[ach1lles]

Originally Posted by navrddy

I somehow, got appointment for Schengen VISA entry port - Germany.
Submitted all docs, My scheduled travel was yesterday, still haven't received VISA.

Hey. Sorry about that.
How did you get the appointment? What was the delta between document submission and date of travel?

Originally Posted by manishk123

So I noticed you want to go to Netherland but you are trying for the visa at different European countries.

The rules are clear: visa from first port of entry, unless there's another state where you will be staying for longest. Since we will be travelling as tourists post conference, we could modify our travel plan to spend most days in the country we got the appointment from. Reverse engineering

Originally Posted by Turbanator

No, usually almost all Schengen Visas are given strictly date to date as mentioned in your Air-Ticket. Not even a day more

Usually, but I know people who've received a year and even five year visa in their first application itself. I got a six month multiple entry visa in 2019. I believe that's what they're issuing now.

I think all subsequent visas after the first for the same passport for the same region can be electronic. That would streamline a lot. But they do have a reason and precedent for being strict. Many people have exploited the system.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

I know people who've received a year and even five year visa in their first application itself. I got a six month multiple entry visa in 2019. I believe that's what they're issuing now.

Was it from Germany or some other member state? For some reason, they have always given me Date specific only despite multiple visits and 10 Year valid visas for US & Canada. I have always done it via Germany due to the nature of my visits except for Italy once two decades ago. But, I have not applied for this since 2019 so things may have changed. As I mentioned, there is a proposal to convert everything to E-Visa. If the fingerprints and pictures are taken at VFS, what stops them from using E-visa is something I don't understand.

[ach1lles]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Was it from Germany or some other member state? For some reason, they have always given me Date specific only despite multiple visits and 10 Year valid visas for US & Canada.

Switzerland. Germany and France issued date to date visas previously. The last time I did not even submit flight tickets. Just indicative itinerary and financial statements.

I have always done it via Germany due to the nature of my visits

Have these been work visits?

[carthick1000]

If your final destination is NL, you should only apply Visa to NL embassy. Because your primary reason to come into EU is the seminar and I hope you have all your supporting documents (invitation letter etc.) focussed on attending this seminar. So trying to apply to other Embassies IMO is a waste of time and money.

Visa is issued by country of final destination rather than port of Entry AFAIK. For VFS, I think your best bet is to try Chennai as my sis-in-law recently got an appointment there.But it has to be alteast 3 weeks in advance you plan for the appointment to get an appointment in VFS. Given your travel timeline, you are already too late to wait for the normal appointment process. So Walk-in is the best (if they even allow it).

Rough timeline advise for anyone travelling to NL with visitor/short stay/Schengen would be:

Travel date: T

Visa appointment at VFS: T minus 5~6weeks

Making appointment at VFS: T minus 2 months

If you missed the above timelines, the post COVID world of EU entry is not very forgiving, unless you have very high level connections/Lucky.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by TheOperator

On the first page when you select a VFS centre and visa type, it does show earliest avaipable appointment date.

Sorry, I think I'm being blind but where do you see this? If I click "Book Now", I get taken to a gov.uk page. Are you signing in to see this? I don't have the reference number yet so perhaps that's why

[TheOperator]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Sorry, I think I'm being blind but where do you see this? If I click "Book Now", I get taken to a gov.uk page. Are you signing in to see this? I don't have the reference number yet so perhaps that's why

Yes you need to sign in and then go for appointment. On the very first page you have to select the VFS appointment centre and visa type and it will show you the earliest appointment date for that centre.

[ransomware]

Originally Posted by ransomware

Hey @ach1lles,

Coincidentally I am also travelling to Netherlands same time as you😉. Hopefully I will be able to go to VFS Mumbai on Tuesday 10th May if my employer manages to arrange few documents in time. I can check for you at VFS center if they are allowing walk-ins. Will let you know.

Hey @ach1lles,

I visited VFS Mumbai today, I enquired about the walk-in. VFS people told that walk-ins are strictly not entertained even if we offer to buy their premium services.
I asked the guy who was present from my travel agency, he said he can arrange for an appointment through Switzerland as the visiting country, DM me if you are open to that and I will share his contact details.

Lastly, there is a long queue outside the center even if you have a confirmed appointment so please plan accordingly Fortunately, I applied through Orange Carpet category so I was in and out within 1.5 hour.

[harmanjeet14]

Did you check VFS’s doorstep service?

You may get an appointment earlier. For Delhi it costs around 11k. If you are in a city which doesn’t has a VFS centre, you need to pay the agent stay expenses as well.

Appointment situation is really bad. I need to travel as a tourist in August. My primary stay was planned as Germany, but no appointments are available before July end.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by TheOperator

Yes you need to sign in and then go for appointment. On the very first page you have to select the VFS appointment centre and visa type and it will show you the earliest appointment date for that centre.

Thanks - I haven't started my application yet due to a document that's needed so can't see this. If it isn't too much trouble, would you be able to look at the earliest available appointments in Bangalore/Chennai so I have a rough idea of the wait time? Thank you so much!

[TheOperator]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Thanks - I haven't started my application yet due to a document that's needed so can't see this. If it isn't too much trouble, would you be able to look at the earliest available appointments in Bangalore/Chennai so I have a rough idea of the wait time? Thank you so much!

I see that different login is needed for each country and since I applied for Netherlands, it does not allow me to login for UK website.
But for creating an appointment in VFS, you don't need any documents as such. I would suggest login and book an appointment and keep working for arranging all the documents in parallel.

[ach1lles]

Because this is a rollercoaster.
Either this trip of mine is jinxed, or the times are being unusually difficult.
So here's what happened.

We made our way to VFS Delhi on May 10 and it was a bazaar. (We actually also went on May 6, Friday, but got car trouble on the way and had to turn back. A separate post on this coming up in my Tucson thread (Hyundai Tucson 2.0L CRDi GLS - Thunder Black Boom Shankar)). There was a long enough queue to estimate a two hour entry wait even for people with appointments. But we had something better. We had fellow bhp-ian @akshaymahajan's post on team-bhp telling us that walk-ins were happening. By god were going to bludgeon down that wall. (Narrator's voice: they did not bludgeon down that wall).

So we walked in at around 1000 and told them we needed an appointment, that the websites weren't working, and that we didn't have enough time to wait about. We were there to get stuff done, dammit!

And we were politely, but firmly told that nothing could be done. That the Bangalore place has the consulate, and this place has the embassy, or vice versa, or some other such official-speak, and so walk-ins were not, have not, and will not be entertained at VFS Delhi. No sir.

We asked if we could speak to someone incharge. Someone responsible. And they turned us over to this gentleman. We'll call him Mr. A.

Mr. A said that the situation wasn't great, and that embassies, VFS and every other thing in the Schengen VISA chain was overloaded and overstressed and that we should just accept the situation.

We explained to him of our conference, that this wasn't just a vacation, and we'd appreciate if we could get an appointment for any Schengen state. That we'd modify our travel plans accordingly. That we were from out of town and had driven about 4 hours to get there.
This seemed to light a.. er.. light and he gave in a bit, and said that he could accelerate our appointment in France or Switzerland. But we needed to get an appointment first. It could be of any date down the line. "Go for France", he said.

Seeing a way out, we went back out to try and secure an appointment.
For France, you've got to fill the visa application form on the French visa website and get a reference number that you've got to include in the appointment booking page on VFS.
We did everything but just couldn't get the VFS website to co-operate. Armed with a few screenshots of failures, we went back and ran into Mr. A again. He said to keep trying, that it will go through, and that nothing could be done without the appointment. By this time it was about 1800, and there was no point in sticking about. He asked us to email him the appointment confirmation and he'd see what he could do.

It had been a long, tiring, and intensely hot day.

Reaching our temporary local accommodation, on a whim, I thought to download Chrome on my computer and try again. I had this nagging feeling that some or the other content blocker or extension on Safari was messing with the VFS website and breaking it more that it already was.

After sputtering a few times, Chrome came through and we secured an appointment for 10th or so of June, which I promptly forwarded to Mr. A and asked him if he could secure a real appointment for the next day, May 11.

I was hopeful, but it seemed unlikely. Anyway, for the French application, the travel plans, bookings, notes, etc. had to be reworked. So we did.
But the same night at about midnight, something came up and we had to make our way back to 4 hours away from Delhi, our residence.

And wouldn't you know it, the 8AM email from Mr. A confirmed the appointment for 1100 the same day, May 11. OMG. And LOL. And sob. Cry because I saw the email late, and we couldn't leave town for a couple of days.

But never mind.

Mr. A had come through, and we'd go back on May 13, Friday, and he'd get us in. And that'd be that. (Narrator's voice: that wasn't that).

On Friday the 13th, Mr. A told us that then the French system wasn't allowing a line cut, that we should make an appointment for Switzerland. That we had a few hours, and we could get back to him anytime before 5PM with a Swiss visa appointment and all documents.

If there was a soft enough wall where I could bash my head in...

Okay. So back to VFS. Back to shuffling documents. Back to trying for appointments. Back to website failures. but through some miracle, we did get an appointment and I shuffled our plans and bookings and everything else again to make it Swiss-worthy.

And so we got in, got all the print-outs, and submitted the documents. You'd be right at assuming now that the ordeal was over, and that the thing was done. LOL.

Just as the counter person was pinning all our documents in their colour coded file, she tells us that my partner's passport, a passport that hasn't seen much use since its inception, of a partner that's extremely careful at even keeping leftover slices of chewing-gum, her passport was damaged. Hail Mary and Joseph.

Well, it was a bit. but barely.

We had two choices: to withdraw, get a new passport, get a fresh appointment, and apply again. Or, to take our chance, submit the passport as it was, see if they reject it, then get a new passport, and apply again. It the second case, we wouldn't have to wait for and get a fresh appointment. Seemed like the lesser of two evils.

So after all this, after three trips, four rejigs, multiple emails, website curses and countless forms filled and bookings rehashed, we have about a 50% probability of having our application thrown out due to a damaged passport.

As my mom often says, "majaal hai koi kaam ek baar mein theek se ho jaaye"

[vnabhi]

Guys, I need your inputs. My wife and I are planning to visit our son in Malta and his wife in Munich around end of August for a couple of months. Apparently Malta has still not opened up tourist visas and is now only focussing on work visas. Therefore we are planning to visit our daughter-in-law in Germany first, and fly to Malta from there.

I checked VFS Global for a Hyderabad appointment, and the earliest one is at the end of June. My question is whether i can book the appointment first and then focus on filling the visa application form and gather all documents needed, like bank statements, dummy flight tickets, residence proof of my DIL, etc.

Or is it a fact that I first need to fill the application forms and only then I can book an appointment?

Your inputs will be of immense help. Thanks in advance.

[Amrik Singh]

Filling the Application is in steps. You have to ..
1. Fill the Application.
2. Submit (successfully)
3. Pay Fees
4. Seek Appointment.
Unless you clear one stage, you will not be able to attempt next stage.

[ach1lles]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

My question is whether i can book the appointment first and then focus on filling the visa application form and gather all documents needed, like bank statements, dummy flight tickets, residence proof of my DIL, etc.

For some countries, you can fix the appointment without filling the application form, like Swiss and NL. For some, like France, they need a reference number for the appointment which you get after you’ve filled the form.
Check vfsglobal.com, everything is explained quite well.

All the other documents can be gathered at the time of actual appointment.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Mr. A said that the situation wasn't great, and he gave in a bit, and said that he could accelerate our appointment in France or Switzerland.

Does this mean that we can apply to France or Switzerland even if we have to go to a different country? Perhaps booking tickets via the respective airlines or they are ok in issuing for any other member state?