we´re trying to obtain a Schengen-visa for a visit (one week) for the brother of my wife.
- We are both Belgian living in Switzerland, he´s Lebanese living in Lebanon.
- Let´s assume for a second that he >>does NOT count as a family member<<, so we´d just like to obtain a "normal" Schengen visa.
- He planned to come to Switzerland from June 11th through June 18th.
- I advised him to get an appointment with the Swiss embassy as early as possible, thus 3 months before the trip. (I think that´s the maximum you can apply in advance?)
- He thus called on March 05th, hoping to get an appointment on March 11th.
- Answer from the embassy "it´s far too early, call back in a month or so". Nothing really specific, just blabla...
- Next call April 05th
- They tried to put him off again, but with lots of persuasion
- he managed to get an appointment for May 18th
- which is more than one month later, and only 3 weeks before the planned trip.
- Add 2 weeks for handling, so his visa would be (dis)approved ~10 days before (hopefully) flying!
- What happens now is exactly what we feared: The price for his planeticket is skyrocketing, furthermore we can´t book trips and hotels in advance...
- Next call to embassy on April 13th
- outlining above timeline and asking to bring the appointment forward
- reply: "It´s high-season anyway, your tickets won´t change much from now" (Who the F$*% is the Embassy to say something like THAT???)
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to deal with this?
I think the Embassy clearly doesn´t know what they´re doing, or are deliberately stalling this application.