Long-term stay

Individuals are usually required to be able to meet their living expenses without public benefits in order for a residence permit to be issued and extended. For certain purposes of stay such as studying, funding by third parties is possible. If you wish to finance the stay of your acquaintances or relatives in Germany, you usually have to officially declare this by submitting a letter of intent.

Commitment – to what?

With the letter of intent, you agree to bear all expenses incurred by your relative or acquaintance during their stay in Germany. By submitting the letter of intent, you are responsible for ensuring that you will cover the living expenses / finance your relative or acquaintance.

Should your relative or acquaintance apply for public benefits, you are obliged to reimburse these. This also applies after the expiry of the residence permit, should your relative or acquaintance remain in Germany.

The expenses that you are required to cover on behalf of your relative or acquaintance include, in particular:

• Living expenses
• Illness-related expenses (doctor’s fees, medicines and hospital stays)
• Departure-related expenses, such as air tickets or journeys to the airport (as required)

With regard to health insurance, it should be noted that, in principle, every person living in Germany is obliged to take out a statutory or equivalent private health insurance policy. You are thus obliged to pay the health insurance contributions incurred by your friend or relative.

Required documents

You will need the following documents to submit a letter of intent for a long-term stay:

• Your ID card or passport
• Salary statements for the last three months or pension approval certificate or current net assets certificate from your tax advisor
• Employment contract or certificate of registration of a business
• Your tenancy agreement, and in the case that you are a property owner, proof of the monthly charge
• Fee: € 29.00

Important: If you wish to submit the letter of intent together with your spouse, you must also appear before us together.

In addition, you will need the following information from your acquaintance or relative in order to submit the letter of intent:

• Full name
• Date and place of birth
• Nationality
• Passport number
• Address in country of origin
• Planned length of stay

Letter of intent – what next?

Once you have submitted all the documents, the examination has been completed and your financial resources are sufficient to submit the declaration, you will receive the original letter of intent from us after a personal appointment. You must send this to your guest so that they can apply for the visa with the letter of intent.

If your friend or relative is still in their home country, you can send them the original letter of intent so that they can attach it to the visa application.

If your acquaintance or relative is already in Germany, you can give them the original letter of intent so that they can submit it to the foreigners authority responsible for the granting or extension of their residence permit.

The letter of intent is valid for up to five years.