Posted on 04/04/2010 11:48 pm

Re: Family Reunion Visa - Is this a means to deter foreigners from working in Germany ?

I like to briefly comment on the "investigation procedure" as it leads to a lot of frustration as is evident and expressed in this thread.

The practise of the German embassy to let a private detective descend upon the applicant´s premises and beyond and have the applicant pay for it raises a lot of serious legal questions. To be sure, the embassy has a legitimate interest in ensuring that no fraudulent application succeeds. But in my eyes, with respect to the serious encroachment in to the privacy of the applicant, there is no sufficient legal basis for a categorical and mandatory "investigation process" in each case regardless of other furnished proof and documents. This whole idea that the applicant has to cash out extra money for a private detective is alien to German law. And it is German public law that is supposed to govern the application process.

Among the many questions that flare up, are:

On whose behalf is the detective going to be active, in other words, who is the client of the detective?

What is the legal basis for the detective to invade the privacy of the applicant? Who gives him the right to ask personal questions in the neighbourhood, going door to door, sifting through personal letters, in short, infringing the personal rights of the applicant? This question becomes even more prevalent assuming that the Federal German Republic represented by the Consular is the client of the detective. The detective would then be the prolonged arm of a German public office. It is established constitutional law that any intrusion into the personal sphere of individuals by the German branch of government has to be based on an explicit empowerment in form of a formal and precise law.

Who, by the way, lays down the procedure how the detective should carry out his investigation? Are there any guidelines, i.e. operating procedures or is the detective a law unto himself?

Is the detective documenting his moves and writing a detailed investigation report on the applicant's marriage? What happens to the personal data that the detective accumulated during his investigation? Is it destroyed afterwards or shelved for further reading?

Does the so called detective get all of the fee or is there a service deduction on part of the Consular? Is the amount of up to 15.000 INR an appropriate and reasonable fee for a detective carrying out a marriage investigation? Who has come up with the amount of the fee? Who of India's private detectives are enlisted in this lucrative business? Are there special procurement procedures? Is there pressure on the detective, who is understandably anxious to retain his position as an appointed detective, to come up with "negative" cases in order to add to his credibility?

Are the findings accessible and are they fully disclosed to the applicant?

Now, there is undoubtedly several more unanswered questions that spring to mind the more you think about it.

In the final analysis it will be for the German courts to rule on the legality of this procedure. A possible scenario could be that a visa applicant decides to take the German Government to court demanding back the fee for the detective. Maybe then, some day in the future, a German court will come up with a ruling affirming the suspicions of this dubious practise or laying them to rest.

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