Easier Schengen countries for Thai application?

[Enzian]

For the second time around I'm getting a visa to Italy for my Thai girlfriend. (I'm American, love Italy.) Italy is not easy in this regard and is getting tougher. Schengen countries are supposed to be all the same in their visa requirements, but that is not the case in practice. There are other European countries I would like to take her to though, and she could start in one country, like Spain, and easily go to France, for example.

I'm looking for anecdotal stories about European countries for which it is relatively easy for a Thai visa application to succeed. Anyone? Thanks in advance.

[Jip99]

Last year Italy was a nightmare and I had been warned about Spain this year.Spain no longer use Vfs and I have not heard any reports of the new process.Friends are making an appointment for February so it will be interesting to see how they get on.

 

 

I arranged this year's Schengen through the Netherlands embassy; very quick/easy although Vfs were very thorough in interrogating the travel itinerary including asking how we were traveling from Bruges to Amsterdam - and also that my itinerary showed 1 day in Spain (where I am really going) than Holland. I quickly re-drafted the itinerary and emailed it to them......

[Donutz]

Creating a travel plan based on which embassy is more friendly isn't exactly how one is supposed to apply for a Schengen visa. You make a plan and apply at the relevant embassy: the Scbengen memberstate where you will spent the most time (mail goal of the trip), and if there is no such thing one applies at the country of first entry. 

 

Now sure enough the Dutch, Germans and some others are known to be more relaxed (though do not mistake that with them being easy, the simply apply the rules more properly while for example Spain is known for making up rules to which few people protest and thus put up with for various reasons ranging from not knowing any better to not wishing to spent or waste energy argeuing with the staff). 

 

Note that many embassies use service providers such as VFS Global. Those are 100% optional, and an embassy is obligated to inform applicants about direct access (by appoinment) to the embassy. Those service providers are just paperpushers anyway with no real say in any step of the process. They may assist in checking if you got all your papers in order but cannot for instance refuse to forward the application or insist on adding or removing part of your application. If you experience a staffer of such a service provider acting authorian they are overstepping their bounds. I'd only use them if it's convinient to do so (easier to travel to). 

[malct]

I have just spent a few hours on looking at the Spanish Embassy website on gaining a  schengen visa for a summer holiday, but no information at all, so not sure how to go about it. I have had issues with the Edinburgh Spanish consulate when they told me that my thai wife could not have can visa having just spent money on booking a holiday, but thanks to Thai visa, I was given good advice and the visa was issued.

 

At the moment, it's looking like Antalya in Turkey, but I want my wife to experience other places in Europe, so any advice on obtaining schengen visa,s for Greece, Portugal would be great.

 

Malc

[Jip99]

On 4/2/2560 at 1:31 PM, Donutz said:

Creating a travel plan based on which embassy is more friendly isn't exactly how one is supposed to apply for a Schengen visa. You make a plan and apply at the relevant embassy: the Scbengen memberstate where you will spent the most time (mail goal of the trip), and if there is no such thing one applies at the country of first entry. 

 

Now sure enough the Dutch, Germans and some others are known to be more relaxed (though do not mistake that with them being easy, the simply apply the rules more properly while for example Spain is known for making up rules to which few people protest and thus put up with for various reasons ranging from not knowing any better to not wishing to spent or waste energy argeuing with the staff). 

 

Note that many embassies use service providers such as VFS Global. Those are 100% optional, and an embassy is obligated to inform applicants about direct access (by appoinment) to the embassy. Those service providers are just paperpushers anyway with no real say in any step of the process. They may assist in checking if you got all your papers in order but cannot for instance refuse to forward the application or insist on adding or removing part of your application. If you experience a staffer of such a service provider acting authorian they are overstepping their bounds. I'd only use them if it's convinient to do so (easier to travel to). 

 

 

I think everyone agrees that the Schengen visa is a uniform visa and equal treatment should be received from each embassy - or it's agents.

 

Let's get one thing straight - IT IS NOT.

 

The Spanish situation is well known and I am not aware that it has improved since they replaced VfS - perhaps others have VERY recent experience. Italy was a shambles last year for me.

 

Netherlands was very straight-forward in quickly issuing a visa against my fictional itinerary. VfS were even helpful in allowing us to change the itinerary as I had miscalculated the days in Spain (and had 1 more there than Holland - I had intended the reverse).

 

I don't care what the book says about it, the fact is that you CANNOT apply directly to all embassies and you WILL NOT get uniformity of treatment at each embassy/agent.

 

The fact that such inconsistencies create the wrong behaviour is not the fault of the applicant.

 

 

[Donutz]

I agree with you for the most part, except that in my experience all embassies eventually give direct access.  I made various (fake) appointments and though some such as Spain refused at first quickly acknowled there illegal/wrong acts after slapping them around with legislation in 2 or 3 e-mails. Polite persistance paid off 100% of the time after which I'd explain that it was a test and forwarded the results to EU Home Affairs and the EU Representation in Thailand, which eventually led to all Schengen members in TH having instructions on direct access publically states on the websitw. Sometimes more prominent, sometimes less prominent and less clear (in hopes of keeping direct application numbers low).

 

Embassies have more than 1 staff member and staff rotates and some applicants may be better at arguing than others or more persistant so results may still vary from time to time and person to person. You may indeee have ran into a brick wall, but that only highlights the importance of people to remain aware of such bad behaviour by some embassy staff and to keep on forwarding such cases to the EU. Without complaints nothing will change or services may deteriorate once again.

 

Or if you hate headaches, vote with your feet and chose a more friendly destination to spent your time and money such as that lovely country we know as the Netherlands.