Schengen visa is a document that allows you to visit any country from the Schengen zone, which includes 26 countries. These are the main European countries, with the exception of the UK. If you have received a visa from any country that is part of the Schengen zone, then you can move freely throughout all countries in this zone.
Today the Schengen area includes Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Finland, France, Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland and Estonia. De facto, the Schengen zone includes three more European microstates – Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican.
In addition, with an open Schengen visa you can visit Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Andorra and the British territory of Gibraltar.
Is it possible to get Schengen at the consulate of one country and go to another
This is a rather subtle point. If you do not yet have a Schengen visa, and you are going to fly, for example, to Italy, then you need to submit documents to the Italian consulate or visa center. This point is clearly stated in the EU Visa Code: for a visa you must apply to the consulate of the country that is the main purpose of travel.
That is, you should not, for example, plan a trip to Germany and get a visa to Greece. The Greeks will have questions, and if, out of the goodness of their hearts, they still issue you a visa, difficulties will begin in Germany: you may simply not be allowed into the country at passport control (and sometimes they will not put you on the plane back in Russia). Remember a simple rule: to avoid problems at the border, obtain a visa at the consulate of the country you are traveling to. If you have received your Greek certificate, plan a trip to Rhodes or Athens.
Yes, there are cases when border guards are tolerant of non-compliance with this rule. Everyone has a story about how someone got a visa to Greece, used it to enter Berlin and talked the talk to the officer at the border. But you don’t want to end up with someone very important and end the journey, right?
Important addition! If your passport already has a Schengen visa left over from your last trip, then you can use it to enter any country in the Schengen zone. For example, the good Greeks gave you Schengen for a year, from September 2017 to September 2018. In the fall you flew to Crete using it, and in the spring you want to see Berlin. In this case, there is no need to obtain a new Schengen visa to Germany.
I want to visit several countries, I need to get a visa for each?
If these are not Schengen countries, then yes, you need to obtain a visa for each country (with the exception of countries where Russians are allowed visa-free entry). For example, if you are flying around the world and plan to stop in Germany, Great Britain, the USA, Mexico and Japan, then you need to obtain a visa for each of the listed countries.
With the countries of the Schengen zone, everything is a little simpler: one visa is enough. The question remains in which country to apply for it, and here the EU Visa Code comes to the rescue again: the visa must be issued at the consulate of the country where you plan to stay the longest. If you are going to stay in each country for 2-3 days, that is, for equal time? Then apply for a visa at the consulate of the country you will enter first.
That is, the plan is this: if you are going to Germany, but want to go to neighboring Austria and the Czech Republic for a couple of days, apply for a visa to Germany. If you are planning a trip by car from Moscow to Paris through Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany – and will stay everywhere for one or two days, no more – apply for Schengen at the consulate of the country where you will cross the border for the first time – that is, Latvia. But if you plan to stay in Paris for a week, you need a French visa.
The main thing is to print out all hotel reservations and tickets before your trip so that the border guards don’t have any questions.
I want a Schengen visa for three years! Where to contact?
Plan a trip to a country that is most willing to issue visas to Russians. In 2017, the Schengen countries are Greece, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic and France. In these countries, the likelihood that you will be issued a Schengen visa for a year (and under some conditions for three) is highest.
What are the conditions? If your passport already has two or more Schengen visas for the last 3 years, and there are no problems with the documents, then the consulates of these countries will most likely issue you a multiple visa from 1 to 4 years.
In addition, if your passport already contains an expired visa of the country for which you want to get it again, it is important that the previous visa was opened correctly. This means that, having received a visa to France, you have entered France at least once. If this condition is met, the chances that you will again be issued a Schengen visa at the French consulate without any problems, but for a longer period, increase.
The consulates of Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal are least willing to issue Schengen visas – here you have a high probability of getting a visa only for the dates of your trip. In addition, in the last few years, visa documents have been checked more carefully at Finnish consulates – this is due to the increased flow of tourists from St. Petersburg.
Which visa to indicate in the application form – single or multiple entry?
To begin with, we note that visas differ in the number of visits to countries: they are single-entry, double-entry and multiple-entry (the latter are also called multiple visas). Everything is simple here: with a single-entry visa you can only enter the country once, and if you were given a “cartoon”, you can travel to the countries of the Schengen zone as many times as you like – until the visa expires, of course.
When filling out the application form, always indicate a multiple-entry visa! There are cases when people with a large number of Schengen visas in their passport receive a visa only for the dates of travel due to the fact that a single-entry visa was requested in the application form.
How long can I stay in Schengen countries if I have a multiple-entry visa?
Each visa has a column called Duration of stay – this is the number of days you can stay in the Schengen countries. Typically, with multiple visas it is 90 days, and you can stay in the Schengen countries for as long as 6 months. That is, if you were issued a multiple visa for 4 years, then each year you can stay in the Schengen countries for a total of 180 days, but no more than 90 days within six months. For example, in six months, go to Italy for a week, then to France for a weekend and spend another couple of weeks in Greece. The main thing is that the total number of travel days for six months does not exceed 90.
The period begins from the beginning of the visa validity – the date can be seen on the stamp in the “From” column. For example, you received an Italian Schengen visa, which is valid from October 10, 2017 to October 9, 2019. This means that the countdown for the first half of the year began on October 10.
It is important that these 90 days every six months cannot be transferred or summed up. For example, in the first six months of your visa you didn’t go anywhere, but in May you plan to go to Italy for the whole summer and still have October. Such a trip will be longer than 90 days, which means you cannot make it – you will need to return to your homeland in July at the latest. Moreover, having used all 90 days of your stay in Italy, you will not be able to enter other Schengen countries until the end of the six months.
