Fastest Schengen Country For Visa?

[Svenn]

Which embassy gives the fastest results/offers expedited service? We can start our holiday pretty much anywhere, but I'd prefer Italy or Greece. She has a 10 year US visitor visa, Canada, NZ, and Japan... we're married and she owns her own home and small business- any need to worry about a refusal?

[7by7]

What is your nationality?

If you are an EEA national and she will be travelling with you the process is a lot simpler, quicker, free and they would need a very good reason to refuse her.

If you are not an EEA national bear in mind that you may need a visa as well.

Other than that, I have no idea which embassy deals with applications the quickest.

[flightcrew1]

We always use Netherlands Embassy as the turnaround is 24 hours to 48 hours. France and Germany can take two weeks and longer, but I suppose for all is the time of year and the season.

[Svenn]

^Oh wow, 48 hours?! With an actual visa in hand? Looks like we may need to start our trip in Amsterdam. It's still correct one must start a trip in the issuing country for the Schengen right?

7by7: I'm American

[beano2274]

No you do not have to start the trip in the country where you get the visa from, the visa is issued from the Embassy of the country you will spend the most time in. My wife has a one year Schengen visa applied for at the Italian Embassy, flew into Zurich, and flies out of Frankfurt,

[7by7]

EEA freedom of movement regulations say that applications from family members of EEA nationals must be processed without delay.

If flightcrew1 is an EEA national, then as you are not the turnaround for your wife may not be as quick as it was for him.

Plus, of course, the time of year is also be a factor in the processing time; the busier they are the longer each application takes.

To expand on Beano's reply; you are supposed to apply one of the following:

• if staying in just one country, that country, or
• if transiting through one or more countries, the country which is your final destination, or
• if touring the country where you will first enter the Schengen area.

[thaisail]

No you do not have to start the trip in the country where you get the visa from, the visa is issued from the Embassy of the country you will spend the most time in. My wife has a one year Schengen visa applied for at the Italian Embassy, flew into Zurich, and flies out of Frankfurt,

I have just posted on this same issue and I was told that the rule about applying for the Schengen visa must be the first country where you enter the EU. I am getting conflicting information about this rule as I have also heard that the visa must be gotten from the country where you will spend the most amount of time. But I have also heard on this forum that that rule is now changed and the Schengen visa must used to go first to the Schengen issuing country.

My wife is Thai and I am a dual citizen , French and USA. I have completed the paperwork for my Thai marriage and our daughter's birth in Thailand with the US consulate in Bangkok for the USA in 2007. My wife has a 10 year multiple entry visa for the US.

My 2006 divorce to my French wife was only approved by the French government 2 weeks ago! So now I have to start the paperwork to do the same as I did for the US in 2007 and I think it is fair to say that the French consulate in Bangkok will not issue the French family book in time for my Thai wife to travel to France this year as my wife since it took them 7 years to recognize the divorce! So, my Thai wife is invited to Sweden by her Thai sister who is married to a Swedish man and they have sent us a letter of invitation. So as soon as the letter arrives, we will apply for the Schengen visa for my Thai wife to go to Sweden instead.

My question is:

1. If my Thai wife has the Schengen visa in her passport, can she fly from Thailand direct with me to France?

2. On arrival in France, will I be in trouble with French immigration for trying to bring her to France instead of Sweden?

3. If my Thai wife has to fly to Sweden first, can she take a flight the same day to Paris to meet me there?

4. If my Thai wife flies to Paris and I am meeting her at the airport, will I be able to assist her if she has trouble with the French immigration?

5. Do I need a lawyer in Thailand to assist?

[Bastian]

1. If my Thai wife has the Schengen visa in her passport, can she fly from Thailand direct with me to France?

2. On arrival in France, will I be in trouble with French immigration for trying to bring her to France instead of Sweden?

3. If my Thai wife has to fly to Sweden first, can she take a flight the same day to Paris to meet me there?

4. If my Thai wife flies to Paris and I am meeting her at the airport, will I be able to assist her if she has trouble with the French immigration?

5. Do I need a lawyer in Thailand to assist?

1. Your wife may enter the Schengen area in any Schengen country.

2. She might be asked about her travel plans and when she intends to go to Sweden.

3. Yes

4. Maybe

5. No

In any case with a swedish visa she must not spend more time in any other Schengen country than Sweden. Feigning an intent to visit Sweden to get a visa and then actually staying in France for the majority of her stay is illegal.

[7by7]

Thaisail;

Yours is a complicated scenario due to the situation regarding your French divorce.

As you already have a topic running on this, in my opinion it would have been better to asked you question there; which I see you have done!

Hijacking someone else's topic to repeat questions you have already asked elsewhere wont get you any extra answers, nor will it change the ones you've already recieved!

[Pattayarossoblu]

No you do not have to start the trip in the country where you get the visa from, the visa is issued from the Embassy of the country you will spend the most time in. My wife has a one year Schengen visa applied for at the Italian Embassy, flew into Zurich, and flies out of Frankfurt,

Sorry,but you no have to apply for the visa for the Country where you came inside Schengen?Eg:i apply for a visa at the italian embassy,but i cannot enter the schengen zone from France.....has to be italy

[theoldgit]

No you do not have to start the trip in the country where you get the visa from, the visa is issued from the Embassy of the country you will spend the most time in. My wife has a one year Schengen visa applied for at the Italian Embassy, flew into Zurich, and flies out of Frankfurt,

Sorry,but you no have to apply for the visa for the Country where you came inside Schengen?Eg:i apply for a visa at the italian embassy,but i cannot enter the schengen zone from France.....has to be italy

Not sure why you have resurrected this old thread, but what you have posted is incorrect.

To apply for a Schengen Visa you should apply at the consulate of the country which is your main destination, however if you are touring a number of Schengen States and spending a similar time in all, then you should should apply at the Consulate of the State where you enter the Schengen Area.

For instance my partner and I toured Europe last year, we entered and finally left Schengen via Paris, but as we were spending longer in Italy than France, the Italian Consulate issued the visa, there was no problem initially entering Schengen in Paris.

[Pattayarossoblu]

No you do not have to start the trip in the country where you get the visa from, the visa is issued from the Embassy of the country you will spend the most time in. My wife has a one year Schengen visa applied for at the Italian Embassy, flew into Zurich, and flies out of Frankfurt,

Sorry,but you no have to apply for the visa for the Country where you came inside Schengen?Eg:i apply for a visa at the italian embassy,but i cannot enter the schengen zone from France.....has to be italy

Not sure why you have resurrected this old thread, but what you have posted is incorrect.

To apply for a Schengen Visa you should apply at the consulate of the country which is your main destination, however if you are touring a number of Schengen States and spending a similar time in all, then you should should apply at the Consulate of the State where you enter the Schengen Area.

For instance my partner and I toured Europe last year, we entered and finally left Schengen via Paris, but as we were spending longer in Italy than France, the Italian Consulate issued the visa, there was no problem initially entering Schengen in Paris.

??????????Strange

Edited March 6, 2014 by Pattayarossoblu

[theoldgit]

??????????Strange

Not strange at all, those are the regulations, and my partners visa complied with those regulations.

[Naam]

1. If my Thai wife has the Schengen visa in her passport, can she fly from Thailand direct with me to France?

2. On arrival in France, will I be in trouble with French immigration for trying to bring her to France instead of Sweden?

3. If my Thai wife has to fly to Sweden first, can she take a flight the same day to Paris to meet me there?

4. If my Thai wife flies to Paris and I am meeting her at the airport, will I be able to assist her if she has trouble with the French immigration?

5. Do I need a lawyer in Thailand to assist?

1. Your wife may enter the Schengen area in any Schengen country.

2. She might be asked about her travel plans and when she intends to go to Sweden.

3. Yes

4. Maybe

5. No

In any case with a swedish visa she must not spend more time in any other Schengen country than Sweden. Feigning an intent to visit Sweden to get a visa and then actually staying in France for the majority of her stay is illegal.

as far as "illegal" is concerned i [not so] humbly beg to differ. a Schengen Visa does not prevent the holder to change his travel plans and any length of stay in one of the countries that ratified the Schengen agreement.

[thaisail]

One year ago, I posted here about the Schengen visa and now I can report the results. My Thai wife got her Schengen visa from Sweden through her Swedish brother in law who invited her for a family visit for 90 days. However, we flew first to France where we stayed for 2 weeks. We then flew to Sweden where my wife stayed until there was only a few days left on her visa and returned to Thailand. There were no problems with French immigration and no questions were asked. The flight between Paris and Stockholm was not controlled.

This year, we have completed all the documents with the French consulate to record our marriage and they have informed me that I no longer have to buy the insurance for her and the visa is free of charge. However they still want us to apply for her visa with an external agency but they promised us that the agency fee would be very small around 300 baht. We will apply in April this way and I will post the results.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Donutz]

@Thaisail. Good to hear all went fine. But since you are a French national you should have been able to get a free visa fast and easy from the Swedish embassy (or any other Schengen embassy except the French embassy since you can't excersize these " freedom of movement" rights in the country that you have the nationality of) on your vacation last year. All that is required for the free application is that your wife proofs that she is your wife, a marriage certificate should be enough (if need be translated to English or an other language that the embassy can read, and legalized by the Thai ministry of foreign affairs.

The French are incorrect about having to apply via TLS (or VFS), the Schengen. The French offer the option of going to TLS Contact, most other Schengen embassies offer the option of going to an external service provider (TLS Contact, VFS Global.) However this is NOT mandatory but entirely optional, the Schengen code (Code on Visa) dictates in artile 17 that you should have a genuine option of applying directly via the embassy witout the use of an external service provider. This is also explained in the Visa Handbook.

4.3. The service fee
Legal basis: Visa Code, Article 17
As a fundamental principle, a service fee may be charged to an applicant using the facilities of an external service provider only if the alternative is maintained of direct access to the consulate incurring the payment of just the visa fee (see point 4.4).

4.4. Direct access
Maintaining the possibility for visa applicants to lodge their applications directly at the consulate instead of via an external service provider implies that there should be a genuine choice between these two possibilities.

EN 22 EN
Even if direct access does not have to be organised under identical or similar conditions to those for access to the service provider, the conditions should not make direct access impossible in practice. Even if it is acceptable to have a different waiting time for obtaining an appointment in the case of direct access, the waiting time should not be so long that it would render direct access impossible in practice.
The different options available for lodging a visa application should be presented plainly to the public, including clear information both on the choice and the cost of the additional services of the external service provider (see Part I, point 4.1).

See: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/708378-british-guy-living-in-france-vistior-visa-for-thai-gf/ and http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/703486-spanish-schengen-visa-new-rule/

@Pattayarossoblu: What is so strange about those rules? Seems very logical to me that you apply at the Schengen nation that is your main destination (sepnt the most time), if there is no main destination you go apply at the nation where you arrive first. Ofcourse travelplans can change, you might have planned on touring through 6 Schengen nations but instead decided to spent more time in a certain nation, visit less countries or more etc. Aslong as you can convince the embassy and bordercontrol that the intentions of the visitor are genuine and in line with the Schengen rules... once you pass the border it would be very hard and rather silly to check if somebody sticks to the travelplan, aslong as you abide the law and rules ofcourse and leave the Schengen area in time.

Edited March 7, 2014 by Donutz

[Donutz]

Some useful links:

The visa code can be found here:

English:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32009R0810:EN:NOT

French:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32009R0810:FR:NOT

Handbook (also useful for details on visa for family members):

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/visa-policy/index_en.htm

Visa for Non-EU family members explained (including exampels):

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-family/index_en.htm

It's a real shame that various embassies do not abide the Schengen Visa Code due to either incomptence or even being unwilling to execute the rules properly (costing them too much time or money?). Complaining to authorities does help: the EU Commission, SOLVIT, the ministry of foreign affairs of the particular nation you applied at, the EU delegation (" EU embassy") in Thailand etc.

[thaisail]

Sorry but my wife went to France first with a Swedish Schengen visa and there were no problems in June 2013.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[7by7]

As theoldgit and others have said, you are posting incorrect, or perhaps, to be fair, incomplete, information.

The rules are as already described; i.e.

If visiting just one Schengen country; apply to that country.

If entering the Schengen area via one country to travel through that country, and maybe others, to your main destination; apply to the country which is your main destination.

If touring two or more Schengen countries; apply to the country which you will enter first.

Once issued, a Schengen visa is valid for all Schengen states; so even if your plans change it can still be used to enter any Schengen state; regardless of which one issued it.

[7by7]

Many do just that.

But remember, unless the applicant is a qualifying family member of an EEA national and travelling with or to join that EEA national, itineraries etc. need to be supplied with the application.

Edit, but see last paragraph in this post from Donutz in another topic.

Edited March 11, 2014 by 7by7

[Donutz]

Indeed you could apply at what you perceive to be the most easiest or convieniant Schengen embassy, however:

- When applying you need to convince the authorities (embassy, and if they are unsure they forward it to the department of immigration) that your plans are genuine. As 7by7 points out you will need various documents (reservations etc.).

- If rejected you can protest: appeal will be handled via the ministry of (im)migration or whatever ministry handles visas and settlement requests. Yuo may encounter a language barrier and if if the appeal is rejected you could decide to go to court over it in said country.

- When arriving at the border might have to convince the borderguards that your travellpans are genuine. The visa does not give you a right of entry, so you can be refused entry at the border. It is adviced to kake copies of all the paperwork you supplied with the application (reservations, bankbook, insurance etc.).

- The visa could be issued with a limitation to one or a selected number of Schengen countries.

- Whichever embassy you apply at, the bare minimum requirements (such as sufficient funds [exact amount may vary from country t country though], travel Insurance, documents to show geniunce travel plans etc.) are the same, there is no embassy that hands visa out like free candy.

Good luck trying to convince the embassy and borderguards about your genuine travel plans which are not as entirely genuine (as you have other travel plans then what you want the embassy in question or borderguard to believe).

Once passed the bordercontrol you do have a lot of freedom though, so yes once you are " in" you could change tour plans/routes. Be sure to stick to the rules though (don't overstay etc.). And I suppose the more people they suspect of altering their travelplans with pre-intend the more embassies will decline visas over "travel purpose not clear enough" or "suspecting that the applicant will not return in time back home (ilelgal settlement risk etc.)" .