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It is quite easy to find out whether or not a given consulate is likely to issue a multi-entry visa. However a multi-entry visa could in theory be issued for a small duration of time (such as a month), which would make its advantage void for most practical purposes.

Does the EU publish any statistics on which consulate is more likely to issue a long term (6+ months validity) C visa? With that information in hand, one could choose a Schengen country to visit for seasonal vacations.

JonathanReez
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  • All my Schengen visas were multiple entry however of short duration, two months at the most. They were from the French, Spanish and German embassies. – Augustine of Hippo Aug 20 '18 at 08:52
  • What do you mean with a 'long term' visa? Do you mean a type C short-term visa with long validity, or do you mean a type D national long-term visa? Type D visas are usually not issued for tourism at all, but for settlement purposes. – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo Aug 20 '18 at 09:50
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    @Tor-EinarJarnbjo Good point. I'm referring to C visas with a duration of more than 6 months. E.g. the US routinely issues 5 or 10 year visas to all applicants. – JonathanReez Aug 20 '18 at 14:42
  • @MusoniusRufus yep, which can be very annoying for people who live far from the nearest consulate of that country. – JonathanReez Aug 20 '18 at 14:43
  • @JonathanReez the US issues visas on a reciprocity schedule that depends on the applicant's nationality. This may or may not result in a five- or ten-year visa. Russians, for example, get a three-year visa by default. But that's not particularly relevant to the Schengen area. The maximum validity of a Schengen short-stay visa is five years (Article 24). – phoog Aug 20 '18 at 14:52
  • @phoog many applicants expect to receive a five (or at least one) year visa if they're a frequent traveler, but often consulates ignore their pleas and force them to spend a lot of money on visa applications each year. But there might be consulates for each country that are more reasonable. – JonathanReez Aug 20 '18 at 15:37
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    @JonathanReez sure. The Schengen Visa Code specifies (also Article 24) that applicants for multiple-entry visas with a longer period of validity should "prove the need or justify the intention to travel frequently and/or regularly" as well as "prove his integrity and reliability," and the US handles the same issue differently. I agree that it could be helpful to frequent travelers to know whether certain countries are more likely to consider such a request favorably. I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about how the US system works. – phoog Aug 20 '18 at 16:05
  • Also note that in some cases the application must be submitted to a consulate that isn't the nearest one. For example, much of southwestern Connecticut (except Fairfield county) is in the jurisdiction of Germany's consulate in Boston, even though it is closer to New York City in terms of both physical distance and the rail network. – phoog Aug 20 '18 at 16:15

2 Answers2

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Russian media publish extensive statistics on this topic, based on polling of people who applied the visa.

However, this will vary per country of issue and even per consulate in a country (such as Finland consulate in St. Petersburg giving long visas much more eagerly than one in Moscow, on account of border proximity).

alamar
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Looks like this will vary based on many factors. Citizenship, place of application, passport validity, country applied to. Mine issued by Austria was 14 days long and one issued by Denmark was 21 days long. Both tourist visas, former issued in the US and latter in Canada.

Bhushan Kale
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