Tourist Visa To Italy

[gtaswan]

hey,

im half indian, half thai, holding a thai passport. my boyfriend of one year is italian. we had planned that i would go to rome during my semester break from university to meet his family finally.

after looking up the procedures of acquiring a tourist visa (and i only requested for a period of 30 days), i realize i have to make an appointment a month in advance, and get about 8 documents prepared for which my family and i had to run around bangkok to do and lost money doing them. finally the month passes and we go to the italian embassy (which was monday the 19th of may), and we wait for our appointment at 1015 and finally go in, then we're told to bring in two extra documents. they realize i have exams the next day and decide to do my interview at 2 pm.

after roaming around the area for about 3 hours, we go in and i enter to talk to the officer in charge. he was quite rude and treated me as if i were some bar girl. everything was going smooth until he asked me about the letter of invitation that i am meant to get from my boyfriends family. we had presumed it would be better if his mother had written it considering both my boyfriend and i are minors under the thai law, and parents' consent is always better. the officer asked me whether i knew the woman personally and i wasnt going to lie to him and so i said no, before i could explain he raised his voice asking how she could even fill out the form without meeting me and how i could consider her a friend if i havent even met her. i told him i know the son and he wanted to know every detail of how i knew him. he kind of calmed down when i mentioned i studied in india my whole life. then his assistant ushered me out the door as he said "thank you for coming" and told me to call and check my results on thursday or friday which is the day after. are they like this toward thai passport holders or generally?

i need this visa, and right now i dont know what my chances are. perhaps someone more experienced with the embassy could provide a hand?... do you think ill get it?

[lordsux]

Welcome to the Italian Consulate.

Not sure about tourist visa, but obtaining a Shengen visa for my wife was a total farce. According to the EU guidlines the permit should be issued without undue delay. In spite of the fact that I needed urgent medical treatment in Rome, it took 55 days from making the appointment to actually recieving the permit (visa). Do a quick search of the forum where the whole farce is documented.

It is not just you, it seems that it is the general operating procedures of the consulate.

Please let us know how you get on. Italy is a very beautiful country and here where we are the people have been very warm and welcoming. Its just a shame that the attitude of the Consulate in Bangkok gives a very bad first impression to people wishing to visit their country.

Good luck

[gtaswan]

It is a shame, because im so fascinated by the country, by the language and the people. We've been planning this trip for 3 months now, and i had to buy my tickets as well because the airline needed the final list.

While he was yelling, he wrote something down on the application which im guessing has something to do with the fact i havent met his mother. I dont know. Its just driving me crazy. I had no idea they could be so strict for a tourist visa. Its surprising considering I've lived in india my entire life and dealing with official stuff there is the worst kind, but honestly the Indian embassy in Bangkok is alot more organized and alot more considerate than the Italian one.

The first thing my boyfriend and I did was to find forums to see if other people are going through just as much as us. We found worse situations, including yours. I had found yours on google and thats what made me join this forum actually. It seems to be the only english forum discussing the Italian consulate.

On an italian forum that my boyfriend had signed up for, many said that the consulate wouldn't give them tourist visas for their wives. In the Indian embassy the rule is that if you are married to a person (no matter what nationality), he/she would be given a spouse visa and it would usually take about 3 days.

When my boyfriend had come here 3 months before, he went to the Thai embassy in Rome and signed up for the visa and recieved it in one day. It's funny how Thailand lets people in so easily but when it comes to another country accepting thais, theres always such a problem (though most of the women here have made a name for themselves and the whole country is labelled because of it).

Edited May 21, 2008 by gtaswan