Schengen Visa Questions, Answered

Most applications are decided within 15 calendar days of the consulate receiving your file, which works out at roughly 7 to 15 working days once bank holidays and weekends are excluded. Many are decided faster. Consulates may extend this to 45 calendar days where additional checks are needed, and processing slows during peak travel season, so applying at least three weeks before you travel is sensible.

Yes. British citizens need a Schengen visa for every short stay in the Schengen area, including holidays and business trips of up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Ireland is the only exception, because it sits outside the Schengen area. A UK residence permit does not replace a Schengen visa.

Yes. A short-stay Schengen visa issued by any one member state is valid for travel across all 29 countries for the period it is granted. You do not apply separately for each country on your itinerary. You do, however, have to apply through the correct consulate, which is normally the country where you spend the longest stay.

Apply through the country where you plan to spend the longest stay. If your trip is split evenly between two countries, apply through the one where you arrive first. Your flight bookings, hotel reservations and insurance should all match the country you nominate, because consulates check these documents for consistency.

The visa fee itself is set by each consulate and is paid directly to the visa application centre, so it varies by destination and application type. Appointment centre service fees are charged separately again. Our own service fee starts at £80 and covers appointment booking, document preparation, form completion and submission support. Government and appointment fees are never marked up by us.

At least three weeks before your planned travel date, and four to six weeks in peak season. This leaves room for a request for further information, which can add one to two weeks, and for a passport to be returned after a decision. Applying late also means fewer appointment slots and a higher risk of rushing the document file.

Nine core documents cover almost every standard application: a valid passport, a completed and signed application form, two passport photographs, a round-trip flight itinerary, proof of accommodation for every night, three months of bank statements with a supporting bank letter, travel insurance with at least €30,000 of medical cover, a cover letter, and a booked biometric appointment. Children and applicants in specific situations need additional paperwork. Our full checklist page explains what each document must show.

It must have been issued within the last 10 years and remain valid for at least three months beyond your planned departure date from the Schengen area. You also need at least two blank pages for the visa sticker. Passports with damage, or with previous visa pages removed, are frequently refused, so renew before you apply rather than hoping it is overlooked.

Yes, travel insurance is mandatory for every Schengen visa application. You need a minimum of €30,000 of medical cover, valid across all Schengen countries and covering your entire stay. Cover that starts a few days before departure and ends a few days after you get home removes the most common date mismatch, which is where policies and flights disagree about when you are travelling.

There is no fixed legal minimum, but you must show you can support yourself for the length of your stay. A common benchmark is roughly £90 per person per day, held consistently over the previous three months rather than deposited shortly before you apply. A single-use statement held for a few days is read as newly deposited money, which works against you.

A short letter, usually one side of a page, explaining the purpose of your travel, your dates and your itinerary. It does not need to be persuasive. It needs to be consistent with everything else in the file. If your cover letter describes one trip and your hotel bookings describe another, the inconsistency is what gets noticed.

Every traveller needs their own visa and their own passport, including infants. Children also need a full birth certificate. If they travel without one or both parents, you need consent documentation from any parent who is not travelling, and in some cases a notarised letter.

You complete the application form online through the destination country's portal, but a first application is not finished online. Biometrics are required in person at a visa application centre, normally within 59 months of a previous set of fingerprints. Some embassies run repeat-applicant schemes, but the initial visit is almost always in person.

Biometrics means fingerprints and a compliant photograph, captured digitally at the visa application centre. First-time applicants must attend in person, as must anyone whose fingerprints are more than 59 months old or whose details such as your name change. Children under 12 usually attend with a parent and may have fingerprints taken at the appointment.

That depends on your destination country. UK applications are lodged through a centre operated by VFS Global or TLScontact on behalf of the relevant consulate, and some destinations use their own facility. Slots fill weeks ahead in peak season. We confirm which centre and nationality category you fall under before you book. See the full list of destinations.

You receive a confirmation with the date, time, centre address and the documents to bring. Bring the originals listed on it, not copies, and arrive fifteen minutes early. Miss the appointment and you have to pay to rebook, which is the most common avoidable cost in the whole process.

At the appointment your documents are submitted and biometrics captured. The centre forwards the file to the consulate, who reviews it. Most decisions are made within 15 calendar days. You either keep the passport and receive a decision letter, or collect the passport and visa sticker from the centre. If you have opted into courier, it comes back to you instead.

Most are issued as multiple-entry visas valid for one or two years, though anything from six months to five years is possible depending on your circumstances and history. The number of entries does not change the 90-day limit: you can still spend at most 90 days in any rolling 180-day period across the whole area.

No. A short-stay Schengen visa is for tourism, business visits, short study and medical treatment, and it does not permit paid work. Employment requires a separate work permit or a national long-stay visa from the specific country. Working on a tourist visa can lead to removal from the country and a future visa ban.

You receive a written explanation and can normally apply again once you have addressed the reason. Read the refusal letter carefully, because the stated ground is the only basis on which a fresh application will be assessed. In our experience the usual causes are inconsistent dates between documents, applying through the wrong consulate, or funds that do not match the length of the trip.

A request for further information, or an internal verification step, is the usual reason. It is most often triggered by documents that do not agree with each other, which is why the checks on our checklist focus on consistency rather than on individual documents. If we are handling your application we will tell you if the consulate has come back to us.

No. Both are in the European Union but outside the Schengen area, so each requires its own separate visa. Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein work the other way round: they are outside the EU but inside Schengen, so a Schengen visa is valid for all three.

It depends on your nationality rather than where you live. Applications are assessed by country of passport, and some nationalities must apply through their own consulate or a centre abroad. UK residence permits do not grant Schengen visa rights. Send us your nationality and we will confirm the correct route before you book.

It covers appointment booking, checking your documents against your specific destination, completing the application form and submission support. The Schengen visa fee and appointment centre fees are set by third parties and are never marked up by us. We cannot guarantee approval, because the decision rests entirely with the consulate. Start your application.

A refusal is a decision made by the consulate, not by us. Where a refusal is caused by an error in a document or form we prepared, we correct it and resubmit at no further charge. Where we cannot deliver a service you have paid for, we refund the undelivered part of our service fee in full. Visa and appointment fees paid to third parties follow that provider's own refund policy.