Schengen visa question: Apply for a Schengen visa for the period April - June 2024
Dear Rob
Regarding the Schengen Short Stay Visa for my Thai wife (not yet official), the following. Successfully applied for and used it last year, thanks to Rob V's Schengen visa document. I flew in person to VFS Global in Bangkok with 2 overnight stays and an appointment, of course. Partly for the biometric data.
This year we want to apply for that Schengen visa again for the period April - June 2024. I will be in Thailand on a tourist visa from January - March. I already have a return ticket from KLM for that.
Last year, with the reserved ticket for my wife that had not yet been paid, I was just able to get 1 expensive seat on my same flight (my return flight). That is why we now want to request 3 months in advance instead of 6 months in advance, so that we have a confirmed and paid ticket on time.
- Question 1: Does this seem like a useful action?
- Question 2: Can my wife be accompanied by someone with expertise in this application? After all, I won't be in Thailand until January.
- Question 3: Is it possible to apply for the Schengen visa as an E-Visa? (send passport).
NB. My wife does not want and cannot travel alone to Amsterdam, hence the wish for a ticket for her that matches my ticket.
Yours faithfully,
huub
Dear Hub,
I'm glad everything went well with the visa last year. If you now follow the procedure with the same attention and nothing significant has changed in your situation, everything will probably turn out fine this time.
The advice remains not to incur a ticket or other expensive costs in advance, because you can never be 100% sure whether the visa will be granted. So it remains a risk: the chance of rejection and US ticket costs not together on the same flight. Anyway, regarding your questions:
Yes, you can start applications six months in advance, so if it suits you better to get all the paperwork in order and submit the application well in advance, then just go for it.
The application is made in person, so only the applicant goes to the counter (or someone must have a disability that requires certain assistance). But in the steps before submitting, preparing the application, yes, the applicant can request any help with that. This is usually the referent (you), but others may also help her locally in Thailand. There are visa agencies that do this for a fee. But with last year's experience and your help (with the Schengen file and current information from the VFS, embassy/BuZa websites), they actually have little to add...
If your partner has collected her pieces, she could perhaps have everything scanned and sent to you, then you can make everything into a beautiful whole from the Netherlands, preferably in 1 single PDF file that she can then print out and hand in. . If your partner is not persuaded by VFS to remove documents from the application, but wants to submit everything she brings, then it should be prevented that a VFS employee mistakenly removes a piece of evidence from the application.
The visa procedure in the coming years will remain as it was in recent years. So you hand in your application and passport, officials in The Hague make the decision and the embassy receives the passport and sticks in the visa sticker. This can then be sent by post if collection is not suitable. Actually implementing the European plan for an E-visa will take some years.
Good luck and regards,
Rob V