Hi can anybody advise me about traveling to Europe for a holiday with my Thai wife.

Heres the situation, my wife has a residency permit with discretionary limited leave to remain

in the UK due to expire in June 2014, so would this stop her from visiting Denmark for instance for a holiday or anywhere else in Europe for a holiday?

would be grateful for any advise if anybody has had experience with this sort of situation.

Edited March 30, 201313 yr by zak

If traveling to a country within the Schengen area she needs a Schengen visa. If touring to two or more Schengen countries she applies to the embassy of the country she will enter first.

Assuming that you are British, then as she is the wife of an EEA citizen the visa should be easy to obtain and free. Read the application form and guidance carefully as many of the questions and requirements wont apply to her.

If traveling to non Schengen countries she applies to the embassy concerned for the appropriate visa, if one is required.

Expanding the question a bit :

She will get a letter of invitation from family in Norway.

Go to Norway embassy to apply for Schengen visa-don't expect any problem here ,have done it before with Sweden.

However the idea is to fly to Germany, rent a car for a month or so ,travel around (Schengen countries only) and eventually end up in Norway .

I realize the general rule is to apply in the country of first entry, but in Germany we do not have any family to write letters of invitations etc ,!

Last time we went to Sweden ,we did stop in Germany as well ,went thru immigration(and could have gone anywhere as a matter of fact ) ,but then immediately caught a connecting flight to Sweden.

Is there any reasonable risk involved to go ahead like this -and not risk being refused entry.?

Schengen Visa is Schengen Visa -once it is issued and stamped in the passport -who cares ?

This being Germany immigration ,which I believe to be a bit different to Thai immigration(e.g the officers might not apply the rules depending on the day of the week or a bad hair day,),what could we expect ?

Any personal experiences ?

Of course , we could plan the entire trip the other way around and fly straight to Norway ,then backtrack from there into other European countries ,but it would be a bit of a pain and additional travel and expense involved .

If she is the wife of an EEA national (and a British citizen is an EEA national) and travelling with her EEA national husband then letters of invitation etc. are not required!

If entering the Schengen area via a country other than the one which issued the visa then explain your travel plans if asked by immigration; you may need evidence of same, but unlikely.