Thai wife to visit Belgium for wedding, how to get visa?

[ChaangNoi]

Hi, My Thai wife would like to go with me (American) to visit Belgium for my sisters wedding. She will be marrying a guy from Belgium who lives and works in the USA. My wife has a green card for the USA and can show she has property in Thailand.

Anyway how would one go about getting this visa and what type of visa should she try to get? Tourist or visiting family? Also we would like to visit a couple of close by nations like Holland or Germany just becasue we will more or less be there. Is there an EU visa?

Sorry for my ignorance but as an American who has visa free entry I have no idea where to even start.

Thank you.

[lazygourmet]

Have a look here:

Visa for Belgium

[theoldgit]

Your wife will need a Schengen Visa, that will allow her to visit Belgium and neighbouring countries in the common Schengen Area, such as the Netherlands and Germany, but not the UK.

She should apply at the Consulate that represents the Schengen Area country where she intends to spend the longest time, if you are touring and spending an equal amount of time in a number of countries, then she should apply at the Consulate that represents the country where she enters Schengen.

Assuming she will apply at the Belgian Consulate, the details are here http://www.vfsglobal.com/belgium/thailand/

A regular tourist visa should suffice, she will need to produce evidence of funds, details of accommodation, insurance valid throughout her stay and evidence of flights out of Schengen at the conclusion of her visit. Having an American Green card she shouldn't encounter any problems though she will still need to produce the evidence outlined.

There is a very useful pinned topic on the subject of Schengen Visas http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/724180-schengen-visa-faq-when-applying-from-thailand/ it contains everything you need to know, in all honesty probably more than you need in your circumstances.

[ChaangNoi]

She will need to get her flights before she can get the visa?

Also thanks for all the information, this is very helpful.

[theoldgit]

She will need to get her flights before she can get the visa?

In theory no, though whilst it's in the list of required documents, somewhere in the website they probably advise against purchasing a non-refundable ticket before a visa has been issued.

To be honest, we've always purchased flights, but there's always a chance we could have a problem.

The list of required documents for a Tourist Visa is here, there are slightly more for those visiting family.

1. National passport with validity of at least 3 months after the end of the planned journey (+ 1 copy of the identity page).

2. Completed and signed application form

3. 2 recent photographs (5x3cm) with white background.

4. Full detailed itinerary

5. Hotel reservation for the total duration of the stay in Belgium and in other countries in Schengen (+1 copy)

6. Letter of employer or school, stating the number of vacation days he/she can take or an inscription in the commerce register or as a partner in a company

7. Proof of sufficient personal financial means with bankbook or bank statement (+ 1 copy).

8. Travel insurance coverage minimum 30.000 Euro or equivalent amount in Baht (+ 1 copy), issued by recognized insurance company (list available here)

9. Confirmed ticket reservation (+ 1 copy).

[ChaangNoi]

Yeah, I would like to get the visa before getting the hotels and air flights. Also my wife does not have a job or go to school.

How much money should she show? 10,000 Euro or so? The money we will be be using will be from my account. I can show that as well?

Honestly we are meeting a bunch of family and friends over there and we really do not know what hotels and what not we will be staying at. Also we are not even sure what country (other than Belgium). Should we just make something up and adjust our plans once we are there? We are going for like 2 weeks for a wedding so I would hope it would not be too crazy. That being said getting my wife a green card for the USA was insane so there is that.

Anyway thanks for your help, we will get this sorted out one way or the other!

[7by7]

Show a reasonable amount of money depending on your plans; obviously if staying with family or friends then you will need less than if staying in hotels. But if you say you will be staying with family or friends then you should include a letter of invitation from them in the application.

The money can come from your account; but I suggest a letter from you to confirm she is your wife and you are paying for the trip.

As theoldgit says above; regardless of who issues it, a Schengen visa is valid for all Schengen states. So if you apply to Belgium and whilst there decide to hop over to another Schengen state(s), no problem.

[theoldgit]

The Belgian authorities actually set a figure as to the minimum amount you must have available to live there whilst on a visit, it's €95, about $107, per day if your staying in a hotel or €45 if you're staying with friends or family, I suspect you might struggle to survive on that.

We normally just provide recent bank statements to prove we have sufficient funds available.

[Donutz]

The financial means that one has to show are different for each Schengen country:

Belgium:

- 95 euro's per day per person if staying in hotels etc. (45 euro's if staying at private accommodation such as friends).

Netherlands:

- 34 euro's per day per person.

Germany:

- 45 euro's per day per person.

France:

- Atleast the French minimal daily wage (about 56 euro's?).

So If you can show about 100 euro's * 2 people * amount of stay of 2 weeks = 100 * 2 * 14 = 2800 euro's = 3.146 USD you should be fine. I have no clue on how strict the Belgians are about making it evident that the visa holder has access to the money. You would expect that it is logical that the spouse also has access to the account (debet or creditcard) but in theory one could ofcourse have no access to the account if it's only in name of the other spouse... A real picky embassy could argue that it's not guaranteed that the applicant has access but that would be very harsh (and silly, one could have full access to sufficient money while applying and spend all the money shortly after... though at the border they may check again if one has sufficient funds for the duration of the trip).

If you are not sure yet where you will go I'd just stick to a simple itinerary that shows that you will stay in Belgium. If you already have plans for a stay in NL for instance, include those but plans can change and is perfectly fine if you didn't planned the alternative to begin with (read: people applying for a stay in say Belgium but never really had sincere plans to go there but to an other country such as Austria in stead).

[7by7]

Show a reasonable amount of money depending on your plans

The Belgian authorities actually set a figure as to the minimum amount you must have available to live there whilst on a visit, it's €95, about $107, per day if your staying in a hotel or €45 if you're staying with friends or family

The financial means that one has to show are different for each Schengen country:

Belgium:

- 95 euro's per day per person if staying in hotels etc. (45 euro's if staying at private accommodation such as friends).

Thanks for the correction, guys, and apols for my mistake.

[ChaangNoi]

Okay thanks, we can show 10k Euro each with no effort. Had to show a bit more to get her to live in the USA.

[ChaangNoi]

I'm having a hard time finding a place to buy the correct travel insurance, is there a list somewhere I am missing?

Thanks

[Donutz]

Amy western company that offers Schengen insurance should do, alternatively you can use a Thai insurance company from a selected list of companies which should be available somewhere on the website of the embassy or the optional external partner (VFS).

Edit: Approved Thai companies, see one of the PDFs here:

http://countries.diplomatie.belgium.be/en/thailand/travel_belgium/visa_belgium/useful_addresses_and_documents/

Easiest might be to get insurance for your spouse (and you, unless you yourself ready have good global insurance or prefer to travel ill insured?) via a US based company (if you live in the US)? Axa operates in most of the EU, don't know if they also operate in the US.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Donutz