Getting Schengen Visa — EuroTrip
Looking forward to your first Euro trip? Schengen visa application can be tricky for the first time travelers. To help you with the same, here is a step by step process with all the relevant details and links to documents!
Step1. Identify the dates of your entry and exit from the Schengen area.
Step2. Getting the flight and hotel reservations for the duration of your stay in Schengen area. Now your duration might be firm but the exact plans of travel might not be. You can take below mentioned actions to get this step done.
A. Tickets for return flight from India to any Schengen country. This is must. You can contact any travel agent company like http://www.flightreservationforvisa.com/, Yatra.com, Emirates or Local Travel agents who can reserve these flights at very minimal cost for you if you don’t want to take risk of buying actual tickets and losing money in case you are denied visa. In my case I got the confirmed return flight tickets from Mumbai to Amsterdam (Cheap and refundable if you book early)
B. For visa application you will be needing an itinerary for internal Europe travel as well. To get that, I would like to suggest u to go to Europe’s national train website (https://www.raileurope.com/index.html?country_origin=IN). Add the cities you want to visit (as per your tentative plan) in the website and at the booking page you will get your train itinerary reserved without any advance payment.
C. Hotels booking: as per your tentative plan, you can reserve hotels at those places matching your travel dates via booking.com as there is no cancellation charges on booking via this site.
Step 3. Go to your bank and get your last three months statement printed, attested and sealed. Suggest you to do this immediately after getting the salary to show decent balance in your account. Generally, approx 80000 INR should be available in your account. However if you can show more than that it is always a win win. You can take help of your relatives or friends to transfer you money temporarily. However make sure u don’t get heavy amount transferred in one go which can bring your account to notice of visa officers as well as tax officers. (On transfer of 50000+ INR you need to pay tax on entire transferred amount).
Step 4. (Applicable only if employed for last two years) Get acknowledgement receipt of your income tax return from ITR website for last two years. If you have recently joined a company and have not filled the tax for two years yet, then fill this form and submit it with the application: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5a39dBCBTL7a3pjZ1otUmFDU1U
Step 5. (Applicable only if employed for last two years) Get your last three months payslip printed.
Step 6. Apply for an address proof and official leave (for duration of your travel) from HR of your company Although address proof is not mandatory but if your passport is issued in a city different from the city where you are submitting your visa application, this might be asked for.
Step 7. Write a cover letter mentioning your purpose of travel. Sample cover letter can be found here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5a39dBCBTL7WmllLWF6SDBZeVk
Step 8. Get a travel insurance with minimum 50000 USD/ 30000 EUR cover. You can pick one from here, they all work fine for Schengen visa: http://www.insurancepandit.com/travel/travel_insurance_schengen_visa.php
Step 9. Fill the application form which can be found here: Link
Sample form with details can be found here: Link
Note that, in the countries to visit/Address of hotels, you just need to type in the first country of visit or the country where you plan to stay longest. Again, suggestion would be to make your rough plan in such a way that you spend maximum number of days in the country where you plan to land first. Then your visa application should be addressed to the embassy of that country.
Step 10. Download and fill these additional forms, needed at the application center.
a. Travel History Form: To be duly filled and enclosed with the application.
b. Authorization Form : To be filled if the submission done by Travel Agent or Representative.
c. Consent form to be signed by the applicant
Step 10. Get yourself clicked. 35 x 45 mm, white background, face 80% visible. Details here: http://www.vfsglobal.com/netherlands/india/pdf/Photo_specification.pdf
Step 11. Sign up on VFS website and schedule and appointment. VFS Website for booking appointment.
Documents Checklist can be accessed here.
Step 12. Reach application centre half an hour before, get token number, wait for your turn, submit your documents. No interview needed unless the visa officers find anything suspicious. Approximate fees for the application + visa handling fees is 5600 INR which needs to be paid in cash or DD. Credit/Debit cards are not accepted.
All the best!
If you are still unclear and have some more queries, feel free to email us at 4eyedexperience@gmail.com :)
