Schengen Visas- What a pain !

The countries which come under Schengen member states

From the year 2009 to 2014 – my family and I have traveled to Europe each year. The Schengen member states require you to take a Schengen visa which allows you to travel to any of the Schengen member countries seamlessly. This is definitely a boon for a traveler as in earlier times one had to apply for visa for each country separately. There had been times when unsuspecting travelers were woken up in the middle of the night in a train and asked to pay a heavy penalty as they were passing through a country, the visa for which was not stamped on the passport.  The argument that they were not disembarking in that particular country did not work. This happened more in corrupt countries like Italy where the Police was in hand in gloves with the train conductor. The rule was that when you embarked on a train for travel to another country, it was compulsory for the passenger to deposit the passport with the conductor. The conductor would study the visas and inform the cops in the transit country. The cops would threaten imprisonment and heavy penalties and would extract a good bribe. Part of it was shared with the conductor. I know of many people who went through this torture and lost a good fortune by paying these bribes.

Recently at the Delhi Airport one Lufthansa employee was trying to act smart with us thinking we did not know the Schengen rules. Having travelled to the Schengen member countries like Italy, Greece, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, and Switzerland etc in last 5 years I do know the rules as well as anyone else. Visa is given by the country in which the time being spent is the maximum during that trip. If the time being spent is equal in terms of number of nights in two countries, then the country being visited earlier has to be applied for visa. Though the rules do say that you have to visit the country which has given you the visa, there is no way to verify this by any authority as the passport is just stamped by the country in which you land first. The immigration officers at arriving airports normally just check your return/forward tickets. They are within their rights to check if you are indeed going to the country which has issued you the visa so you should be prepared for this. But once inside Schengen area, you can move around from country to country without any further stamps on your passport. This does not mean that you can travel around without your passport. The passport is checked at many points even while you are travelling by bus or train.  

Now coming back to this fellow from Lufthansa – he wanted to know why we had visa from Czech Republic when we were going to Munich in Germany. Knowing the rules I told him that as my maximum number of days stay was in Prague, it was obligatory for me to take visa from Czech embassy. I showed him my bookings for Prague and transportation. He wanted to argue more but then I had to tell him to buzz off or else I would complain to his senior. Thankfully this sorted him out.

My way of carrying my travel document copies.

Most Schengen countries have outsourced the visa applications and processing to an organization called VFS which has its office in Nehru Place in New Delhi. They have some centers in other part of country as well.  VFS is divided into several sections depending on country you wish to apply your visa to. It is like an assembly line factory which processes your application according to certain parameters and according to the country you are visiting. The website gives a long list of documents required with the form. Some of the requirements are quite ridiculous.

A couple of years back some country had the requirement that the married couple give their marriage certificate. They asked for it even though my wife’s name was mentioned in my passport as spouse and so was hers in mine.  As we did not have a registered marriage certificate they asked us to give an affidavit with a current photograph in which we were together !

Another country’s requirement was that we must get a certificate from school that the children had taken leave from school to travel abroad. It made little difference to them when we said that all schools in Delhi are shut from 15^th May to 30^th June for summer vacations. They would not accept the application. Now a school can’t keep giving certificate to each child allowing them to travel during holidays. Luckily the school had a website and it also had a list of holidays. The embassy accepted that.

I think it was the Swiss embassy which wanted the photocopy of each passport page- even an empty page! God knows why they would want copies of empty pages or matter of fact any other page other than the first 2 and last 2. As we travel quite often, we make sure that we apply for jumbo passport booklets. A jumbo passport booklet comprises of 60 pages. Now we had to get these 240 pages photocopied to submit to the embassy. It must have all gone into a garbage bin. So much for saving paper and environment!

Travelling between countries is very simple with Eurail

There are some outrageous rules which the VFS have imposed. Many of us go to Europe to explore the continent. The world class transportation system makes travelling from one city to another or from one country to another a very simple affair. Euro Rail system combines several rail systems of several countries and ensures you have seamless travel. You have an option of buying single country pass or 2 country pass or even 3 or more country pass. The pricing is done according to days you intend to travel. Youths, groups, seniors and children are given special rates. It is fun to travel to one destination and then decide where you want to go next after looking at map and talking to people. You may feel you are travelling within one country but each European country and their culture, food and language is different. Lakhs of people got enamored by the Euro rail travel shown in ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya le jayengey’ and  took off for Europe soon after the movie was released. Many of them got a shock when they were told at the embassy that they wanted a complete itinerary along with internal train tickets and confirmed hotel bookings if they were to be given visas. I did once try to explain to VFS guy that I wanted to explore the continent so don’t actually need advance hotel bookings.  I told him that there are so many small Inns and hotels near beautiful lakes, mountains and rivers where I would  just love to spend a few days without actually planning anything in advance. He wasn’t impressed. He said that he could not give visas till the requirements are met. So we arranged for dummy hotel bookings.

The movie which made Europe travel trendy.

Normally a Schengen Visa is given for 3 months or 6 months. I don’t know what got into the Embassy of Spain in 2011 that they gave us Visa for the exact dates according to our Air tickets. They gave us visas for 17 days! I mean we would have been sunk if for some reason the flight would not have taken off on time on the day of departure from Spain. There are a lot of repercussions for overstaying in these countries. It was the same year I think when Iceland Volcano ash was delaying flights from Europe.

As if this wasn’t bad enough the immigration officer at Delhi was even funnier. Our flight was for 10^th June night and our Visa for Schengen was valid from 11^th June. He said that he could not allow us to go as the visa was valid from next day. I had to explain to him that visa was given by Spain and we would reach Spain on 11^th June as it takes many hours to get there. He wasn’t satisfied with the reply and went to check with his supervisor. Thankfully the supervisor had more sense.

Validity of 3 months is not enough.

A family Visa for Schengen costs around Rs 20,000 (USD 350.00) for our family. We have been continuously applying for it and getting it for last 5 years. Along with it we have to submit heaps and heaps of papers. By the time you complete the documents for the entire family - application forms, specified photos, hotel bookings, transport bookings, Income Tax returns, salary certificate, leave from office certificate, leave from school certificate, savings proof, bank statements, authority letter, credit card copies, proof of previous visit to Schengen, passport copies travel insurance, cash/draft etc etc. you are exhausted and fed up. On some pretext or the other VFS does ask for some documents more so the application cannot be submitted in the first attempt. By the end of all this you are fed up.  As I have been doing it continuously since last 5 years – I am more fed up than others.

USA and Canada have given us visas for 10 years after following due process. Why can’t Schengen states do the same? If a person like me has a visa in hand – I would just fly off to one of their exotic locales whenever I get an opportunity. Sometimes airlines do come up with tempting offers. This rubbish paperwork and expense involved in just applying for visas may be stopping a lot of people like me from visiting many European countries. It is said that when Indians travel abroad they spend a lot of money. By preventing us Indians from easy access to their countries these European nations are doing themselves a great disservice. No wonder they are unable to come out of recession!

              We have always had fun in Europe but visas are a big pain

Gondolos of Venice

The Windmills of Mykonos, Greece

The Caldera of Santorini

The beaches of Barcelona and not to miss the architecture of Gaudi there

The stunning Alps

The beautiful lakes of Austria

The amazing city of Prague

The Art Museums

The elegance of Eiffel Tower

Bull fighting in Madrid

The dream city of Innsbruk, Austria

Rhine Falls, Switzerland

Prague at Night

The relaxing cafes of Paris