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Thankyou for your post. Very much appreciated . Yes, I will be travelling with my Wife. And also, we were going to go to Belgium for one day, then onto France and back to Belgium. Going by car by the way.. Belgium being the first port of call.Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Will you be traveling with your wife? Is this for a short stay visa (under 3 months)?
If so, I would immediately contact Solvit (http://ec.europa.eu/solvit).
They are required to issue the visa if you will be going to Belgium. And if they mess around, you are in a decent position to request compensation. I would suggest you read through http://eumovement.wordpress.com/2007/04 ... u-citizen/
I know somebody who has had a similar situation with the Irish embassy. They demanded all sorts of stuff, including a visa fee. They have now said they will issue the visa and none of the material (bank statements, letter from employer, flight tickets, hotel bookings) has been supplied. The only downside of fighting is that sometimes it takes a long time.
None whatsoever, just that they wanted more information. Ferry booking and accomodation booking. In a way, they are forcing a stay in Belgium only, if I read between the lines.Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Did they indicate, in any way, why they wanted the extra information?
Exactly. Clearest breach of Law if ever there was one. And likely to cause financial loss if my wife does not recieve her passport back tomorrow.Fairtrade wrote:Shame on the Belgium Embassy for asking all these questions.
You are a EU citizen and should be treated like one, if you are travelling with your wife they shouldn't ask her any further info because you are a European citizen!!
What right does a British citizen have, well according to the Belgium Embasy Not alot!!!
Shame on you Belgium Embassy in London!!!!!!!
I understand where you are coming from. I too find it interesting that Belgian citizens do not need appointments etc... so as a Belgian citizen is an EU citizen, why does this not apply to UK citizens also?. It does appear to discriminate against UK citizens. The information you have provided to help is first class. Kudos to you SirDirective/2004/38/EC wrote:You may find this communication about the Irish embassy requirements interesting... http://www.europarl.europa.eu/registre/ ... 991_EN.doc
or http://tinyurl.com/ypwer5 in a more clickable form.
I would suggest you consider the different options for legal redress.
One option would be to go to small claims court in the UK. They might claim sovereign immunity, but they would have to show up to do it. And you could make a case that as this is European wide law, you should be able to seek redress in UK court. It would also not prevent you from taking other legal action.
I would strongly encourage you to keep track of all your expenses in relation to this, and claim them all back.
Finally, I would suggest you demand a refund for your charges to call the expensive number to make the appointment. Remember that legally the visa should be issued at no cost and on the basis of an accelerated process, but there is no other way to way to make an appointment except by calling the expensive line. Worse for the embassy (and better for you legally), Belgian citizen can do it without calling the line and without an appointment.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, but I am very interested in how this will pan out.
Important question for people who have applied at the Visa application Centre: Did you talk with somebody who is an employee of the Belgian Embassy, or was it only employees of VF Services (UK) Limited of VFS Global Services Pvt. Ltd.?Embassy: 17 Grosvenor Crescent
London SW1X 7EE
Visa application Centre
5 Lower Belgrave Street, Victoria
London SW1W ONR
Email: infolondon@vfs-be-uk.com
Website: www.vfs-be-uk.com
There is a service charge of £22 (inclusive of VAT) applicable per application over and above the visa fees for all applicants.
Did you get a sense of what the service was they were providing?Humb wrote:In my case we submitted the form to the VF company. They accepted that we were not buying tickets until we knew if we had the visa but they underlined the fact that they were only taking receipt of the documents.
A few days later the embassy rang my wife and said bring the tickets. We submitted the tickets through VFS. (we had already sent a hotel booking)
...
VFS for their part emphasize that the visa is free, they are charging their 22 quid 'for the service'.
True, what is concerning though is the Belgian Embassy passing it off as though it officially to do with them. Visa arrived in time for us to get to Belgium. Now the complaints and legal issues are being addressed now I we have returned home. Paris was lovely!Directive/2004/38/EC wrote:Important question for people who have applied at the Visa application Centre: Did you talk with somebody who is an employee of the Belgian Embassy, or was it only employees of VF Services (UK) Limited of VFS Global Services Pvt. Ltd.?Embassy: 17 Grosvenor Crescent
London SW1X 7EE
Visa application Centre
5 Lower Belgrave Street, Victoria
London SW1W ONR
Email: infolondon@vfs-be-uk.com
Website: www.vfs-be-uk.com
More specifically, was it a VFS employee who said you are required to submit the travel bookings? Or fill out all of the visa form?
Note that VF Services (UK) Limited of VFS Global Services Pvt. Ltd. is a UK company and so can easily be sued in small claims court. I wonder also about the possibility that the Directive applies directly to them in their capacity as outsourced processing centre for the Belgian embassy.
http://www.vfs-be-uk.com/visafees.aspxThere is a service charge of £22 (inclusive of VAT) applicable per application over and above the visa fees for all applicants.
I would urge you to get the EU's SOLVIT involved. If one person complains, then they will help the person. If multiple people complain about the same situation, they will escalate it (and help the person complaining).mirnat wrote:I've read this post with interest as my husband, an Albanian national applied recently through the new Embassy of Belgium Visa application centre. I'm a British citizen so we thought it would be relatively straightforward requiring few documents. However, I did book our flights and hotel coz I could see that they wouldn't give the visa without this and also reluctantly paid the £22 fee, again because we had tickets booked we had to get the visa. He did get the Schengen visa valid for 3 weeks (our trip was only 4 days) but I still think all the information they asked of us was not called for!!