Long Term Schengen Visa

Hi All,

I am an Indian passport holder having a valid UK visa till April 2019. I have looked online, but I was not able to find any documentation regarding this, so hence my query here.

Is it possible for me to get a long-term Schengen visa, say for 1-2 years? I would need to travel frequently with my new role and my company is willing to help me for any letters required for the visa.

I have business contacts in Spain (and friends in Schengen area) who are willing to help providing letters to support the case. Are there any long term routes to gaining a Schengen for Business/Work or Tourism? Your guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Hello there,

A long-term visa is a residence permit which means that you intend to live in that country. Moreover, such visas are not Schengen visas, they are national visas which do not give you the right to travel across the Schengen zone.
What you probably mean is that you need a short-term visa (fora stay for up to 90 days in each 180-day period) which would be valid for 1 or 2 years.
The thing is that the visa application form does not offer an option by choosing which you can request a visa for 1 or 2 years. All that you can choose is the number of entries - single, double or multi. But even if you choose multi, there is no guarantee that 1. you get the visa 2. the visa will grant you multi entries.

From our experience I can tell that the Spanish Consulate in London usually issues visas for one trip only. The French Consulate does issue visas for up to 5 years but only if one or more of the following applies to you:
- You are married to an EU national
- You hold the Investor UK visa
- You can show substantial amount of money in your CURRENT bank account and provide proof where the funds come from (e.g. employment letter and pay slips)
- Your passport and UK visa are valid for more than 5 years.

Please note though that even if you satisfy these conditions, no one can guarantee a visa - doesn't matter what validity. Only the Consulate decides on this after having studied your paperwork.

Right, it is possible to get a schengen visa with a validity from 1 to 5 years which give the right to stay for 90 days in a 180 days period. The applied length of the validity goes to field 31 in the schengen application form. Field 25 should be 90 and field 24 should be multi entry.
There have to be good reasons to get such a visa for business.

Thanks Cayos and mgb. The information you provided is really helpful. The role I have involves lot of business development in EU, which requires me to travel frequently (and on short notice) in EU. Do you have any suggestions on how the documentation should be to be able to get such a long term visa? Also which embassy would you recommend (France like you said), if any, to make such application? I have heard one has higher chances in some than other. Your response would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

Maybe it is possible to get a so called van der Elst visa from the embassy of the main destination.
You also have to think about work permit or at least registration of your stay on the van der Elst route.
A schengen visa don't give you the right to work.

premramachandran wrote:Hi All,

I am an Indian passport holder having a valid UK visa till April 2019. I have looked online, but I was not able to find any documentation regarding this, so hence my query here.

Is it possible for me to get a long-term Schengen visa, say for 1-2 years? I would need to travel frequently with my new role and my company is willing to help me for any letters required for the visa.

I have business contacts in Spain (and friends in Schengen area) who are willing to help providing letters to support the case. Are there any long term routes to gaining a Schengen for Business/Work or Tourism? Your guidance would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Its unclear what the length of your business visits would be from the information above, but if they are short and frequent for business purposes (not employment in the schengen region) then a circulation visa would fit the requirement. This would permit you entry for up to 90 days within every 180 day period. You may want to look at the following topic which has a discussion around what would be required to qualify for one. http://www.immigrationboards.com/europe ... l#p1371026

The question is what the reason for the business trip is.
Attending business meetings is not defined as working.
Supervising something and give orders/advises is working.

Yes, reading the next response from the OP, I'd say a lot would depend on the context and what is meant by business development - business visit or employment? I've used a schengen visa for attending meetings and participating in knowledge sharing workshops as part of global programmes of work in the schengen area in the past, all while being permanently employed in the UK.

Thanks guys. The business meetings would could be attending conferences or meeting prospective new Clients or meeting existing Clients for providing support. The duration of these visits are expected to be short 3-4 days maximum. It is the frequency which would be quite high. I would have travel at least twice a month.

premramachandran wrote:Thanks guys. The business meetings would could be attending conferences or meeting prospective new Clients or meeting existing Clients for providing support. The duration of these visits are expected to be short 3-4 days maximum. It is the frequency which would be quite high. I would have travel at least twice a month.

Based on that I'd say a circulation visa would fit your need as indicated in response below. You can take a look through the topic linked there to see my experience when I applied for one for business travel.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/postin ... #pr1402847