Thanks. I'm going to book refundable tickets on Eurostar. Costs 550 GBP per person!

I will 99.99% modify my travel plans after getting the visa so booking fully refundable tickets is key. At the same time, I don't want to get dinged for visa shopping. But I guess they only care about the most egregious violators who don't go to the country from which they got the Schengen.

Most of them will give you schenghen in 1-3 days. But most of them have always given me for limited dates.

I hear that some circumstances/ consulates you can get 10 year schenghen (used to get before? ) for business / tour?

Ten years? No chance. It doesn't even exist. Hell, even the full residence permits have shorter validity now!

You can get two-year circulation visas (maybe even three now) but that is usually for work only, and that too with a letter from an European company / institution and after having travelled to the same place often.

These aren't typically given to folks visiting Europe as tourists.

Max validity of Schengen visas is 5 years and that too is restricted only to countries with treaty agreements for this (eg. Russia).

For Indians, 2 years is the current maximum permitted. I've received 2 year Schengen visas consecutively from the Dutch, French, Germans and Dutch again in various parts of the world over the last few years.

Never had to show any invitation from a European partner (just a covering letter from myself), but I have over 200 visits to 18 different Schengen countries during this period so I guess I'm considered low risk as a result.

My stepfather got a multiple entry schengen visa from the Germans for free (since he was married to a German) with a max limitation of 90 day stay each time. It was also limited to two years. Indians won't get anything longer than that from the Germans.

The reason the Germans are so restrictive (in general) is that there has been massive abuse in the past and Germany seems to be the 'it' place for fake asylum seekers to head to. There is a large Punjabi community here (west and east ) who threw their passports away and claimed to be Khalistanis in the 80s to get asylum. The laws have been tightened since, but the fear of consular officers remains.

Also there were a few visa scandals in Ukraine and other eastern european German consular officers looking away when issuing visas for people who eventually stayed on in the EU.

So if you can, apply for a Benelux or French visa.

Yep, evidence of travel / need to travel is what they seem to weigh more based on friends' experiences.

I have a residence permit, so I haven't actually ever applied for one myself!

If there was some consistency in getting a 2 yr visa that would be great. Over the years I've diverted a lot of my tourist dollars to other countries owing to the difficulties of getting a Schengen visa (as compared to other visas). Suffice to say that if they consistently issued me a 2 yr visa, I'd be buying a lot more of the East Coast to Europe fares that consistently pop up on FT.

I've never received a 2yr Schengen visa though I have had a 1.5 yr residence permit. I've only applied for a Schengen once after that at the Swiss consulate in SF and they were willing to issue a one year visa (I think my residence permit played a big role) but my I-20 expired before the end of the year so they had to cut it short. Let's hope I can get a long visa based on the residence permit.

What residence permit are you talking about? If you mean a student visa in America, then don't expect that to count for very much.

You're likely being denied a longer-validity visa not because they think you're going to disappear in the Alps. It's almost certainly because they don't see (or you've been unable to show) a need for it.

That said, I have a friend who applied for a visa from the French to attend the Paris Air Show a few years ago to order some planes from Airbus. He was denied, despite a whole host of paperwork and invitations from EADS.

Reason? "You must provide company registration and bank statement of inviting company".

A few phonecalls at consular level later the visa was quickly issued, but it does show how bureaucracy can sometimes go a bit crazy.

I can top that. Argentinian visa clerk (well, semi educated delhiwala working for the argentinian embassy) telling me that he doesn't recognize the UN. Some argentinian govt calls to the consul later the visa was issued very quickly indeed.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/15649458-post31.html

My cousin works for the The Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics as a theoretical physicist (thing Sheldon of the Bing Bang Theory) Professor and last year was invited by the Max Plank Institute in Muinich to come give a lecture. Because of the close ties to the Department of Atomic Energy his visa was denied just a day before the planned departure, after which he contacted the MPI to ask for help. One fax later the German consulate calls him up and ask why he didn't apply that way from the beginning and they would issue a free visa on the spot if he would come to the consulate immediately

Hahah!

More than just a bit... Bureaucracy tends to go a lot crazy a lot of the time.

However, the stated principles are what we have to go with, at least as a starting point. And whether one likes them or not, and whatever one might think of them, one must more or less follow them in order to go to Europe.

I would wager though that there are few things dumber than the "no return within 6 months" our own government has come up with.

Is it 6 months now? I thought it was 2 months.

Anyway, the rule is not so dumb since they allow tourists on the same itinerary to come back to India.

I kind of agree with the basic premise of the law- keep out the foreign terrorist-type people. And also the foreign businessmen who come to India on tourist visas.

And the characters that populate Goa (etc) with a 5 year/6 month tourist visa and used to keep flying to BKK or KTM every 6 months.

true i am agree with you.