschrijving, Annex 19) that is a must for submitting with the application.
3) Spouse's health insurance.
4) Spouse's work contract.
5) Spouse's national ID and passport photocopies.
6) Spouse's bank account statements for the last 6 months (it is not necessary but I wanted my case to be very strong, so I added everything I could). He just emailed me online bank statements and I took out a print.
7) My own bank account statements for the last 6 months (again not necessary by law).
8) My original passport and photocopies of all its stamped/ essential pages.
9) 3 latest photos (same as I stuck on the application form)
10) Visa application form. Now, although spouses of EU nationals are exempt from filling in certain boxes (like the boxes asking for current occupation, employer and its details, details of inviting persons, accomodation details and how the stay will be financially covered) - I filled up these boxes anyways because I did have all the answers. In current occupation I wrote unemplyed.
11) Marriage certificate with the latest apostille. I read somewhere that the marriage certificate has to be issued in the last 6 months. This is not true. Only the apostille needs to be not older than 6 months. My marriage certificate was 11 months old with an apostille that was only 2 days old on the day I applied for my visa.
12) An invittaion letter from the EU spouse to you. It was just a silly sounding letter but my husband wrote and signed it, scanned it and emailed it to me. This was an additional requirement told by the vfs guy sitting on the Belgian counter. I just took the print of this letter.
Please make sure that you submit 3 sets of the above documents ( 1 original 2 photocopies). Except for number 5, 6 and 12, I submitted originals of all documents as well.
**************
I took all these documents to the vfs office in Nehru Place in Delhi. First I took a token for long term visa application to Belgium. Then when my turn came, the guy on the counter just asked me what I was appying for. Then he simply asked for all my documents which he deemed complete.
Indians applying to join their EU spouse DO NOT have to pay a visa fee (180 Euros) or the new 'contribution fee (180 Euros)'. They must still pay the vfs service fee of 1080 INR cash. They are also exempt from submitting a medical certificate and a police clearance certificate (PCC). Asking for these documents or any other documents other than mentioned on the DOFI website is a violation of your rights under the European Parliament and Council Directive 2004/38/EC. If you feel that any visa/ immigration authority is unduly unfair to you during your visa application process, your EU spouse can approach SOLVIT to remind them to be fair.
This is pretty much all the info I have Have fun with your appication guys!