I will be getting married to my German girlfriend in January. She is currently still living in Germany. I am an American Citizen. I would like to get married in Germany and move there. However, there is a problem that I have. I have 2 felony records. the first was 18 years ago, the second was 12 years ago. My first charge, i did not have to serve any time. I was given 5 years probation. I completed that with no problems. I then got another charge, which was my stupidity. I, stupidly, thought that once my probation was over, I could possess a firearm again. I just wanted to go hunting again with some friends. However, this was not the case. I was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. this gave me a 4 year sentence which i served. I have been out for 7 years now and have not been in any more trouble. I know I cannot get any legal advise here, but want to get some general answers and responses. maybe if someone else has been in this situation.
I read that if you were convicted of a Public Order crime, drug charge or human trafficking, that you will be denied. But these are the only charges that I have read that could deny a residence permit. Is this true? Neither of my charges were Public order, drug or human trafficking.
Will I still be able to get a residence permit through Family Reunification being that I will be marrying a German Citizen?
I have read on these forums of similar questions on moving to Germany with a Criminal record, but all were saying that they cannot check criminal databases outside the EU or as long as your crime isn't in the INTERPOL or international database.
But my rebuttal to that is, that on EVERY Visa/Residence application, there is a field that asks if you have ever been convicted of a crime. This refers to ANY country. Even if they might not be able to see my charge if they run it through their systems, It could be likely that one day, they would be able to find out and that would make my answer on the application a lie and i would be deported and possibly banned from the EU all together.
So my question is if anyone has come across this situation or have heard of anyone coming across this situation and if I will be able to get a residence permit through marriage even with my criminal history?
should I just lie on the application?