First County To Enter With A Schengen Visa

[thaisail]

My Thai wife has just been issued a 90 day Schengen visa by the Swedish consulate in Bangkok for to purpose of visiting her sister who is married to a Swedish man and lives in Sweden. This was done after the French consulate refused to issue my wife the Schengen visa without going through TLS visa services who they claim is the only way to get a Schengen visa for a Thai citizen in Thailand. We used a booking from a visa agency in Bangkok to show that we were flying round trip from Bangkok to Stockholm to get the Schengen visa through the Scandinavian visa office in Bangkok. We cancelled the booking and are planning instead to fly from Phuket to KL and then from KL non stop to Paris and stay there together for one month in France. I will then fly to the US to go back to work on a ship as a marine engineer and my wife will fly to Sweden to stay with her sister for two months and then fly back to Bangkok in September.

I have been told by the official representative of the Swedish consulate in Bangkok that my wife may not enter France direct from Thailand and must fly first to Sweden and then can travel to France from there. There are many people posting on this website that a person issued with a Schengen visa may enter Europe in any Schengen country in the EU before going to the country where the visa was issued as long as the majority of the stay is in the Schengen visa issuing country.

I then had my son in France call the French immigration authority in France and he was told by them that my Thai wife must travel to Sweden before entering France.

I am a dual citizen of the US and France and hold a valid passport from both countries. I gained French nationality through marriage with my first wife 15 years ago.

I have a document signed by a French judge in April this year agreeing to the 2006 US divorce from my French wife The divorce may take up to 6 months to be officially recorded in the French system which will allow then allow the French authorities in Nantes, France to issue me a new birth certificate that includes my marriage and divorce information on it and that will allow me to apply for a "Family Book" (marriage certificate) from the French consulate in Bangkok. The French birth certificate is the official document that proves that my first French wife and I are officially divorced. The French "Family Book" is the official French document that proves that my Thai wife and I are officially married in the eyes of the French government. We may have to wait another 6 months for that to happen as the French bureaucracy is very slow . So, even though I have an official Thai marriage certificate translated into French by an official French translator accepted by the French consulate in Bangkok and authenticated by the MFA in Bangkok, I still lack only a copy of my French birth certificate that is issued by Nantes in France which will show proof that I am no longer married to my former French wife. This will make it difficult for me to prove to the French immigration authorities that my French divorce is final and my Thai wife and I are legally married until I am issued the French "Family Book".

My question is this:

Can my wife be deported back to Thailand from France for flying direct to France instead of Sweden? Many people are not aware of the recent change in the law regarding entry into the EU with a Schengen visa and I have to be 100% sure that I my Thai wife will be able to enter France directly from Thailand with her Schengen visa and be allowed to stay in France for one month before going to Sweden to stay for the remaining 2 months on her Schengen visa.

I will buy a one way ticket for the three of us to fly from Phuket to Paris and a one way ticket for my Thai wife and daughter to fly from Sweden to Thailand in September so I will be able to show the French immigration the plane ticket back to Thailand which is required for her to enter the EU. My 5 year old daughter holds a US and Thai passport so will have no problem to enter the EU due to the visa wavier program.

I know that I have posted much of this information in a previous thread but now that the Schengen visa has been issued, the topic is different and hope that I will be allowed to post this a new topic.

[koo]

A Schengen Visa is a Schengen visa - it is not entry country specific.

The general rule is that you must apply for the visa from that country's embassy, where you intend to stay longest, or to which you have the most ties (friends or relatives, explained in the visa application) to. However,bthere is no mention in the rule that this country should be the first country to visit.

The rule relates to the point that the approved visa is only a preliminary permission to arrive to the Schengen area, and the final decision is made by immigration (=passport control). If suspicious behaviour is noticed, it would be very difficult for them to check the credentials of the visa if it is from another country. That is why they try to get you to enter via the issuing country.

Every flight that enters the EU have seeral passengers with connecting flights further in the union. Their passports and visas are checked at the first point of entry, without any further checks once inside the union. The passport control officer in France has no knowledge if your friend has a connecting flight to Sweden or not - nor is he/she at all interested of it unless generalvsuspicions for the purpose of the stay arise.

[andyandythai]

A Schengen Visa is a Schengen visa - it is not entry country specific.

The general rule is that you must apply for the visa from that country's embassy, where you intend to stay longest, or to which you have the most ties (friends or relatives, explained in the visa application) to. However,bthere is no mention in the rule that this country should be the first country to visit.

The rule relates to the point that the approved visa is only a preliminary permission to arrive to the Schengen area, and the final decision is made by immigration (=passport control). If suspicious behaviour is noticed, it would be very difficult for them to check the credentials of the visa if it is from another country. That is why they try to get you to enter via the issuing country.

Every flight that enters the EU have seeral passengers with connecting flights further in the union. Their passports and visas are checked at the first point of entry, without any further checks once inside the union. The passport control officer in France has no knowledge if your friend has a connecting flight to Sweden or not - nor is he/she at all interested of it unless generalvsuspicions for the purpose of the stay arise.

My wife has had 2 Schengen Visa's issued by the German Embassy. We used them to travel 3 times to Europe and not once entered Germany first, in fact twice didn't go to Germany at all.

First trip we drove through the Tunnel into France, Belgium then Germany, we used the same visa a month later and went straight to Amsterdam. The 2nd visa we flew into Spain and no questions asked at all apart from have you had a nice holiday!!

Hope my experience helps

Andy