Once In The Uk - Options

[Rolo]

As i have said before, after a lot of effort my girlfriend was granted a visitors visa and is coming to the UK in a few weeks.

I am now considering taking her on a short European break either to France/ Spain or something similar, during the time she is visiting me.

Does anyone have any experience of this, and can tell me the processes that i would have to go through, any tips would also be handy .

thanks in advance

Rolo

[the scouser]

Rolo,

Firstly you will have to establish whether her UK visa is good for a single or multiple entries. If only single then she would require another UK visa in order to return after the continental holiday. Additionally, your g/f will require a visa to visit another European country and most insist that the visa is applied for at the relevant embassy in the country where the applicant is normally resident, in this case Thailand. She would, therefore, have to get her visa for whichever European country prior to coming to the UK.

It's a lot of buggering about for the sake of a few days in France or Spain.

Cheers,

Scouse.

[Rolo]

Scouse,

Thanks for the advice again, god know what we'd all do without you .

I'll check that her visa is multiple entries and maybe go into a few embassys while she is here just to see if there is a chance, seeing as i live in central London anyway and it wont be too much bother.

cheers,

Rolo

[the scouser]

Rolo,

It is possible to obtain a visa from an embassy outside the normal country of origin but generally only in urgent cases, so perhaps invent a little bit of a sob story as to why you need to go to France etc.

Scouse.

[GU22]

As Scouser says, if the visa is multiple entry, and if it's a 6 month visa then it almost certainly is, then she can leave and enter the UK as many times as she likes during the life of the visa.

She will need to get a visa for the country she is visiting, but the good news is that she only needs to do this once. A Schengen visa will allow her to visit any country that is signed up to the Schengen agreement. These countries are:-

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

So there's lot's of choice

She will need to apply for the visa at the embassy of the country she intends to visit first.

Full details can be found at What is a Schengen Visa. (N.B. The site is aimed at Americans, but the principle and rules are the same for Thailand.)

[Rolo]

GU22,

The visa is for 6 months and is multiple entry. What i was really trying to ask was the ease at which a schengen visa is gained once a visitor is in the UK.

Basically i would like any advice on how to gain a short term visa for a European country, and if too much hassle is involved. If a little sob story is needed then that is all well and good but i just really wanted to know what kind of hassle im looking at, so as to know if its worth the effort or not.

cheers

Rolo

[GU22]

Like Scouser said, she is supposed to apply for the visa while she is still in Thailand. To apply in the UK she would need to have UK residency of some sort.

An example of the required procedure can be found at:- Requirements for tourist visa (short stay = maximum 90 days) to the Netherlands (and Schengen countries) (I picked the Netherlands as it's the first one I came across that's in English. Other countries may have a simpler process.)

I would imagine that if you tried to apply in London, claiming some sort of family emergency or whatever, then they would want to see some proof.