Schengen Visa Applica - Does letter from EU girlfriend help?

[Ducky11]

Hi All,

I am an Indian national living & working in London with a work permit that is valid until 2014. I live with my French girlfriend, but it is not an official civil partnership. We have been living together for about a year.

I have a Schengen visa appointment coming up at the Danish embassy as we are travelling to Iceland on holiday in March. It would really be beneficial for me if they granted me a 1-year multiple entry visa as I will be travelling to France multiple times in the year. I have not made any arrangements (have not bought any tickets for France) for this but it will definitely happen. Do you think it would make any difference if I asked my girlfriend to draft a letter stating that we live together & requesting that I get a longer visa since we are together & I will be travelling to Paris multiple times in the subsequent months? I can provide a tenancy agreement + utility bills with both our names to prove that we are living together & have annual travel insurance.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,
Ducky

[ca.funke]

...Do you think it would make any difference if I asked my girlfriend to draft a letter stating that we live together & requesting that I get a longer visa since we are together & I will be travelling to Paris multiple times in the subsequent months? I can provide a tenancy agreement + utility bills with both our names to prove that we are living together & have annual travel insurance...

The Schengen-"System" is the most unpredictable visa-blackbox you can imagine, so all that remains to say is "good luck"! It may work, it may not. My wife got a multiple visa only once, all other times it was single, with few days validity each time. (Best we ever had was single-entry-4-days-validity for a weekend-trip, although I mentioned that we need to travel again after 2 weeks...)

Summary: You should try! And please do provide feedback here on how it went.

Rgds, good luck and happy travels, Christian

[Ducky11]

Thanks Christian! I'll give it a shot!

I should have also mentioned that in the past 4-years I have gotten at least 3-4 Schengen visas, all multiple entries & valid for 6-months. The most recent one expired in August 2011. This time I wanted to push for a 1-year one, which is why I thought that the letter would tip the scales in my favour.

Cheers,
Ducky

[ca.funke]

...which is why I thought that the letter would tip the scales in my favour...

I´m pretty sure it will tip the scale in your favour, the biggest influence, from my (admittedly limited) experience, however, is the mood of the guy who decides...

Good luck again!

[Ducky11]

Lol point noted
Thanks!

[dasjoker]

Hi All,

I am an Indian national living & working in London with a work permit that is valid until 2014. I live with my French girlfriend, but it is not an official civil partnership. We have been living together for about a year.

I have a Schengen visa appointment coming up at the Danish embassy as we are travelling to Iceland on holiday in March. It would really be beneficial for me if they granted me a 1-year multiple entry visa as I will be travelling to France multiple times in the year. I have not made any arrangements (have not bought any tickets for France) for this but it will definitely happen. Do you think it would make any difference if I asked my girlfriend to draft a letter stating that we live together & requesting that I get a longer visa since we are together & I will be travelling to Paris multiple times in the subsequent months? I can provide a tenancy agreement + utility bills with both our names to prove that we are living together & have annual travel insurance.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers,
Ducky

i wouldn't mention France. they might ask you to apply from France Embassy. Just apply from Danish Embassy if you lucky you will get multiple.

[Ducky11]

Ok so how should I phrase it if I have to avoid mentioning her nationality? Just not mention it? Or refer to her as an "EU Citizen" with family in Denmark (she doesn't really have family there)?

[eldane]

Ok so how should I phrase it if I have to avoid mentioning her nationality? Just not mention it? Or refer to her as an "EU Citizen" with family in Denmark (she doesn't really have family there)?

My best advice to you being Danish myself is NEVER mentioning you know someone in Denmark. The immigration authorities will demand you use them as reference/sponsor.
If you say your EU girlfriend has family in Denmark the Danish embassy will request they invite you.

Furthermore be noted that Denmark does everything different and does not fully follow Schengen visa procedures. There is a big row in the Danish parliament about this at the moment.
Finland, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany and Greece has cancelled all representative co-operation i.e. issuing Schengen visas on behalf of Denmark in countries where Denmark does not have an embassy.
This is because the Danish immigration services demand that all visa applications are sent past immigration services in Denmark to be double checked causing additional workload to the countries representing Denmark and frustration as it's felt that the Danish authorities does not trust the work the embassies are providing.

Then again being a bonafide applicant does make life easier. In particular as you are going to Iceland. As Denmark is representing Iceland in visa matters Denmark will probably not be over fussy when issuing the visa. Now don't that this personal but the attitude in Denmark is not precisely foreigner friendly which the tourism industry is trying very hard to work on. Hopefully the new labour - liberal government will be able to turn this around into something positive.

Another advice I can give you make sure you can document everything and make it totally bullet prof. Then it will be a walk in the park.

[Ducky11]

Thank you for the informative post Eldane! How would you recommend I phrase the letter in that case? Should I only refer to her as an EU Citizen & not mention anything else? In that case I wont be providing any proof of her existence, like a scan of her passport etc. By not mentioning her nationality they might assume that she is Danish & then ask for details about her family in Denmark, which don't exist. & if I do mention that she is French then they will ask me to apply through the French embassy. Should I just avoid the letter altogether?

[dasjoker]

Thank you for the informative post Eldane! How would you recommend I phrase the letter in that case? Should I only refer to her as an EU Citizen & not mention anything else? In that case I wont be providing any proof of her existence, like a scan of her passport etc. By not mentioning her nationality they might assume that she is Danish & then ask for details about her family in Denmark, which don't exist. & if I do mention that she is French then they will ask me to apply through the French embassy. Should I just avoid the letter altogether?

why do you mention your girlfriend?

you are going to holiday so i don't thing you really need to mention your girlfriend.

[Ducky11]

Applied this morning. It all went smoothly, but my only complaint was that there was only one counter open for the Danish visa applicants & as my luck would have it, all 3 of the people in front of me were really unprepared & took a long time. My submission only took about 4 minutes. Hopefully it will come through soon.

Just one word of advice - Remember to take copies of EVERYTHING, including the 1st page of your passport & your UK visa, otherwise it will cause problems. I did not have copies of my bank statements so had to submit the originals.

Thank you for all the help!