A schengen visa is blanket visa that enables you to enter all the countries who are members of the Schengen agreement.

Schengen States

• Austria
• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland

Schengen visas are made up of four elements. The validity of the visa, the number of days you are allowed to stay in the Shengen States, the number of entries and the embassy to which you have to apply.

Visa Validity

The visa can be issued for literally one day, or one, two, three, six months up to one year.

Number of Days

During the life of the visa you will only be allowed to spend so many days in the Schengen states. The maximum is 90 days in any six month period. The shorter the visa the less days you are likely to get.

Number Of Entries

Visas can be single, double or multiple entry. An entry/exit is defined as when you enter or leave the Schengen States eg France to Switzerland. However you can go from one Schengen State to another as many times as you like eg France to Spain. This is not classed as an entry/exit.

The obvious advantage of having a multiple Schengen visa is that you can travel when you want to 15 different European countries without having to obtain separate visas. This means that you can make that urgent business meeting in Paris or take advantage of a great deal on the internet.

Which Embassy to apply to

You have to apply to the Schengen Embassy of the country where you are going to be spending the most number of nights (not days) on the first trip. For example if you are going to France for three nights and then returning to the UK then you apply to the French Embassy.

If you go to France for one night then go straight to another schengen state, say Spain where you spend two nights then you would have to apply for a Spanish Schengen as you are spending the majority of nights in Spain.

If you are spending the same number of nights in two countries, ie two nights in France first and then two in Spain, you would apply to the country which you go to first, in this case France.

Embassies are very strict about this and were you to get a Schengen visa from say France and then use it to go straight to Spain, you could find it difficult to obtain a visa in the future.

Spouses of "Schengen" nationals (e.g. Germany, Netherlands etc) must apply for their visas at the embassy of their spouse's nationality, regardless of their actual destination

Spouses of non-Schengen nationals (e.g. UK, Ireland, Poland etc) must apply in person, by appointment and both together at the embassy of their main destination. We are no longer able to process these.

Please note these are general guidelines. Requirements of each individual embassy can and do vary so please check out the country you want to go to. Also bear in mind that Nationality, UK leave to remain, type of passport and previous Schengen history can effect what sort of visa you get if indeed you get one at all. All embassies reserve the right to refuse or limit visas. Finally embassies can and frequently do change their requirements often without giving any prior notice.