They currently don't require you to have an appointment; just turn up during their opening hours (which are not adjusted for special closures - e.g. carnival - on their website).
There was a long queue of Afghan nationals waiting to be let into the consulate. But when I asked whether I could apply for a visa, they opened the gate for me and took me straight to „Room 1“, where I submitted the following:
- 1 passport picture
- LOI
- 1 passport copy
- 1 copy of my German identity card, both sides, to prove my current address
They also wanted to see the confirmation for my flight to Shymkent/Kazakhstan, which I found weird, because it's quite a long way from Afghanistan - but anyway.
They did *not* want to see:
- health insurance
- proof of sufficient financial means
They didn't accept the visa application form that I had prepared because it had the wrong logo. They don’t have this updated application form on their website. The person I spoke to said something about this not being fully official yet and they were therefore not allowed to put it online. Content-wise, it was exactly the same as what I had prepared. I have no idea whether it would have been possible to apply without a LOI.
Then I was taken to Room 3 where I paid 80€ in cash after which I was escorted back to Room 1 with the receipt. I left a prepaid registered envelope for them to send the passport back - something they didn’t seem to have encountered before and he needed to ask for confirmation from a colleague. I did not put any sender information on the envelope, and when I finally received it, I saw that no sender had been added by them - even though it is required for registered letters. I suspect this was the reason why the letter was not delivered the following day but took a day extra.
The whole application procedure took less than 30 minutes.
I was not given an option for same-day processing (but didn't ask). It was quite stressful to have to wait without having any way of contacting them. But in the end it worked out...