Schengen Visa For Spouse of British Citizen?

Can somebody please tell me if my wife, who's a Ukraine citizen here in the UK on a 2-year spouse visa, needs a Schengen Visa to visit France or other European countries within the Schengen zone for the purposes of a holiday? I am a British Citizen and we are resident in the UK.

Enquirer77 wrote:Can somebody please tell me if my wife, who's a Ukraine citizen here in the UK on a 2-year spouse visa, needs a Schengen Visa to visit France or other European countries within the Schengen zone for the purposes of a holiday? I am a British Citizen and we are resident in the UK.

Yes she does mate.

Or, no she doesn't according to EEA directives. But the reality is unless u want a relentless battle with every jobsworth on the way just get the (free) visa. Mind u getting it for free is another battle. Better just pay the 40 Euro or whatever it is now.

Thanks Wanderer.

However, it seems almost impossible to get an appointment at the French Embassy in London. Didn't fancy sending her passport by post.

Wanderer wrote:Or, no she doesn't according to EEA directives. But the reality is unless u want a relentless battle with every jobsworth on the way just get the (free) visa.

I don't think this is strictly true as the directive actually says:

"Family members who are not nationals of a Member State shall only be required to have an entry visa in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 or, where appropriate, with national law. For the purposes of this Directive, possession of the valid residence card referred to in Article 10 shall exempt such family members from the visa requirement."

539/2001 has the Ukraine in it's list of countries requiring a visa.

Wanderer wrote:Mind u getting it for free is another battle. Better just pay the 40 Euro or whatever it is now.

My wife got a schengen visa from the French embassy a couple of years ago and from the Italian vice-consulate yesterday, and wasn't asked for payment either time.

Wanderer wrote:

Enquirer77 wrote:Can somebody please tell me if my wife, who's a Ukraine citizen here in the UK on a 2-year spouse visa, needs a Schengen Visa to visit France or other European countries within the Schengen zone for the purposes of a holiday? I am a British Citizen and we are resident in the UK.

Yes she does mate.

Or, no she doesn't according to EEA directives. But the reality is unless u want a relentless battle with every jobsworth on the way just get the (free) visa. Mind u getting it for free is another battle. Better just pay the 40 Euro or whatever it is now.

The wife does not have an Residence Card so does require a visa, even according to the Directive.

Wander - which embassy has been giving trouble about issuing a visa for free? I know of no instances of spouses being charged.

You get charged an extortionate amount when you call the automated service to make an appointment at an embassy, all EU embassies have 090 numbers which charge £1 per minute and take about 10 minutes to get through all the blurb and book the appointment (often 60day + wait until the appointment). They tell you about five minutes into the call when the next available appointment is, I have rung more than one embassy trying to get a quick appointment. France and Spain always have long waiting lists.

The French Embassy has a website where you can apparently book an appointment online but in the three years my husband has been applying for schengan visas there has not once been an appointment available to book this way.

I think the charge wanderer is refering to is the cost of applying through an agent. If you have already booked tickets, etc. might be worth it rather than risk losing out on your holiday while waiting for the appointment.

A lot of EU spouses manage to get 12 month multiple entry schengan visas from the French / German embassies but I really think this is down to the nationality of the person applying. My husband (who has an EU/UK wife - me) has only ever been granted 6 week or 3-month schengan visas - some of which were only single entry (from france, greece, spain and germany) but then he is Albanian - apparently something of a crime in europe. I wouldn't risk travelling with him with just our marriage certificate and EU Directive in my bag - they make enough fuss at check-in/immigration/boarding when he has a valid schengan visa in his passport.

I could rant on all day about this (sorry) but it really is an incredibly frustrating experience, and some of the questions he has been asked when applying! The Greek Embassy said that rather than giving him a schengan visa they could arrange for him to 'go back home' for free - they were even offering to pay his flights - from the UK! Thought things would be better once he had ILR but not noticed any difference. Not sure if Ukranian citizens are treated as badly as Albanian. But I would recommend getting a schengan visa - it's just not worth the added hassle when travelling. If you need to travel soon might be worth paying a fee to an agent - you might manage to get a 12month visa and then you're sorted for a year.

Thanks for all the replies and advice.

It does appear that my wife, as a Ukraine citizen, will require a Schengen visa to travel to France or other EU countries in the Schengen zone:-

According to 539/2001/EC (Information pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement.

The Ukraine is listed as a third country so she cannot travel freely in the EU with me without a Schengen visa.

We will try enquiring through the Schengen Office (Courier service) in Lodon to see if they can get her a visa. However, the cost of the visa is £48 and the courier service is £94 = £142 !!!

Enquirer77 wrote:We will try enquiring through the Schengen Office (Courier service) in Lodon to see if they can get her a visa. However, the cost of the visa is £48 and the courier service is £94 = £142 !!!

Why are you using them for a visa? Why not apply directly at the embassy of your destination? Cost = £0 !!!

I too found that getting an appointment with the French Embassy to make and submit and application for the Schenegen visa is very difficult. To get round this by using a agent can be costly.

For spouses of EU citizens it is worth noting that additional appointments are issued every Thursdays at 4pm. I had been trying the online appointment system for ages and managed to get an appointment by checking at this time - Ofcourse not all embassies operate an online booking system and charges £1 per minute!

Directive/2004/38/EC, I presume you mean at the Emabssy of France in London? We can't get an appointment there and we've been trying to get one for the last 3 months without success.

We don't want to risk sending my wife's passport by post.

Pasha, out of interest, how long did you have to wait for your appointment after booking your appointment on-line?

I did try looking at the Thursday 4pm update time without success but I'll keep trying.

Once you go onto the appointment system, available dates will appear in bold. You select the most suitable and you will then be prompted to enter your details such as applicants name, passport details etc.

Once you fill in those details, the appointment letter is automatically generated for you to print out then and there. It is advised that you should print it as you will need to show it on the day of the appointment to be let into the embassy.

I actually had to cancel my appt because I did not think I could make it. I sent an email to cancel a week prior but as it turned out..I could have made the appointment after all. So I turned up anyway and was let in.

I just explained I did not think I could make it but that turned out not to be the case. They were fine about it but I must admit, I expected a huge queue of people submitting their own applications in person. That was not the case, although the person infront of me in the queue worked for an agency and had more than 10 applications forms in his hand. So my guess is that most of the appointments are booked up by these agencies as it states that it is one appointment per passport. This makes it understandable why some applicants opt to do it via an agency.

A lot of EU spouses manage to get 12 month multiple entry schengan visas from the French / German embassies but I really think this is down to the nationality of the person applying

MarieB, I don't think any embassy issue schengan visa for more than 3months and maximum of 6months validity for a EU spouse. Do you personally know anyone who got for 12 months? I would be interested to know...

The German embassy processes things pretty efficiently and will do visas for spouses of EU citizens by post (be sure to send by special delivery!). I would go Germany if I had the choice! (Vacation sounds good at this point).

I am non-EU spouse of a norwegian citizen. Norwegian embassy has the same £1/min automated appointment booking system. We were told that we don't need to book appointment through that system. My wife took just my passport and our marriage certificate and i was granted 1 year visa within 8 days. I didn't even had to visit the embassy. I though i'd share my unusually simple experience. All the nordic/scandanavian embassy staff seem to have alot more humanity & patience in them.

All the nordic/scandanavian embassy staff seem to have alot more humanity & patience in them

I agree with that as I had few visa's from them and I have seen and had personal experience of being treated very well than any other embassy's.

eliasuk4u wrote:

A lot of EU spouses manage to get 12 month multiple entry schengan visas from the French / German embassies but I really think this is down to the nationality of the person applying

MarieB, I don't think any embassy issue schengan visa for more than 3months and maximum of 6months validity for a EU spouse. Do you personally know anyone who got for 12 months? I would be interested to know...

My husband got a 12 month schengen visa from the French embassy last November.

At last!! Just managed to book an appointment at the Embassy of France in London for my wife to get a Schengen visa!!

If anyone else is keen to get a Schengen visa for France, there are spare appointments NOW in the last week of May! No need to wait until 4pm today, they've had extra appointments on their website since this morning.