Schengen Visa To Finland

[ShanghaiStory]

I hold Chinese passport working in Bangkok for a year so far as a mandarin teacher in a private University, with a non-b visa and work permit good till May 31, 09. My Finnish boyfriend sent me the invitation letter to visit Finland with him next month. The interesting situation is he now works in China for a US company. I submitted the application form and all other related materials as the embassy required on their site. Back in China, the applicants would be asked for holiday approval letter from the employers as well as some other documents to prove the fiancial background, not to mention the other stuff like personal CV even...i turned in my papers without those on 18th, and was told since mine is not Thai passport, it would take 10 working days to process it while just 7 days for Thais. My question is anyone here with experience to know how's the chance to obtain a Schengen visa in my situation (this is my first time to apply)... Would it seems to be easier to be granted one from Finland embassy? Thanks alot!

[roygsd]

My question is anyone here with experience to know how's the chance to obtain a Schengen visa in my situation (this is my first time to apply)... Would it seems to be easier to be granted one from Finland embassy? Thanks alot!

Hi,

As your letter of invitation is to visit your boyfriend in Finland I really dont understand why you think that any embassy of another country would, or has a right to consider your application?

eep it clean, keep it simple, thats my advice.

Roy gsd

[Maestro]

...I submitted the application form and all other related materials as the embassy required on their site...

To whom, ie to the embassy/consulate of what country, did you submit your application?

As roygsd said, you should submit your application to the consulate of Finland in Bangkok and it should meet the requirements of that consulate. Check their website:

http://www.finland.or.th/public/default.as...p;culture=en-US

--

Maestro

[ShanghaiStory]

Thanks Maestro and Roy!

Sorry for the missing info. Yes, i did submit "all" (from the Finland embassy site, it also identifies "other supporting documents if it's applicable", so never know if it's enough papers i collected or not) materials to Finland Embassy in Bangkok. The reason why im worried of this coz back in China, it's pretty difficult to obtain a visa to Europe or North America, Australia, even to Japan...etc. for Chinese; usually it requires lots of documents about the applicant's financial ability such as owe some property, stock shares, lots of bank savings...all due to the fact that they worry about the Chinese applicants would stay there forever, so need to prove we have something here in Asia that we will come back. Chinese have very bad reputation of illegal immigration :-( So since i carry a Chinese passport, although im applying for the visa in Bangkok, i wonder if there'd be a yellow light automatically pop up in the visa officer's mind when he/she sees my case...

It aint busy in Finland embassy at all. It took me about 20min+ for my interview while i noticed its only 10 mins for Thais. The officer asked how my boyfriend and i met, how many times we met in person so far, how often and by what means we keep in touch, did we ever discuss about the marriage and future...Since we work in two different countries, the fact of us met 3 times in person in the total 10 months long relationship, got me unconfident about my visa application :-)

Anyway, i'll call the Finland embassy to inquire about the visa decision next monday, and will update it here. Wish me good luck!

[ShanghaiStory]

Update:

Got visa today! According to my 10 day long trip, they gave me 15 days only...No hassles with Finland embassy, i even didnt submit any pics of us, although they did check info with my boyfriend who's in China, asked for detail info about him. My experience seems not useful for most of the people here since im not Thai, anyway, good luck to you all!

[roygsd]

Update:

Got visa today! According to my 10 day long trip, they gave me 15 days only...No hassles with Finland embassy, i even didnt submit any pics of us, although they did check info with my boyfriend who's in China, asked for detail info about him. My experience seems not useful for most of the people here since im not Thai, anyway, good luck to you all!

Very pleased that things have worked out well for you both, I am sure that this information will be beneficial to others as there are many nationalities on this site.

Have a great holiday

Roy Gsd