Schengen Visa - Swiss/France border

[happytraveller]

I am a British Citizen. My parents, who are visiting me from India applied for a multiple entry Schengen visa along with a multiple entry Swiss visa. Unfortunately, they have only been given a single entry Schengen visa along with a multiple entry Swiss visa (? oversight by the embassy official).

This has thrown the whole tour in disarray, as I had planned to take them on seperate occasions to a few european countries including a visit to Rome. Ryanair does not give a refund and it is the same story with a few other bookings that I have made. I am going to lose a lot of money.

I rang the French and the Italian embassies in London (£1 a minute !!!!)and several travel agents. They have told me unanimously that there is no way I could get the single entry Schengen visa converted to a multiple entry here in the UK. They would have to get it done from India. Due to time constraints there are unable to get it done there as they are arriving soon.

I would be most grateful for some advise. Has anyone got a single entry converted to a multiple entry Schengen here in the UK? Are the road borders between Switzerland and France so strict that they would not allow me back into France after crossing over to Switzerland for a two day break in between? Can I risk coming back into France from Switzerland with just a single entry Schengen Visa? Should I make an appointment at one of the embassies here in London and try my luck to see if they will convert it as an exceptional case? If so, which embassy is the most 'user-friendly'?

Many thanks

Happytraveller (Not so happy now with this new problem !!!!

[Wanderer]

I think time is gonna be ur enemy, everyone here is talking about long waits for booking appointments for Schengen visas.

The French Embassy is supposed to be reasonable (can't quite believe that!), avoid the Spanish one.

[happytraveller]

Thanks for your view Wanderer. I really wish I had more time on my hand.
Happytraveller

[stedman]

You should have got the visas before you booked the trips. They cannot get multiple entry Schengen visas from the UK, so you have to come up with plan B for the trip.

[happytraveller]

Dear Stedman,

One of the requirements for obtaining the visas was to have a return ticket. Do you know if I can re enter France from Geneva by road with a single entry Schengen Visa after having crossed over the Franco - Swiss border by road out of the Schengen area? In other words, are they very strict about it?

Is there anyone that can give me some pragmatic advise? I am a law abiding citizen, and time seems to be running out, and I stand to lose a lot of money due to one French embassy official's ineffeciency to grant a multiple entry Schengen visa instead of a single entry, although all the original documents requested were submitted and were non controversial !!!!!

Thanks
Happytraveller

[Dawie]

Border checks on the Swiss-French border are sporadic and pretty random depending on where you cross. Personally I only have experience of crossing the Swiss-French border at Geneva where there were no checks at all when we walked across the border, but other's here have reported being stopped.

I guess the answer is, you can take a chance, but you always risk being denied entry into France. In any case, there are many crossings between Switzerland and France. You may want to try various ones and only try crossing them if you can't see any border guards.

[smalldog]

Last year my wife and I crossed from Italy to Switzerland and back without having our passports checked (actually we wanted a stamp because my wife had a multiple-entry Schengen visa but was nearing the end of the 30-day limit per stay -- but we failed to get one).

We took the alpine train to Locarno and border guards got on the train at both sides of the border but just walked down the train without checking passports. Then we took the Lake Maggiore ferry back from Locarno to Italy and there wasn't a border guard in sight. In fact, I can't see how a border check could work because the ferry makes several stops both sides of the border and the passengers are a mixture of some making a local journey and others making an international journey. So I'd recommend the Lake Maggiore ferry as a pretty good way of entering/leaving Switzerland without a stamp. Even more likely if you went on a Sunday, I would think.

[Christophe]

On the quay at Lausanne (on Lake Geneva) there used to be (until mid-2005 anyway: I haven't been there since) a sign announcing when immigration checks would be carried out for the cross-lake ferry to Evian (which is in France). Seems daft, but there you are. These were checks by the Swiss authorities, not the Schengen authorities, however.

Arriving from France at Geneva railway station, I have always had my passport checked by the Swiss authorities (you have to pass through an old-fashioned passport control area), though not recently by the Schengen (French authorities). Neither has my passport been checked recently when travelling the other way. Arriving from France at Lausanne railway station and leaving Switzerland from Lausanne station I have never had my passport checked by anyone.

Road checks between Austria and Switzerland and Liechtenstein (whose passport checks are conducted by the Swiss authorities) are still in place on some main roads. Minor roads are often not patrolled.

Travelling from Zurich to Milan by train recently, the Italian authorities had a presence on the journey into Italy (they walked benignly through the carriage, looked at the first person's passport, said "Are you all British then?" and wandered off without waiting for an answer - and I'm sure the whole carriage was not British!). On the return journey there were no checks, and there were no checks between Germany and Switzerland.

There may be method in all this, but it is hard to spot it.

[Dawie]

There may be method in all this, but it is hard to spot it.

Considering that they are entirely surrounded by Schengen countries, the Swiss are probably not too concerned about people entering their country without being checked across land borders because the they reckon the relevant Schengen country that the person is crossing from would have done the work for them.

It is actually a whole lot more interesting that the Schengen countries don't seem too concerned about people crossing from Switzerland into their countries for the simple reason that there are a number of countries whose citizens do not require visas to enter Switzerland but who DO require visas to enter the Schengen space...a prime example being South Africa.

[globocentro]

I've taken the ICE to Basel a few times from Germany and I've never been stopped by any border guard