schengen visa agencies

[vinay shanthi]

can anyone give some feedback on any agencies approved for schengen visas. it would be useful for people like me to know about agencies that provide schengen visas via their tie ups with some embassies in the schengen area. save a lot of trouble going to embassy if living far away from london.

i feel they would be worth avoiding the hassles of booking appointments, calling 0900 numbers, taking annual leave and travel to london, travel costs etc plus the long wait lists for the visa appointments etc.

i have never used the agencies for travelling on my own but have used a tour operators visa services for getting schengen visa on a prior occassion. i travelled through www.startours.co.uk on a tour to italy (flew direct from uk to italy and back) but i couldnt get a visa appointment at italy embassy and tour operator gets schengen visas for their tours and they got me visa thru french embassy. would this instance of travelling to italy in past on schengen visa issued from french embassy cause problems getting a future schengen visa from french embassy. i want to see france. earlier i didnt want to waste my annual leave and wanting to go on a italy or rance tour via the website mentioned above but my leave suited with only the italy tour so went along with that but then the tour company told me they get visas only via the french embassy at that time. hence i went along with that as they said travel wouldnt be a problem. i didnt have any problems when i travelled on the tour, but having doubts now about future problems while visiting schengen area or applying for schengen visas.

recently someone i know had to go to france in a hurry for a conference and an agency got him a visa without hassles. he used http://www.princevisa.com/pvs/ can i have some feedback on them please incase others have used them as well. i will use such facilities as i dont want to waste my annual leave waiting outside embassies. but asking for feedback as am worried about the documents going to an agency etc. preferably feedback from regular users of the forum in the hope that such feedback will be more reliable.

ps: need info about agencies based in uk only

[gani999]

You are better off going directly to the Embassies rather than hiring an agency. Many visa officers don't take kindly either to agencies or to people who use them.

And you don't have to spend your annual leve waiting in front of embassies. If it is a schenegan tourist visa you want, it doesn't take more than a few hours to get it issued, if all the documentation is ok.

[vinay shanthi]

the person i know lives away from london, so taking a days leave for going to the embassy plus train travel etc plus other travel costs add up to a lot more than the agencies take. plus there is no hassles of appointments etc. u can get the visa when u please even at 1week notice.

i got my schengen thru tour operator as i couldnt get appointment directly with embassy before the tour was starting. so applied thru tour operator and got visa from the same embassy within a week. i would have spent more if i had to travel to london by train etc.

i havent used the visa agencies but think will use them now since i got the good feedback from the person i know who used it once to get schengen in a hurry for a conference

by agencies i mean officially approved agencies. see many of the big travel operators have visa sections where they get visas for you. i used to travel via www.trailfinders.co.uk earlier and i remember they used to have a visa section, dont know if they still have one or how good it is, as i never used it.

but the problem with the tour operators is that they only do the visas for u if u travel via their tours. they wont arrange visas for just tickets booked via them. i just asked the query, so that incase i go on my own rather than in a tour, then i would prefer using such agencies as they will get visas for u even if u dont book tickets via them and also save time and money. since i dont know anyone else who has used these agencies, i was wondering if there was anyone on immigrationboards who has used them and whether they can give some feedback on the good ones.