{"id":185,"date":"2004-11-18T22:11:11","date_gmt":"2004-11-18T21:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.devco.net\/?p=185"},"modified":"2009-10-09T17:11:01","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T16:11:01","slug":"schengen_visa_hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/archives\/2004\/11\/18\/schengen_visa_hell.php","title":{"rendered":"Schengen Visa Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

15 European countries belong to the list of Shengen countries<\/a>, the basic idea is that there are little or no border control between them, one visa fits all.
\nThis is a great idea and really makes European travel very easy. The problem is that the criteria for getting a Shengen visa is up to the individual countries. As anyone who knows anything of the European community can tell you they absolutely love bureaucracy . Entry requirements range from the impossible to simple depending on who you are, where you are going and what country you are from.
\nFor South Africans in the UK it is mostly easy, you get a French Schengen visa, go to France usually using the Eurostar to Paris and get the stamp there. Once you have that you can go anywhere in the 15 countries for the duration of your visa. The problem is of cource the fact that you have to deal with the French visa people. While they are the easiest to get of the lot it is still hell.
\nI remember standing outside in the freezing cold 3 mornings in a row at 7am waiting for the doors to open at 10am. Only on the 3rd morning did I even make it inside the main building, I was there till 3pm when I finally got leave to remain in the Schengen countries for 6 days! These days it is all by appointment, via a phone call that costs \u00a31.50 per minute and can last a long time, I have never actually held on the phone long enough to get any use out of the line but I hear it can take 10 to 15 minutes.
\nIt is now easier, you can send a agent on your behalf though there are only a handful of agencies who are allowed in. It used to be that the default answer to this was to just use 1st Contact<\/a>. Their service was great, personal, friendly, they gave advice over the phone and they were affordable. This has all changed now. They do not speak to you over the phone, they won’t see you, it takes weeks to get a visa out of them and the whole experience is just really crap, I would rather queue myself than deal with 1st Contact again.
\nA friend told me about Mobile Visa Services<\/a> who does a fantastic service. They are clearly geared at busy people. They provide very friendly advice over the phone and know what they are talking about. Once you decide to use them they will come fetch the passport from you and other documents and do the leg work, then bring it back to your office. You do pay a bit extra, \u00a355 for the service they offer and \u00a325 for the French but I can recommend them for anyone who wants to get a Visa without hassle. In this case I gave them my passport on Monday and had it back today, amasing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15 European countries belong to the list of Shengen countries, the basic idea is that there are little or no border control between them, one visa fits all. This is a great idea and really makes European travel very easy. The problem is that the criteria for getting a Shengen visa is up to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[39,68,37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":732,"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185\/revisions\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devco.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}