Help with Schengen Visa to Italy

[po-low]

Hello.

I hope you can help me. (Im sure you will ) Apologies for the long post.

A bit of background info first of all:
I am planning a trip to Italy at the End of July for 3 weeks with my wife and son.

As far as I understand it, My wife who is Pakistani, will require a visa to travel.
She has a permanent 'residence to stay visa' for the uk.

The problem that I have is trying to contact the Consulate to make an appointment.
I have followed the instructions here (taken from website):

On 16 January 2009 the Consulate General of Italy in London has open its
Visa
Application Centre .

This service is available to all nationals residing in the South of
England and Wales who wish to apply for a Schengen visa
only for tourism or business.
Please note: Starting from March 11th you must book an appointment by
calling 08713760023 from 08.30 am to 5 pm.

The service incurs a fee of ?24, excluding the application visa fee.
PLEASE NOTE: this fee is due to VFS for the service provided.

The VFS centre is located at:
1-8 Bateman's Building
South Soho Square
London W1D 3EN
Helpline numbers: 0871 376 0023
Email: info.ituk@vfshelpline.com <mailto:info.ituk@vfshelpline.com>
Website: <http://it.vfsglobal.co.uk>
Opening hours:
from Monday to Friday:
8.30am to 11.00am for applications only.
3.00pm to 4.00pm for collection of passports only.
Applications may still be presented in person by the applicant at:
Consulate General of Italy
Visa Office
136 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SA
Email: visti.londra@esteri.it <mailto:visti.londra@esteri.it>
Fax: +44 (0)20 78234449
Telephone (only for emergency cases): +44 (0)20 78236519, Monday to
Friday, 15:00 - 16:30
only by prior appointment (via the website link-www.conslondra.esteri.it),
between 10am
and 12 noon.

I have made an appointment at the VFS centre for the End of June. However, I would rather go straight to the Consulate and get it done there (and save myself the admin fee!).

Only problem is I cant get hold of the Consulate. The site states that I should follow the link, but following the link and upon completing registration it states that I should CALL to make an appointment, but there is no number!!!

Am i stuck with the VFS (If I must, I must)? Or can anybody help me with a contact number?

Secondly, only after I found this site, do I need to pay for the Visa?

[po-low]

I guess no could help me then !!

Anyway, Ive now booked my appointments with the VFS.

I just want to clarify though. Do I still have to pay for the Visa?Im assuming I do.

[ciaramc]

Nope as a spouse of an EU citizen the visa should be issued free ! You are a british citizen right?

[po-low]

Nope as a spouse of an EU citizen the visa should be issued free ! You are a british citizen right?

Brilliant
Yes Im British born and bred!

My wife has her permanent residents visa too.

So when I go to issue my documents to the VFS, will they ask me to pay....or will they know better?
And what if they ask me to pay, what should I do?
What are my options?

Thanks for your help

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

You do not need to pay the visa and in my opinion should not pay people that the Italians have arranged to do some of their outsourcing work for them (Vfs). This is a real abuse of the rules which the Belgians also do.

[ciaramc]

Here is the Directive in English and Italian where it clearly states that the visa shall be issued free of charge -


EU Directive/2004/38/EC, Article 5(2)



EU Directive/2004/38/EC, Articolo 5(2)

Maybe print these out? And bring them along when applying??

[po-low]

Wow.

Thanks for that.
That is a great help.

Many many thanks.

Now lets see how I get on.....the appointment is at the end of the month

Will report back on how I get on.

[po-low]

Hello again.

Just an update.
Been doing a fair bit of research on the Visa and requirements etc.

When I came across this:

http://www.esteri.it/visti/costi_eng.asp which is the visa fees.

Toward the bottom it states:
The following categories of third country applicants are exempt from payment of the visa-application handling fee:
- students (short- and long-term stay);
- children under 6 years of age (short-term stay);
- relatives up to the fourth degree of kin of EU citizens (short- and long-term stay);
- researchers as defined by recommendation 2005/761/EC of 28.09.2005
- some categories of beneficiaries envisaged by Art. 6 of each EU Visa Facilitation Agreement.

I take it then I dont have to pay the handling fee either then

AND

On the Italian Consulate website for Manchester ( http://www.consmanchester.esteri.it/Con ... in_italia/ ), it also states right at the bottom of the page (Cost Of Visa) that it is free to spouses and dependents of EU nationals.

This information is NOT on the London Consulate's website. A bit sneaky I think .

Hope this helps a few others out there.

[ciaramc]

Po - Good for you!!

let us know when they issue the visa free of charge!

[po-low]

Hello again, Update time.

Went to the Visa issue office today......What a run-around!!!!

Appointment was at 1045, was seen at 1200! An hour may not seem bad but it was enough to drive me crazy, but anyway.....

Got to the counter and the (nice) lady checked everything and said all my wife needed was the form completed - DONE, copy of my passport - DONE, and marriage certificate - DONE errrr....or not quite as it seemed.

It HAD to be attested by the Pakistani Embassy. It had already been translated into English previously. So that meant we had to dart across london to get the marriage certificate attested. They had closed at 12:30 but a bit of persuasion from the wife and they got it done.

Back to the visa office and all sorted....they did NOT want to see flights, travel insurance, proof of financial means, letter of residence from Italy from Bro-in-law or anything else!!!
Even though the site mentioned ALL of the things WERE required!!!

So all done, took ALLLLL day, but we'll get it back in approx 15 days.

HOWEVER, The visa was FREEEE........BUT i HAD to pay the admin fee of £24, even when I argued it. They said they are a private business and it has to be paid!!!

Is there any way of getting this back??
Does my wife not count as a 'relative up to the fourth degree of kin of EU citizens' (see previous post, above)

Any help would be greatful. Thank you.

[frances2]

Hi

Glad you got your wife's visa.

I presume this was in London. It was a different story in Manchester. They (the Italian consulate) required bank statements, travel details and insurance documents. They wouldn't even accept the fact that the holiday was booked with Mastercard which provides us insurance, my husband had to leg it to the post office to buy travel insurance!

But there was no administration fee!

Amazing that even though it's the same country's representatives there isn't any consistency. No wonder every country makes up it's own rules.

I think you should try and get the money back. Because these visas are issued because of our right as an EU citizen to have our spouses travel with us.