Visa and embassy

The German Embassy in Yaoundé: national visa, portal, appointments and waiting times, fee, refusal.

You need a national visa for stays over 90 days. Cameroon is not among the states whose citizens may apply for the permit in Germany after visa-free entry (that list is § 41 AufenthV), so the visa comes first. Start with the embassy's visa page and the Visa Navigator.

Which mission

• The Embassy in Yaoundé is responsible for Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea (embassy site). People who live in Chad, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea or São Tomé and Príncipe enter Cameroon as the place of residence in the portal (work visas, German page).
• VFS Global in Yaoundé accepts applications for the accelerated skilled-worker procedure (§ 81a), vocational training and students; the decision stays with the embassy or the Federal Office for Foreign Affairs (BfAA). The VFS service fee and the processing time at VFS were not published on the pages we checked.

Portal and appointments

• Online portal (Auslandsportal): the embassy says registration there is required since May 2026 for the skilled-worker permits (§§ 18a, 18b), the Blue Card (§ 18g) and the Opportunity Card (§ 20a); vocational training, study and preparatory language courses also go through it. Exceptions: § 16d measures and cases with prior approval under § 81a (work, study and training, German pages). Registration and documents are free.
• Appointment booking (booking page): online only, free. You join a waiting list; when a date opens it is booked automatically and mailed to you. Confirm within seven days or it is cancelled for good. Each person needs an own appointment. Register once only; several bookings are all deleted. Book the matching category, otherwise the file cannot be accepted.

Waiting times

The embassy gives these as non-binding guide values (booking page):

The study figures follow the newer appointment FAQ (19 May 2025). Plan with a long lead time for study and especially the Opportunity Card. A job offer with an employer-led § 81a procedure is the quickest route in the table.

At the appointment

• Bring complete originals and copies. Incomplete files are refused; you may withdraw free of charge, but you do not automatically get a new appointment. A missed appointment blocks you in the system.
• Documents in German, English or French need no translation; other languages need a German translation (work visas).
• Unrequested documents sent to the embassy are deleted. Forged documents lead to refusal and a warning-database entry (Documents).

Fee and processing

• The embassy lists a visa fee of 50,000 XAF from age 18 and 25,000 XAF under 18 (work visas); the legal basis is § 46 with § 50 AufenthV. Scholarship holders funded from public money pay nothing; family fee waivers: § 52 (1), (5) AufenthV.
• Processing time is no entitlement. If document verification is needed it can take up to 12 months (document-check page) or at least 12 months (family-reunification page) (Documents).
• Health insurance from a German provider with unlimited cover is required (see the route pages).

If the visa is refused

• The remonstration (objection to the embassy) was abolished on 1 July 2025; there is no objection procedure for visas (§ 68 (1) S. 2 Nr. 1 VwGO).
• You can sue at the Administrative Court of Berlin within one month of notification of the decision (§ 74 VwGO); without a correct remedy notice the period is one year (§ 58 (2) VwGO). Court language is German. Or apply again with a complete file and a new appointment.

Next: Documents, Costs.