Schengen visa

I went for a schengen visa interview yesterday and thought I will post some useful info here. Obviously, this info is just for guidance and if you need more details, its best to visit the consultates.

Who is it for?
Among many other reasons – for anyone without EU/UK passport (like me – Indian), who wish to tour EU.

What are Schengen countries?
There are quite a few EU countries that you can visit with this one visa. The 15 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. All these countries except Norway and Iceland are European Union members.

Where do you apply?
Any of the embassies of Schengen countries. I am in London and I visited the French consultate.

How do you make an appointment?
While the usual process takes a few weeks, the consultate refreshes the cancelled slots every Thursday 4pm. So go to this link (http://www.consulfrance-londres.org/spip.php?article320), and keep pressing refresh.You will see slots for the next week. Book them and attend within a week.

How does the process work?
You book your tour or flight/hotel and get travel insurance. Then, you make an appointment with the embassy. Then, download the application form, fill it, take it to the embassy – it takes around 4 hours in total on the appointment day. They give you the stamped passport back the same day.
More details here: http://www.consulfrance-londres.org/spip.php?article324

What documents?
More details here: http://www.visafrance.co.uk/reqTourist.php

For me - I am here in HSMP Work permit:
• Application form
• Passport and work permit documents
• Employee reference letter (certifies employement, salary, address and grade)
• Pay slips – 3 months
• Bank statements – 3 months
• Tour itinerary, or flight ticket and hotel booking in france
• Proof of insurance (you can get it quick from many providers – I did it here www.insureandgo.com)
• Embassy insurance declaration form (http://www.visafrance.co.uk/schenFrInsAssur.pdf)
• 1 photocopy of all documents listed above -- very important
• 1 passport size photo

For my wife – she is a dependent:
• Application form
• Passport
• Sponsor passport (my passport) and work permit documents
• Tour itinerary, or flight ticket and hotel booking in france
• Proof of insurance
• Marriage certificate in English
• Embassy insurance declaration form (http://www.visafrance.co.uk/schenFrInsAssur.pdf)
• 1 photocopy of all documents listed above -- very important
• 1 passport size photo

How was the day?
The people all over in the embassy are quite nice and helpful. My wifes appointment was at 8:30am and mine was at 10am.We were allowed to go together without any fuss.
Four stages – security, cashier, passport check and visa officer meeting. First 3 stages are real fast and takes 30 minutes. Then we were put to wait for 1.5 hours for the 4th stage. Take some good books to read.
The visa officer asked some Qs and indicated that she will give the visa for 6months. After 30 minutes the passport with the stamp was ready for collection.
There are a few good museums around. If you have time, plan to get to those – we were so hungry we didn’t.