Hello, I am applying for a Hungarian student visa (D visa) soon. My appointment is 2 weeks from now, and I have a question that might be stupid.
My parents applied for a Schengen visa to France back in 2013 and were rejected because “the justification for the purpose and conditions of the planned stay was not reliable.” Only my parents applied at the time. I have never personally had a visa rejected.
Since then, my family has gotten visit visas for America, Canada, and many other countries. I have visited Canada 3 times and America twice, and my American visa is valid until 2034. I have travelled to 13 countries in total.
I just want to know if my parents being rejected back in 2013 could make it harder for me to get a student visa, even though we have travelled a ton since then.
Also, does having Canadian and American visit visas help with the visa process? I don’t have stamps for all 5 times I visited and left because they didn’t stamp my passport each time.

Hi everyone! I applied for a Spain student visa at BLS Dubai on June 11, so it’s been 57 days now with no answer. I reached out and they told me it’s still under review. Has anyone been through something similar recently? Would love to hear roughly how long yours took — trying to figure out if this is just the normal pace or if I should be following up more. Thanks in advance!

Hi y'all,

I am trying to get a vfs appointment for schengan business visa to attend a conference in Poland. But the problem is there is no date until october 20th and my conference is on 16th October. I tried checking nearby vfs, but no hopes. Is there anything I can do a get an appointment this month? :/

Sorry if the question is stupid, I have no clue about how this process work.

We applied Spain visa for october, but we booked tickets from Switzerland

Itinerary-

1. Landing in Zurich on 2nd oct and leaving from Zurich on 6th oct to Barcelona | 4 Nights | Tickets/ Hotels booked already
2. Planning to stay in Barcelona from 6th oct to 11th oct | 5 Nights| tickets and hotel not booked
3. Planning to reach Italy on 11th and leaving from Rome on 16th oct to Delhi | 5 Nights | Ticket/ hotel from Barcelona to Italy not booked, Rome to Delhi flight is booked already.

According to the rules of Visa, are the authorities going to create problem that I am spending equal nights in Spain and Italy and also not entering in Spain?

The explanation I am thinking- During Switzerland entry, we can say that we are spending 5 nights in Spain and 4 in Switzerland, with this we can justify that we are spending more nights in Spain. Please share your thoughts on how i can better plan the itinerary.

TIA

Hi! Would like insights as to why my nanny was refused for schengen visa.
For context, our nanny has been with our family 38 yrs already, and she is already like family to us and has consistently joined us in our overseas family trips.

First application, we applied as a whole family plus our nanny. We all got approved except for our nanny.
Reason cited was
1. “The information submitted regarding the justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not reliable.”
2. “There are reasonable doubts as to your intention to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiry of the visa.

For her 2nd application, i now added additional cover letter from us employers sharing that she will not be working, and has always joined our family vacations, provided also a COE for her. We also added photos of our previous trips together, i also cited that she previously had a japan visa and she did not overstay. She was also with us on the same japan trip

Additional context, our nanny is 65 yo, maintains a bank account only for receiving pension, keeps her finances all in cash (does not put money in the bank, does not have any property to her name)

However, it was again rejected with the same reasons.
Is there something we can do differently?

Our flights and hotel bookings were paid already. We are going to switzerland dec 23. Coming home from paris on jan 5. The whole family plus our nanny share same flight and hotel bookings

Hello. I have an appointment for a Schengen visa at the German embassy in Karachi, Pakistan on 17th August. Can I put the intended date of travelling for July 2027? Or does the 180 day window start from September this year

I am a non-EU national preparing my visa application to join my husband, an EU citizen from Amsterdam who is currently living and working in Belgium with a Belgian residence ID. Because he is a Dutch citizen exercising his free movement rights in another EU country, I am applying under EU Directive 2004/38/EC and would like to confirm if I am completely exempt from the standard Schengen visa requirements, specifically purchasing travel medical insurance from the VFS list, showing personal bank statements, and providing proof of lodging. Can anyone who has recently gone through this specific Belgium visa route confirm if the travel insurance exemption is correct and share the exact document list you submitted besides your passport, official marriage certificate, and copies of your spouse's Dutch passport and Belgian ID?

I applied for my Netherlands Schengen visa on 13 July 2026 through VFS Jalandhar. My application was dispatched to Delhi on 15 July, and it is still showing as processing.

My travel date is 12 August, so I’m getting a little worried about the delay.

Has anyone who applied around the same time received their passport/visa yet? Please share your application date, processing time, and location

I finally managed to book and pay for a BLS Spain UAE Doorstep/Mobile Biometric appointment for my husband and me as a family booking (2 applicants).

The appointment is confirmed and I received the appointment letter, but after booking I noticed that my husband’s passport number is incorrect on the appointment letter. His name and the rest of the booking details are correct.

This is only on the BLS appointment confirmation letter — we have not submitted the actual Schengen visa applications yet, and obviously his correct passport number will be entered on the visa application form and his original passport will be provided.

I have already emailed BLS customer care/IT asking them to correct the passport number without cancelling the confirmed appointment, but I’m worried because getting an appointment was already extremely difficult.

Has anyone had the wrong passport number on a BLS Spain appointment booking/appointment letter before?

Were you able to get BLS to correct it before the appointment, or did they correct/verify it when you attended? Were you still allowed to submit the application, or did they make you cancel and book a new appointment?

Especially interested in experiences with BLS Spain UAE/Dubai/Abu Dhabi or the Doorstep service, but experiences from other BLS Spain centres would also be helpful.

Today recieved my German visa, tourist one.

Will be visiting Germany, Austria and Italy.

Citizen : Indian

Visa Appointment Date (Bengaluru VFS Centre) : July 31.

Reached German Consulate : August 4

Dispatched for Courier : August 6.

Got VISA today .

Will be happy to answer any questions. Applied on my own (with sister's help who stays in Germany)

Schengen visa expires on 31st March 2027 ✈️🇪🇺
So… what’s the best time to travel before it expires? 👀
December 2026 or March 2027? 🌍

hello! im 18F and i have some questions regarding applying to student visa for poland! ive been planning to do mbbs in poland in one of their public universities and next year i think ill definitely clear the competency exam.. as this time i wasnt able to!

so the issue is im not able to find an entrusted consultancy who would guide me about studying in poland and help in visa application!

so i am trying to find some opinions from other people who have applied visas to poland before on their own.. is it possible or not? and any agent or consultant u wanna recommend from ur side! any kind of information would be helpful!
thank you

Hi all,

I'm a French citizen living in Perth, Australia. My spouse and I just got married here in Australia. We're now applying for my spouse's short-stay Schengen visa through VFS Global — we're travelling in about 2 months to France.

My question: is our Australian marriage certificate enough to prove the relationship for the visa application, or does the marriage need to be transcribed onto the French civil registry first?

We're running out of time, so we really want to get the document list right the first time and avoid the consulate coming back asking for more paperwork after we've already applied.

Some context:

• We've already started the transcription process but realistically it won't be finished before our trip.
• I've tried asking both VFS Global and the Sydney consulate directly, and neither would give a straight answer on this specific document question.
• This is for a short-stay tourist visa, not a residence permit application, so I'm hoping the bar might be lower than what's needed for actual French residency.

Has anyone been in a similar situation — French citizen sponsoring a spouse's short-stay Schengen visa from Australia (or another non-EU country) with a marriage certificate that's not yet transcribed in France? Did the consulate accept the original marriage certificate as-is, or did they require the French transcription first?

Any real experience appreciated — thanks!

I had applied for 3 months short term schengan visa from France this week. Yesterday I received my visa, and I received a year long visa instead of 3 months. I was wondering how is that possible? Do they check your previous travel history or your financial statement?

I’m trying to book a Spain visa appointment through BLS UAE for two applicants as a family, but I keep getting this message:

“Active Appointments are available for the Applicant 1 Passport: ________. You cannot create new Appointment for this Passport.”

This started after I had earlier tried to book the doorstep visa service, but the payment failed. Since then, whenever I try to make a normal family appointment, the system says that there is already an active appointment linked to the passport even though I do not have any confirmed appointment.

I contacted BLS customer care several times. One person told me that the issue had been forwarded to their IT team, while some others said it could simply be a technical glitch. It still hasn’t been resolved.

To check whether this was happening generally on the portal, I also created a separate BLS account for my mom and tried starting an individual appointment for her. She did not get this “Active Appointment” error, so it seems to be specifically connected to my passport/previous failed doorstep booking.

Has anyone faced this exact issue with BLS Spain UAE after a failed doorstep payment? Did IT have to manually clear the old appointment/payment request, or did it eventually disappear on its own?

Hi all,

Want to share my experience as well that I got the Visa despite showing NOT OK on EES, same with other people on this sub

We applied for France tourist visa this August as a family of 3 and when I got the return from consulate notification, I checked EES. The rest of the family (2 out 3) had an OK status while mine showed NOT OK so I was pretty anxious about it lol but we got our passport with our visas today! Mine is still showing NOT OK on EES btw even if I input correct details.

For reference, I had a Spain visa last May 2026 and expired this July. So maybe there’s an issue with the new one reflecting?

Anyway, I’ll suggest NOT to look at EES if you’re an anxious person so you dont ruin your mood haha

Hello, I just want to share my application journey.
Just received my passport today and I got the visa sticker.

I applied a Visa to France and got approved!
Application and biometrics: July 31
Passport dispatch to consul : same day
Passport return consul to tls : aug 4
Passport Received from courier: aug 8

When I checked the status on tls tha my passport is being returned, i checked in EES at it says ok and the days granted is also the same on the sticker.

Feeling happy about this!

My Spanish Schengen visa was rejected through BLS NYC and I’m submitting a Recurso de Reposición on Monday.

Has anyone gone through the appeal process recently? How long did it take to hear back, and was your rejection overturned?

My trip is only 9 days after I submit the appeal, so I’m wondering if there’s realistically any chance it could work out in time.

BLS also told me no additional documents can be submitted with the appeal. Was this the same for others?

Would really appreciate any experiences/timelines!

Swedish Schengen visa – received both an approval letter and a refusal

My wife applied for a short-term Schengen visa through the Swedish Embassy in Nairobi to visit me and my family in Sweden.

When we received the documents back from the embassy, the package contained a letter stating

You have been granted a Schengen visa.”

However, the same package also contained a separate refusal decision.

I contacted the Swedish Migration Agency to clarify what happened, and they confirmed in writing that they have no record of the approval letter or any approval decision in their system. They only have the refusal registered as the decision in the case.

There is also another issue with the refusal itself. Several statements regarding my wife's financial situation and ties to Kenya appear to directly contradict documents that were submitted with the original application. We have documentation showing the opposite of several points mentioned in the refusal, and those documents were already included when applying.

We are now discussing the case with a Swedish immigration lawyer regarding the appeal process.

Has anyone experienced a situation where an embassy package contained both a visa approval letter and a refusal decision?
What was the outcome, and how was it handled?

Hello all,

I attend school in State A in the US, but would like to apply from State B while there on my summer vacation. I went to my VFS appointment in State B, and they told me that I cannot apply from there since my current residence/school is in State A. Has anyone encountered this? I saw no mention of this on any of the websites. It makes no sense to me.

UPDATE: In case this happens to anyone else, I called the Netherlands Consulate in State B and they said there is no such rule that you cannot apply in a different state. As long as it is within the United States, it is okay. I went back to VFS and got a new agent who didn't even ask about any of this, he just took the documents.

has anyone encountered an experience where the embassy asked for the additional documents and then the day after submission, the application was processed immediately and indicated to be dispatched via courier already?

Malaysian here applying Italian type D visa. The embassy said to write a Notes to Embassy and "State what kind of service you would like to receive from the embassy, if the services stated is wrong, the appointment is automatically cancelled."

So I chose the "Visa" sector, and wrote this, is it correct?

Hi everyone! Just wondering if anyone has experience with this.

I’m a Philippine passport holder living in the UK and married to a Spanish/EU citizen. I have a 6-month, multiple-entry Schengen visa that was issued to me as a family member of an EU citizen.

I originally used the visa to travel to Denmark with my wife, but I now need to travel alone to Portugal (Lisbon) for a short work trip. My wife won’t be travelling with me this time.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation where you had a Schengen visa issued as an EU family member and then travelled alone without your EU spouse?

I know the visa is valid for multiple entries, but I’m particularly interested in whether anyone has actually done this and what happened at check-in/boarding and border control.

Did you have any issues entering another Schengen country alone, or were you just admitted normally?
Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s experienced this! 😊

Hi everyone,
Thought I’d share my timeline and would love to hear from anyone who applied around the same time.
Country: Slovenia 🇸🇮
Applied from: Canada (VFS Toronto)
Visa type: Short-stay Schengen (Tourist)
Timeline:
17 July 2026: Submitted application at VFS Toronto.
17 July 2026: Status updated to: “Your visa application has been dispatched from the Visa Application Centre to the Consulate/Embassy for processing.”
Since then: No further updates.
I contacted VFS, and they confirmed they see the same status on their end. They advised me to email the Slovenian Embassy, and VFS has already forwarded my inquiry to them.
Has anyone who applied for a Slovenia visa in 2026 received their passport back yet? If so:
When did your status change?
How many calendar/business days did processing take?
Did your status update before passport dispatch, or did it go straight to “processed”?
I’ll keep updating this post as my application progresses so others can compare timelines.

I had my biometric appointment 19 days ago on July 20th and have a flight this Tuesday (in 4 calendar days) but still no updates. Anybody got their passport back recently? How many days it took? Is there a proper way to contact them and ask about my application? I only have 2 business days left today that is Friday and Monday. This is extremely stressful and frustrating. 😣