I'm a South African on UK Res Perm as fam mem of EEA national (unmarried partner 9 years). Traveled recently to SA, with stop over in Madrid. To be safe I applied for schengen thru spain as 2 years ago I had a really bad experience with a connecting flight in France to SA (flew in to Orly, and catch connecting flight to from CDG, I'd done my research and did not need a schengen as my partner was traveling with me but they detained me in Orly and even thought I had the paper work and emails confirming my rights they did not understand me/know the rules) was nightmare! Anycase, to ensure this did not happen again I applied for multiple entry schengen thru spain (besides the Madrid stopover, I'm also going to Ibiza 1st week June with hen party so partner will not be coming with) submitted ALL evidence in March with a nice letter explaining the situation, but was only granted a 2x entry spanish visa, and only for the duration of my SA trip to cover the stopovers in Madrid. I was really annoyed, think it's a money making racket as this is not my first spanish one, they did the same 2 years ago (only issue for small duration). Now one of my best friends from SA will be moving to Berlin, and I want to visit her too before my trip to Spain, to keep it all under one schengen as I've had so many that my passport will be full soon, only got between 4 and 6 continiuous pages left (so 3 more schenens then it's full). Now also I DON'T want to apply thru Spain ever again, I promised myself I'll not give money to them again
I got the idea that I could apply thru Czech (this is supposed to be free I gather as my partner is Czech, his parents do this but they both live in SA so the situation might be different in applying over there) thing is since we are not married I have to prove my durable relationship (I thought I could send lease agreements and dual bank statements) and now I read on their web that I don't need a schengen when I'm traveling with or without my partner to Czh
http://www.mzv.cz/jnp/en/information_fo ... index.html
(I was planning on arranging for us to go to Germany thru Czh, we can say hi to the family before going on to my friend in Germany). What's the likelyhood of them issuing me one that's multiple and at least 3-6 mths? And if they reject on the basis of me not needing one, is there any ground I can stand on in appealing for one?
Reason I mentioned France in my topic, in my experience they were the most lenient with issuing schengens (last year I got a nice 3 month one from them, multipe entry) but this was done thru an agency and cost over £120 with extra fees. Now they've changed their systems too so not sure if they are more difficult now.