Have you asked the relevant embassy or consulate?

really!!!! awsome yeeha one less job to finnish schengen Visa yeeeha!!!!!!

when in 2008 ? mmmh?

I am sorry, I left out the question mark, its supposed to be a question. As in I read in an earlier post that there is no need to apply for a schengen visa in 2008, and I wish to have a confirmation of this fact.

Precisely what I was hinting at - the best confirmation will come from a consulate or an embassy; consider calling them first if you want a confirmation.

FYI. I read this article in the Friday´s November 9, 2007 edition of "heute" (the free evening newspaper), page 11 (freely translated):

"There will be no more [classic immigration] controls at the Swiss borders starting November 1, 2008 due to the Schengen/Dublin agreement.
...
Due to this free travel across the border, the police controls the travelers directly at the arrival train station in the future".

However I will not be surprised if Switzerland delays putting this Schengen agreement into practice... once I read this will take place in March 2008.

Hi

I am a NON EU passport holder *Indian with B permit. Recently i applied for a Schengan visa... I was to visit my sister living in France.. I was required to submit a document (one among others) from the local authority of the place my sis lives ...THE Document is Attestation De Acqueil... Unfortunately i didnt read the whol document (as was in French) and went with othe documents to the embassy of France at Signaustrasse..... While the officials were going thro the form they found out that the period of stay mentoned in the French document and the one on my appln frm didnt match.. In short I had written a later date of visit than mentioned on the French document..
The official immediately told me that the French document could not be valid for my travel dates.. However the lady told me that she would issue me a (shopping visa???)
I then just presented the following
2 copies of appln forms with passport ,
100 CHF,
copy of B permit,
recent attestation letter from the Company i work
Salary slip or latest bank statement and
two coloured photographs

I have now received my passport with a C schengan Visa but has a little piece of paper that has the following written on it

Sie haben ein visum des Französischen Konsulats erhalten. Dieses Visum verpflichtet Sie, die Ersteinreise in des Schengengebiet über einen Französischen Grenzubergang zu machen. Sie die Einreise nach Frankreich durch entsprechende Zoll stempel dokumentieren, ansonsten kann den Angaben im Antrag kein Glauben mehr geschenkt werden.

It would be really helpful if someone could please explain me what this means ....

I guess it means that this Visa is only valid for entry to France?????....Can I now not travel to Germany??

Thanks!!

Hi

I am a NON EU passport holder *Indian with B permit. Recently i applied for a Schengan visa... I was to visit my sister living in France.. I was required to submit a document (one among others) from the local authority of the place my sis lives ...THE Document is Attestation De Acqueil... Unfortunately i didnt read the whol document (as was in French) and went with othe documents to the embassy of France at Signaustrasse..... While the officials were going thro the form they found out that the period of stay mentoned in the French document and the one on my appln frm didnt match.. In short I had written a later date of visit than mentioned on the French document..
The official immediately told me that the French document could not be valid for my travel dates.. However the lady told me that she would issue me a (shopping visa???)
I then just presented the following
2 copies of appln forms with passport ,
100 CHF,
copy of B permit,
recent attestation letter from the Company i work
Salary slip or latest bank statement and
two coloured photographs

I have now received my passport with a C schengan Visa but has a little piece of paper that has the following written on it

Sie haben ein visum des Französischen Konsulats erhalten. Dieses Visum verpflichtet Sie, die Ersteinreise in des Schengengebiet über einen Französischen Grenzubergang zu machen. Sie die Einreise nach Frankreich durch entsprechende Zoll stempel dokumentieren, ansonsten kann den Angaben im Antrag kein Glauben mehr geschenkt werden.

It would be really helpful if someone could please explain me what this means ....

I guess it means that this Visa is only valid for entry to France?????....Can I now not travel to Germany??

Thanks!!

I'll try to translate it freely for you
"You have a visa issued by the French consulate. You must first cross the Swiss-French border before entering any other Schengen countries. As a proof, you need to obtain a stamp from the Customs (border control), otherwise the information entered in your application will untrusted".

I am pretty sure you can travel to other Schengen countries, but you must FIRST cross the Swiss-French border and get your passport/visa STAMPED.

Hope this helps.

Hey ..Thanx..Looks like good news!!
U deserve a treat for that free translation!!
Cheers!

Can someone please clarify something for me....does Germany and the other Schengen countries have the same rule as Switzerland about the 90 day tourist visa....if I leave Germany to go to the U.S., do I have to stay out of Germany (or Shengen) for one month or can I get another 90 day visa within a shorter time?

Some friends from Malaysia might visit Switzerland over Christmas. They are allowed to stay 90 days in CH without visa, and the rule is the same for EU countries. So far so good, no problem to enter CHland or EUland

They'd like to enter in Switzerland (direct flight from KL, friends in ZH) and later travel around Europe, by car/train.

The point is that Switzerland is not an EU country so my guess is that they need another stamp on the passport when they enter EU. How do you get that if you are travelling with train/car? On the train most of the times there's nobody checking the passports when you cross into Dland or Italy. With the car I guess you can stop and go get a stamp from the custom's officers?

Anyone has had the same experience?

It probabyl doesn't matter if they enter the Schengen zone by airplane or via Switzerland: They're legally required to carry a valid passport and in both cases no additional visa/stamp if they're Malaysian citizens - as far as I know after a brief search. When in doubt, check the government websites of the Schengen countries they plan to visit.

A friend of mine non-EU citizen holding a schengen visa would like to visit me in Switzerland. His visa is from Italian embassy, and it will be his first time in Europe, we will then go to Italy for a week. Does he need to get Swiss visa or is schengen visa enough?

Your words are prescient, check this out:
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/politic...27283000&ty=st

Though apparently it's because of the ratification process in other countries which may delay Switzerland's entry into Schengen until 2009...always an excuse to keep borders shut.

Funny thing is, it aren't Switzerland's neighbors that are responsible for the delay. It's Belgium, Greece and Czechia. But I'm a bit off topic...

Had seen a couple of posts for those who were looking to get a schengen visa quickly. Try the Solvenian embassy in Bern. Slovenia entered the Schengen as on 1st of Jan 2008 and the consulate has already started issuing Schengen visas. I got a 7 months visa the very next day by registered post.

Mrs R.Soles is Uzbek and as such trated pretty much like a Martian wherever she goes, in fact it seems more people know about Mars than Uzbekistan. Anyway, Mrs R. Soles has a Swiss permit "B" allwing her to work and she has a full time job since 18 months now. Up until now we have always used the German embassy for Schengen visas taking with us various bits of paper and corporate invitations for "business meetings" always resulting in the visa being issued. I recently contacted the UK embassy in Geneva for a UK visa, and not one where i have to accompany her to travel, one where she can travel independantly to UK. She has to go through some visa initiation interview, pay Sfr 480.-- for a visa anywhere between 6 months and 2 years with no guarantee of getting it, not any refund of course if it should fail. There's absolutely no reason why it should of course, but as a fully paid up member of the British citizens club, complete with nice maroon coloured UK passport and the fact we have been together for over 7 years now, which is verifiable theough the UK embassy in Tashkent, i feel a bit peeved.

Has anyone else similar experiences or advice in obtaining a UK visa for a UK citizens' wife ?

What sort of visa are you applying for? The price suggests an HSMP visa in which case the interview etc is normal. For a business visitors or tourist visa it sounds wrong.

A normal multi-emtry visa valid for 2 or 3 years. I know for a fact that Uzbeks with a residence visa in UK can visit CH with no need for a visa. It appears this is not reciprocal.

Also everytime you ask a question either in Berne or Geneva, all it says is consult the web site, which i've done and it doesn't address the problem. Why i as a a British citizen have to pay such a large amount of money for my wife toi visit the UK with or without me.

I have been applying Schengen visa thorugh French consulate in the past, but their new system of appointment is a pain. I switched to the German consulate almost 2 years ago and have been using the Schengen visa issued by them to go to several other Schengen countries. There is indeed no restriction on the first port of entry. We also visited Germany several times (by road from Basel) but my passport was never stamped at the border. But the last time I applied in December 2007, the officer told me that he was not convinced that I had intentions to go to Germany as there was not a single German stamp in the passport. I told him that I did visit Germany several times. He said " I believe you, but I need to see a German stamp in the passport to be sure". He gave me a visa only for 1 month, saying that if I did not have a German stamp this time, he would not be able to give me a visa next time. Fortunately, I had a trip to Munich in that period and got a stamp. Subsequently, I have now a multiple entry visa for about 10 months (until just before my Permis B expires).

So, the moral of the story is that it is not important which is your first port of call, just make sure that you do get a border stamp from the issuing country at least once during the validaity of the visa. Even when you are travelling by road, stop at the border and insist on a stamp. Since the last few months, they apparently have been strict on this.

I also heard that Swtzerland will be joining Schengen in 2008 (date of 1 March is being talked about). Does anyone has any concrete information? I believe there was an article in Les Echos recently?