How early can my wife apply for spouse schengen visa?

[mattk1]

Hi guys,

I have searched google and the forum itself but couldn't find anything official, not even on the VFS website (apologies if it's staring me in the face somewhere)

One website stated 3 months in advance and another said 3-4 weeks in advance, can anyone confirm either of those?

It will be a EU spouse Schengen visa and we will be heading to Spain in April 2016, trying to plan ahead as there is a lot to sort out

Thanks guys

[theoldgit]

What it means is that you cannot apply more than three months ahead of the intended date of travel but at least 3-4 weeks ahead.

Don't forget that you can bypass VFS and if you're an EU National the visa should be issued free of charge.

[mattk1]

Excellent, thanks theoldgit, that's exactly what I wanted to hear

I will be bypassing VFS and making an appointment and heading straight to the Spanish embassy by appointment

[shaurene]

Hi. I did it all early this year. Google Visa Spain. We did not need to go to the Spain Embassey.

Things you need to take.

1: marriage cert.

2: bank statements and bank certificate to show you have enough funds to cover your stay.

3: accomodation booking to cover your stay from the 1st day to the last day.

4: flight bookings direct to Spain.

5: passports.

You can email the visa office they are very helpfull will tell you all things. The website will also tell you what you have to show.

It took around 2 weeks to get my wife passport back, stamped.

You can go onto www.booking.com to book your accomodation, you do not have to pay, you will pay direct to the hotel on your stay. You can cancel this later if you need with no cancel fee.

At the visa office there is a travel agent on the floor below who do a flight booking for you you do not pay for the flight they just charge you 2,000bt for the service.

You can apply 3 months before you intend to go. Hope it helps. Contact me though ThaiVisa if you need to ask me anything.

Ken

SHAURENE.

[Geordie59]

I'm British and moved to the UK with my Asian family a few years ago. The problem we came up against when we wanted to make trips to S Ireland and Spain was that we had to have confirmed flight tickets issued before making the visa application. With my work situation it was impossible to confirm dates more than 2 weeks ahead of time and it also involved a trip to Edinburgh to apply for the visa (in the case of Spain).

We ended up waiting several years until she got UK citizenship before making the trips.

[theoldgit]

Hi. I did it all early this year. Google Visa Spain. We did not need to go to the Spain Embassey.

Things you need to take.

1: marriage cert.

2: bank statements and bank certificate to show you have enough funds to cover your stay.

3: accomodation booking to cover your stay from the 1st day to the last day.

4: flight bookings direct to Spain.

5: passports.

You can email the visa office they are very helpfull will tell you all things. The website will also tell you what you have to show.

It took around 2 weeks to get my wife passport back, stamped.

You can go onto www.booking.com to book your accomodation, you do not have to pay, you will pay direct to the hotel on your stay. You can cancel this later if you need with no cancel fee.

At the visa office there is a travel agent on the floor below who do a flight booking for you you do not pay for the flight they just charge you 2,000bt for the service.

You can apply 3 months before you intend to go. Hope it helps. Contact me though ThaiVisa if you need to ask me anything.

Ken

SHAURENE.

Spouses of EU Citizens do not need to provide details of financial means, accommodation or flights in and out of the Schengen Area, this is made clear on the Spanish VFS Website.

[GoodThaiGirl]

spouse of eu citizen only has to show his/her passport a marriage cert showing its up to date confirmation by the ministry in bangkok..a letter by the eu citizen stating that he/she wishes to travel to x country within the eu zone with non eea spouse 2004/38.eu/ i think is the code you quote about your rights to travel..correct me if im wrong ..

[Donutz]

That's correct, it's directive 2004/38/EC but if an embassy has clear and proper instructions for Thai that are family members of an EU/EEA national that travel to an other EU/EEA national there should be no need to know the directive.

Sadly not all embassies provide clear or proper instructions (asking for financial records, tickets, bookings etc. while they should not), providing a marital certificate (possibly notorized by the Thai ministry of foreign affairs and translated), providing (copy of) Thai and EU pasports and a written letter explaining that the Thai family member joins him/her should be enough. Plus ofcourse filling out the Schengen application form (skipping questions with an *) and pasport photo's for the visa sticker.

Edited June 15, 2015 by Donutz

[mattk1]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the replies, great to discuss this topic in depth should anyone in the future wish to read through :-)

For some reason I can't access the Spain VFS Bangkok website where I wanted to take a screenshot and show below, but yes there are a lot less documents to show during the application such as theoldgit pointed out above for EU spouses.

I'll do the screen shot when I can access the site.

The same website also does clearly state that the application can be made at the Spanish embassy itself but an appointment must be made beforehand. This would save me the fee that VFS take, however I have read on another thread that the Spanish embassy were not helpful in arranging an appointment and pushed the applicant towards the VFS offices.

Bad that they did that but I will try regardless. Thing is I'm not going to be applying until January as that will be three months before we go - just trying to get fully up to speed with the whole process :-)

Cheers guys :-)

Edited June 15, 2015 by mattk1

[cptruff]

Sorry if I'm hijacking this topic.

My wife and I are planning on going to Spain in October 2015 and we are currently in the UK.

At the time we apply for the Shengen visa my should be on her first FLR (hopefully). As I have understood it, my wife will have to go the Spanish embassy in London and provide accommodation info and return ticket.

Anyone had experience with applying for Shengen from the UK?

[Donutz]

All the answers should be in this very topic plus the stick thread:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/724180-schengen-visa-faq-when-applying-from-thailand/

Get an appointment (free if mail the embassy for an application at the embassy, a service fee if you use VFS) which must be given within 2 weeks, apply (they should NOT be asking for return tickets or accomodation) and the application should take no more then 15 calendar days, probably less then a week.

If you search the forum though you will see that the Spanish have (had) a habbit of pushing people to VFS (costing you a service fee ontop of the free visa) or asking accomodation etc. while they should not. If you know the rules (see sticky, especially the second post) however you should be able to challenge them incase you face a silly employee. Or see the previous Spain topics.