Dear editors,
This is a question about applying for a Schengen visa. I couldn't find the answer in the file. My girlfriend is coming to the Netherlands for Christmas and New Year. She arrives in Düsseldorf where we will visit the Christmas markets and then on to NL. The visa is therefore also applied for at VSF.
The question is, which visa is best to choose. Tourist or visiting family friends?
She has enough financial resources, has been working in the same hospital for 14 years. Has her own house, a car and motorcycle that are all in her name and has no mortgage, student debt or other outstanding debts. She can easily meet the daily mandatory 34 € and has tickets, hotel booking and insurance.
So a tourist visa would be obvious, but she will also come to visit me and my family and we have signed statements from the municipality that she will spend the night with us during her trip. And therein lies the question…
So any advice, experience is welcome, also regarding the speed of approval, etc.
Thanks in advance for your responses.
Regards,
Triple
Dear Triple,
If your girlfriend will stay with you completely or for the most part, then the main purpose of her visit is 'visiting friends'. If she were to travel around independently for the most part (meeting you only briefly) and sleep in hotels, her purpose of stay would be 'tourism'.
I get the impression that her main reason is to stay with you. So let her do a visa for visiting friends through the embassy or VFS. An honest and sincere story with real motivation is the best approach. She can write in her/your motivation letter that you are going to the Christmas market in Germany together and then want to have a nice time in the Netherlands.
With the 34 euros, as you know, she can independently meet the income requirement. You then only have to provide accommodation. In that case, you do not have to legalize the accommodation/guarantor form as you are not the guarantor.
Submitting the application to VFS is a voluntary choice. In contrast to an appointment via the embassy, this does entail an amount of service costs.
In both cases, you must be able to visit the counter of the embassy or VFS within 2 weeks by appointment, after which the processing time of the application should be no more than 15 calendar days, provided that everything is in order. If the handler of the Regional Support Office in Kuala Lumpur is annoyed, you should be informed and the application can take up to 30 or 60 calendar days.
So you can count on it being a month before everything is ready, but in the worst case it can also take 2-3 months.
Good luck,
Rob V