Consulate General of Federal Republic of Germany in Osaka — Local services in Osaka

The visa procedure is very difficult for many reasons. First, the visa section in their website gives a phone number, which never works. We tried for multiple hours each day, for almost a week - and it never worked. When we called another number of the consulate, staffs answered the call but didn't answer any questions on the phone. Rather, they directed us to send emails using the form available in their website. The downside of their email form is that the email is not sent if the characters in the mail exceeds a certain number; BUT they don't send us warning even if the mail is not sent. We waited for more than a week for a reply - before we realized that our email was probably never sent because it exceeded the maximum number of characters allowed. They must introduce a system where the email is rejected right away; otherwise the sender might never know their email was never sent because it exceeded the allowed numbers of characters. The only good part of their service was that they send a reply to the email, once sent, within one working day. The dates available are very limited, so the waiting time for a visa appointment is very very long. They required us to submit a lot of papers, even those that were not listed in their website. After the visa appointment, we submitted those additional papers later via post. THEN, they called us again few days later for some more papers. Why didn't they tell us during the first appointment? It added to our cost; and the process took longer than usual. The visa was printed so badly, the face in the visa was completely unrecognizable. During our travel to Germany, the security officer at the airport expressed doubts if the visas...

The online visa appointment system works, but appointments get booked ridiculously quickly. I recommend trying to book an appointment 2 months before your trip. Check early in the morning. I tried 6 weeks before but couldn’t get a slot, so I emailed them about the urgency of my trip; they called me when there was a cancellation. Much appreciated.

Don’t fuss about the coin lockers; it’s simple. No electronic devices inside the consulate. Use the coin lockers by the Goethe Institute on the same floor or the Willer bus depot on the ground floor (in a pinch). There’s a change machine at the depot.

Follow the instructions on the site carefully, but also bring proof of reserved accommodations and an itinerary just in case. Make sure your bank statements show sufficient funds for your trip. If you need an official document from friends/family in Germany, note that certain cities are busy with refugee processing. Request those months in advance of your trip. With complete documentation, I got my visa 2 weeks before my flight. It’s giri giri but shoganai.

Visa procedures are always stressful at any consulate; they’re not paid to be friendly and certainly not expected to be flexible. The biggest challenge was getting an appointment slot. Always prepare for the...

Erst hilfreich, dann stellt sich allerdings heraus dass die Webseiten veraltet/nicht aktualisiert werden und somit einige Dokumente fehlen. Motziger Ton. Scheint keine Lust zu haben zu helfen.

Even for a german citizen not very helpful, they were responsive but it turned out the website is not being updated and that they need completely different documents than stated on the website. We had requested and translated everything on the website, and if we would need to request more documents that would mean our already prepared documents would expire (3 month deadline).

So - in the end unhelpful...