ROUTE

Inviting a guest to Germany: visa and formal obligation

First the question that decides everything: does your guest need a visa at all? Without one, the formal obligation is usually unnecessary. With one: who pays, what it costs, and why liability runs five years.

✓ Checked: 17/08/2026

This route covers a temporary visit: a relative, friend or acquaintance comes for a few weeks and goes home again. It is NOT family reunification — permanent relocation of a spouse or children runs through an entirely different procedure with its own national visa and requirements.

Tailor the route to you

Answer a few questions and only the steps you actually need will remain. We will hide the rest.

Does your guest need a visa? Nationality decides, not country of residence.

How do I check?

1

STEP

Does your guest need a visa at all?

The question that decides everything else. Anyone entitled to visa-free entry usually needs no formal obligation — no appointment, no fee, no five years of liability.
2

STEP

Visiting without a visa: what is actually needed

Without a visa the formal obligation falls away. Three things remain: evidence of purpose and means, insurance that is legally optional but expensive to skip, and counting the 90 days.
3

STEP

Visa required: who pays for the trip and how to prove it

The formal obligation is only one of three routes. If your guest has means of their own, it is redundant — and you are liable for nothing.
4

STEP

Solvency: the income the authority wants to see

A solvency check comes before the signature. What counts is not gross pay but what remains after rent and your own maintenance obligations.
5

STEP

Filing the declaration at the authority

You sign in person at the immigration office where you live. The original is handed to you and posted to your guest, who submits it with the visa application.
6

STEP

Five years of liability: the scope in plain terms

The declaration covers more than accommodation and does not end on departure: § 68 AufenthG binds for five years from entry — including where your guest later receives a humanitarian permit.
7

STEP

After the visit: what actually closes the matter

Departure does not end the liability — it runs five years. What to keep, what to report, and what happens if your guest stays.

COSTS AND DEADLINES

What you pay for on this route

Travel health insurance for the visaA mandatory visa condition: valid across the whole Schengen area and for the entire trip, including repatriationcover of at least €30,000
Recognition of the formal obligation§ 47 (1) no. 12 AufenthV — per declaration; practice varies where several guests are covered in one file€29

Deadlines you cannot miss

No more than 6 months should pass between issue and the grant of the visaFiling the declaration at the authorityguideline
Five years from the entry made possible by the declaration (§ 68 (1) AufenthG)Five years of liability: the scope in plain termshard deadline

Amounts follow official fees as of each step’s verification date. Your city may charge a different rate — check the step itself.

› More about this route

It deliberately starts not with a form but with the question that decides everything else: does your guest need a visa at all? For a large share of our readers the answer is no — Ukrainian nationals with a biometric passport travel visa-free, as do Georgia, Moldova and Serbia with biometric passports. In that case the formal obligation is simply unnecessary and the route ends after two steps.

If a visa is required, the second underestimated point appears: the formal obligation is only ONE of three ways to prove the trip is funded. If the guest's own means suffice, you sign nothing at all. Only when they do not does the path lead to the immigration office.

And then the figure most guides omit applies: liability under § 68 AufenthG runs for five years from entry, not until departure. It covers subsistence, housing, illness and care, and within those five years it expressly does not lapse through a humanitarian residence permit or a grant of international protection.

WHERE PEOPLE MOST OFTEN LOSE MONEY AND TIME

Starting with the form instead of checking the visa requirement first. Anyone entitled to visa-free entry almost never needs the declaration — the appointment, the €29 and five years of liability would all be for nothing.
Confusing an invitation letter with a formal obligation. The first is a private letter carrying no liability; the second is an official procedure creating an enforceable money debt. In everyday speech both are called an invitation.
Assuming liability ends when the guest leaves. It runs five years from entry, and a later humanitarian permit expressly does not end it.
Obtaining the declaration in advance. No more than six months should pass between issue and visa grant, so a document fetched too early costs the fee a second time.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ROUTE

Where do I start — with the invitation or with the visa?▾

With neither: with your guest's nationality. It determines whether a visa procedure happens at all, and therefore whether a formal obligation is ever needed. Everything else on this route depends on that single answer.

How long does the whole path take?▾

Without a visa, essentially no time at all: your guest books and travels. With a visa, two waits set the pace — the appointment at the embassy or consulate general, issued weeks or months ahead depending on the country, and then the processing of the application itself. The office visit for the declaration is short, but it has to happen before the visa appointment, because the original is submitted with the application.

What does it all cost together?▾

Recognition of the declaration costs €29 under § 47 (1) no. 12 AufenthV. On top come the visa fee, paid by the guest at the mission, and travel health insurance with at least €30,000 of cover. Without a visa procedure the first two items fall away entirely.

Is this the same as family reunification?▾

No, and the confusion is expensive. This route concerns a visit of up to 90 days. Bringing a spouse and children to live in Germany permanently is a separate procedure with a national visa, language proof and housing and income requirements. A formal obligation neither replaces nor shortens it.

WHAT USUALLY COMES NEXT

Family ReunificationWho qualifies, the housing and income requirements, the A1 exceptions (Blue Card!), the embassy marathon with apostilles — and the family first steps after arrival.Extending Your German Residence PermitStep-by-step route to extending your Aufenthaltserlaubnis: when to apply, which documents to prepare, what it costs and how the Fiktionsbescheinigung works — including the emergency path if your permit has already expired.Getting Married in GermanyMarrying with foreign documents: apostilles and the certificate of no impediment (2–4 months!), registering at the Standesamt, and the paperwork after the ceremony.Insurance for visiting guestsThe visa package’s formal requirements, choosing by exclusions rather than price, and how the policy actually works at the doctor.