ashy

Hi Friends,

We are Indian citizens living in San Francisco with Greencards planning to travel to Spain for a vacation for 10 days in late June-early July. The problem is that the spanish consulate does not have Visa appointments till July. My question is, can I get a schengen Visa from Swiss/French or other Schngen visa consulate in San Francisco even though I am not going to enter their country.

Someone told me that I could show air/hotel reservations for Zurich/Geneva etc and then change my plans to go to Spain once I get the Visa. Will Spain or Swiss embassy care about this "accidental" change of plans at the port of entry or later?

Is there any kind of risk? I know that the rules states that one has to get the schengen Visa from the consulate of the country where you are going to stay the majority of the trip.

Thanks in advance for your help.

ajax

Hi ashy and welcome to FT,

In theory, you are expected to get the Schengen visa from the country in which you will be spending the majority of your time. In my experience, if your plans should change it shouldn't matter too much. After all, the country through which you enter the Schengen Zone might be different from the one which granted you the Schengen visa for all sorts of reasons. As long as you can prove that you have an itinerary (hotel and travel bookings help tremendously) and that you have an onward ticket (i.e., that you are not going to overstay your visa and end up working illegally), you should be just fine.

Aviatrix

You can legally enter Spain on a Schengen visa issued by another country such as Switzerland, as Ajax rightly pointed out.

However, in order to persuade the Swiss to issue that visa you need a convincing plan. Hotel reservations are all very well, but you are likely to get asked questions such as "What are you planning to do while you are in Switzerland?" - so what you should do is sit down and plan a trip to Switzerland as if you were really going there.

The other option would be to fly to Spain via another country, preferably with a stop-over of a day or more, and get your visa from that other country. I can't remember the precise wording, but I understand that you are supposed to get your visa either from your main destination, or from your first point of entry if you are visiting several countries. If you are planning on spending one day in Switzerland and five days in Spain then technically you should still be applying to the Spanish embassy as your main destination, but I can't somehow see the Swiss embassy turning you down, especially if you explain that the Spanish embassy didn't have any appointments available.

swapniljain

As per the regulation, you should acquired a schengen visa from the port of entry to the schengen states or from the country where the majority of your stay would be spent. In case you request for another visa from the swiss authorities in the future and they establish about you taking a swiss schengen but not using it, you could be denied any future visas from Swiss embassy

ajax

This is the theory. IME in practice, the issuing countries do very little checking up - how can they? It's not like they ask to see your hotel receipts from your last trip when you submit the application for your next visa.

gottaluvNW

Get your Schengen visa from ANY country that will process your paperwork in time for you to travel. At the port of entry of the country you land up going to - IF they ask (they rarely ever do) as to why you got the visa for the other country, just mention that your travel plans will take you there shortly (by rental car - or by flights that you will book shortly on easyJet / RyanAir) and you were advised that you should get the visa issued by the country where you will be spending the most amount of time - not necessarily get the visa issued from the country which is your first port of entry.

There is always a 0.000001% chance there can be a problem but I have never heard of such an instance (and I know plenty of people who use this strategy to get a visa issued quickly, all the time.)

Karush Jaggi

Hi Guys,

I'm in the same situation but successfully got a germany schengen visa today (my first schengen). My plan is to actually go visit my girlfriend in Romania but Romania visa is a pain in the a** - go from Miami to DC first, then extra documentation from my girlfriend and just a lot of hassle. So I got the first appointment with German embassy in Miami and applied for a 2 entry visa (minimum if you want to go to RO). I got all the documents they asked for and bogus itenerary was MIA-BERLIN-RO-MIA. With 60% of time in Berlin and a cancellable hotel reservation.

Actual plan is MIA-RO-MIA. What i need to see is if i can get the multiple entry visa next time from German consul.

But until then - i think I am ok

Cheers

Giggleswick

But Romania is not in the Schengen zone.

Ldnn1

Correct.

Either OP has made a massive balls-up, or he knows something we don't..?

Edit: Ah, he does. From the Romania tourism website:

gametitans

I visit romania 7 to 8 times every year with a schengen visa and i never had an issue. In fact on my last trip 3 weeks ago my first entry was into romania and i had an italian visa just issued . You wont have any problems. Out of the 200 or so trips I have taken I have never been asked any question.

GUWonder

Speaking of using BUH as a port of entry/exit into Romania, Romanian passport control mainly seem to just look closely at the passport but not make a fuss in such situations. In comparison, WAW is more likely to give the OP a hassle if using WAW as a port of entry/exit than BUH is when having valid docs for entry into Romania.

Arctifox

Actually Karush Jaggi has an interesting case. Obviously, if Romania was part of Schengen, he would not keep to the rule (according to which he has to get the visa for the Schengen country his trip is mainly about). But as he is not abusing his visa for Schengen country A to go to Schengen country B, I wonder if this might have any consequences for future applications for a German visa. If he applies for another German visa in the future they can obviously see that he had a visa but never used it for entering a Schengen country, but how will his stay in Romania be considered?