Schengen VISA with (-PL) or other ( - )

[JoeBloggs1759]

Hello,
I've got ILR on a Trinidad PP and I've been living in the UK for 11 years . In that time I've applied and received at least 8 Schengen visa's for/from France, Italy, Holland and Hungary which was a year ago. Last week I applied at the French consulate again and this time was issued a 12 month visa except it came with the following print:

ETATS SCHENGEN (-PL)

I can only assume this means ALL Schengen states except Poland. On phoning the Polish embassy I was told I must apply directly to them. I've never been to Poland, I didn't think they even knew or cared about me so why force me to apply directly? Isn't that in contradiction to the Schengen acquis and EU Directive 2004/38/EC?

Is it simply economics, i.e. they want the money to subsidise their London embassy or am I just being a sync?

JoeBloggs...

[86ti]

It is possible for individual member states to exclude their territory but I think they need a good reason for that. Have a look into the visa code for details, see Article 25 and Appendix VII. Is it possible that your passport is not valid in PL?

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

It is worth asking the french embassy what that means. You might also ask a french border guard when you are next entering France.

Since you have been in the UK, you might want to consider getting a British citizenship. It would save you the money and hassle of future visas, and allows you free movement in the whole EU