Schengen Visa with Italian Consulate General in London

[deerox]

Hi All

My husband and I just applied for our schengen visas through the VFS Global application centre for the Italian Consulate General in London.

We are South Africans on UK Tier 1 visas. The schengen visas were approved for both of us however the Italian Consulate issued different dates on each of our visas.

I received a 6 month multi entry schengen visa (May 2012 - November 2012)

My husband received only 2 month multi entry schengen visa (May 2012 - July 2012)

Considering our applications went in together and we provided all the required documents I don't understand why they gave him 2 months and gave me 6 months when we have a fully booked holiday in October together and we both provided details of that holiday in our applications.

Are there any other couples who have experienced the same issue? Please could I have some advice on how we could go about appealing this?

The consulate did not provide a letter or anything giving a reason for the difference.

Any advice and help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

[Jambo]

Could it be that the expiry date of the passport or tier-1 visa is later on this year?

[deerox]

Hi

Thanks for replying. Both our passports expire in 2016 and our UK Tier 1 visa expires in 2013. I'm a dependant on my husband's visa.

[Jambo]

No idea why this happened.

Did you apply now for your holiday in October? Normally you should apply up
to 3 months before.

[deerox]

No we have 3 fully paid trips booked. 2 trips are in May and 1 trip in October.

It's bizarre that I got 6 months and he got only 2 months when we are travelling together on all 3 trips and we provided the same flights/hotel confirmations in our application.

I can only attribute this to human error. My husband is going to the consulate tomorrow to see he can get this resolved. Hopefully they will see without an appointment.

[ca.funke]

Did any of you have previous Schengen visas?

Reason for asking: Usually, if you are a "return" customer you already built up a "trust base", and will be more likely to receive multiple / longer validity.

As such my only guess would be: Your husband never had a Schengen before, while you had one? However, with Schengen, everything is possible...

[deerox]

Hi

Both of us have 2 previous schengen visas. The 1st was given to us for 1 year and the 2nd was given to us for 3 months.

And on each occasion the schengen visas were issued with the exact same validity dates for both of us. Those schengen visas were issued by the French consulate both times.

[Punjab]

deerox as far as i am aware you both should be given same lenght visas as you both are partners and submitted the aplications together. you need to complain and resend your passports to them with a cover letter and they will update your visas hopefully.


I had a same problem once. i applied for multi visa paying £55 once for 6 months but they gave me for 3 so i complaint to their interior ministry or somone and in 24 hrs i got a snotty email why did i complaint and etc etc. shame isn't it...

[deerox]

Hi Punjab

I agree with you. We definitely have to complain. It is virtually impossible to get through to the consulate via telephone so we've decided to go their office tomorrow. We dont' have an appointment but they will have to see us.

I see it as being an administrative error on their side because I cannot find any other reason for them to have done that.

Inconsistency seems to be a key theme with these consulates and I think applicants need to make more complaints in the hope that they will tighten up their processes.

Did they end up changing your 3 month visa to a 6 month one after you complained? Did this incident take place with the Italian Consulate?

[Punjab]

Hi Punjab


Did they end up changing your 3 month visa to a 6 month one after you complained? Did this incident take place with the Italian Consulate?

Hi deerox i complaint to their minstry which forwarded my email back to embassy and they wrote me a snotty email saying you will be dependent on the family members etc etc and i wrote them back.. are you being professional or what cc their minstery... anyways long story short i didnt get any reply but anyways my condition changed and we came back to the uk before visa expiry.


another thing happend I sent my passports to Hungarian embassy and they told me that I DON'T need to pay for visa fee and they sent my documents back without giving any visa. anyways i complaint that WHERE IS MY VISA i face problems to explain i don't need visa even if i travel without my eu partner and then the embassy replied WE ARE SORRY bla bla bla.. and asked my documents back. I sent them and then they wrote I need to pay if I have to travel without my partner anyways I complaint again that its written ITS FREE on your website so after 2-3 days they replied with an EU link saying they weren ot aware of it but i do need to pay so insted of giving 3 months visa they gave me for 1 yr for price of 3 months..

I did read in this forum that someone got french visa for couple of yeard because of a cockup from embassy.

so i hope you can both extend your visas for long...

ta

[deerox]

Hi All

Just wanted to let you know that my husband went to the Italian Consulate this morning and they sorted out his visa. They cancelled his 2 month one and re-issued a 6 month one.

They did refuse to help him at first but he was persistent so they went to look at his file.

Thanks for your advice over the last couple of days