German work visa with criminal history
 

I am planning to relocate to Germany with my family. I am currently a citizen of India. I've got a permanent position in a reputed software firm in Berlin. They are ready to sponsor my visa and help me relocate.

But there is a problem, 18 months back I did a grave mistake by driving after drinking. I was caught in routine checkup and was little over the limit ( i was 0.38 while limit here is 0.3). This case went to court and I pleaded guilty.

Now I need to start processing the Visa, I'm not able to find any guidelines about how Germany thinks of immigrants with these kind of misdemeanor.

Please help me with any pointers about this.

What I can say is DUI is a hit-or-miss situation.

Just report promptly and let the Consulate determine your fate.

The key is if the criminal conviction was registered in Germany or abroad. Work visa are only denied if you are a convicted criminal of certain kind (German immigration law mandates expulsion if you are convicted of certain crimes).

Thanks [MENTION=227449]garykung[/MENTION] and [MENTION=16905]oliver2002[/MENTION]. So Drunk Driving should be uninteresting for German immigration for work VISA. I will still be upfront about it and will talk to the Embassy before applying for VISA.

I don't see how they could even know about it, the Indian justice system isn't exactly transparent, is there an easy way to look up if an individual is convicted in an online database? (India has remarkable level of detail on companies, court cases etc available online, so though the justice system is messy, this is the one avenue I could imagine them finding out). Obviously don't like if asked, but if not asked then why mention it

All court records are online now. Atleast I can search my record by entering full name, year when case was registered then selecting appropriate court. Irrespective of they find it or not I would prefer to be thruthfull for future benefits and peace of mind.

Yeah so they'd need to know that the case exists and have the case number right? Be truthful, but if they don't ask why mention it. Will you tell them that in class 10 you beat your friend Rajesh and he got a bloody nose, even if they don't ask, for the sake of being truthful?

I agree to your point that don't tell when not asked. But on work visa they ask about convictions. So I should tell them IMHO.
regarding parameters needed for search - full name, year(search for last 10 years takes only minutes to brute force) and exact court name( easy to find court based on your address).

The application form will have a question regarding that:

eg. Munich: http://www.muenchen.de/rathaus/dms/H...haltstitel.pdf
And then it asks for details.

To be honest on applications is always the best.

Just as a small side note. In Germany the general limit is 0.5. Above 0.5 and under 1.1 it will be treated as an administrative offense unless you caused an accident or you showed signs of being highly intoxicated and not able to safely operate a vehicle. In such a case it becomes a criminal offense. The same when you get caught with 1.1 or above. In addition to this general rules there is the another rule if you get caught with a blood alcohol level between 0.3 and 0.5. In such a case the police can but not necessarily treat this as an administrative offense if you showed clear signs of not being able to safely operate a vehicle for example because you drove in irregular patterns.

So in your case of 0.38 this might no even be an offense in Germany unless you caused an accident.