Less than 3 months on IRP, applying for Schengen visa

[Lost991697]

Hey everyone,

I'm meant to go to a wedding in August in Spain, but my IRP expires in September. I'm currently on a Critical Skills permit (Stamp 1) but will be switching to a Stamp 4 this September.

I tried emailing BLS who handle the Spanish visa applications, but didn't get a response. Is it still possible to obtain the visa even though my IRP will have less than 3 months on it by the time of return? I get why the rule is there for (for instance) students, but it seems bizarre to me.

Thanks.

[mentalmind]

You need more than 3 months of residency days after your return date otherwise your visa application will not be accepted or refused. After you get a visa (another time, not for this case) you can still travel to schengen zone and come back if your IRP is less than 3 months but you have valid visa for those dates. You can see 3 months residency rule at visa application rules on embassy's or vfs's website.

Student or not, they don't care, they used to give 1 year visas before Covid pandemic but even those are decreased to 9 months, for a person that has 1 year IRP, so they indeed changed something on their side. They practically want you to be able to send you back to the country you came from, so that's why 3 months rule applies.

[Lost991697]

I expected that - it's really disappointing.

[Gocho77]

You would need to renew your stamp right now. One option would be to try to renew your stamp 1. But that would mean that you will need another work permit

Another would be if you already have more than 20 months working, try to change to stamp 4 right now.

[littlerr]

Even though officially there is this stupid 3-month rule, most embassies will have their own set of criteria to approve or reject a visa. Some embassies are stricter than others (hello Germany). You should really check with the embassy to see whether they are enforcing that rule.

My missus had only 6 weeks left on her IRP when she got a 5-year Schengen visa from the Netherlands. She only planned to visit there for 2 days so we were quite surprised.

Before she applied for the visa, we asked whether the 3-month rule would be an issue and was told it is up to the visa officer to decide, but it shouldn't be an issue as long as there's sufficient proof that the applicant will be able to come back to the current country.

There will be tons of non-EU students in the UK and Ireland who travel to Schengen countries during summer breaks while having less than 3 months of validity on their IRP/BRP. The vast majority got their visas without any issues.

[Lost991697]

For anyone wondering, I ended up applying for the Spanish visa. My IRP expires early September, and I plan to travel in August. They gave me one year multiple entry visa. So the 3 months on IRP thing isn't set in stone.

[Brandon11]

For anyone wondering, I ended up applying for the Spanish visa. My IRP expires early September, and I plan to travel in August. They gave me one year multiple entry visa. So the 3 months on IRP thing isn't set in stone.

Wondering how you got through to the Spanish embassy I try but all appointments booked and they don’t respond to emails

[Lost991697]

Wondering how you got through to the Spanish embassy I try but all appointments booked and they don’t respond to emails

Honestly, I think I got very lucky. I refreshed for 10 minutes after finishing the application and an appointment popped up for the very next day.