privacy international germany evidence visa
Can the German Embassy go through your Whatsapp messages during Visa document verification process?
<p>I am a Pakistani professional living and working in Germany under an &quot;EU Blue Card&quot; visa. I got married a little while back and to join me in Germany, my wife has applied for a Family Reunification Visa from Pakistan.</p>
<p>She was interviewed at the German embassy in Pakistan and submitted several documents (both of our birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc). To verify these documents, the embassy normally hires a contractor (usually a Pakistani lawyer) who visits spouses' homes and local government offices that have issued the documents.</p>
<p>Recently there have been several reports of these lawyers asking the spouses in Pakistan to show them their Whatsapp conversations (chats, not call logs) with their spouse in Germany. Then the lawyers scroll through and take pictures at several points as evidence.</p>
<p>My questions,</p>
<ol>
<li>Is is legal to do this under German law?</li>
<li>What can one do to stop this (who should be informed about this)?</li>
<li>If this is illegal but already happened to you, what can you do about it?</li>
</ol>

<p><strong>What can one do to stop this?<br />
Refuse, and accept a lower likelihood that the visa will be granted.</strong></p>
<p>Visa officials, from Germany or otherwere, try to make sure that people applying for a visa meet the legal requirements. This includes ascertaining that marriages are actual marriages rather than a sham. One common procedure is to interview both spouses separately, at the same time, and to compare the answers to quite personal questions.<br />
&quot;Do you use the same brand of toothpaste? Yes or no? Same tube or different ones?&quot;<br />
&quot;What did you/your spouse have for breakfast?&quot;</p>
<p>That is obviously impossible when the spouses are separated, so other questions must be asked.</p>
<p>You can bring your own lawyer to the interview (<a href="https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/blob/207816/e025d7a51aa0e20f5567c6f7478c8fd6/visumhandbuch-data.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Visumhandbuch</a> p. 149). That lawyer might argue better than you do if a line of questioning is necessary.</p>
