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My husband who is an Indian software engineer at Microsoft in Seattle with a Green Card just had his Swiss Schengen visa rejected on the basis of: "The information submitted regarding the justification for the purposes and conditions for the intended stay was not reliable".

Should we:

  • Re-apply for a Schengen visa in Switzerland with additional invitation letters
  • Apply for a Schengen visa in France because that’s where our family lives and we will be spending almost as much time in France as in Switzerland
  • Appeal the decision

Are there risks to applying to a different Schengen country than the country we were rejected from? We don’t want to appear to be “visa shopping” by applying for a Schengen visa in France rather than Switzerland.

In only 45 days, we are supposed to travel to the UK, Switzerland and France to visit family. The purpose of our trip is to visit family. We have invitation letters and our family members are French and British. He has 3 previous Schengen visas (2 from Switzerland and 1 from Iceland) and a 2 year UK visa.

We’re spending almost as much time in France and in Switzerland, which I stated in our purpose letter. We can just skip Switzerland altogether and only visit our family in France.

Relaxed
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Meagan Teutsch
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    A visa refusal is retained in the Visa Information System (VIS). So the cause of the previous refusal still must be addressed when making a new application. – Mark Johnson May 19 '23 at 03:28
  • Something seems off here. Did he submit anything different from the first three applications that were granted? – phoog May 19 '23 at 08:30
  • Are you visiting family as in staying at their place? Do you have family in Switzerland? If not, what will you be doing in Switzerland? Tourism? – jcaron May 19 '23 at 10:04
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    Also, what's your nationality? If you have EU citizenship or nationality of an EEA country or Switzerland, the answer is going to be very different. I suppose you know this, but it deserves explicit mention just to be certain, especially since you mention French relatives. – phoog May 19 '23 at 10:11
  • I’m American and went to undergrad at Franklin University Switzerland, so we have friends there. We’ve visited Lugano Switzerland many times in the past. – Meagan Teutsch May 19 '23 at 13:41

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Are there risks to applying to a different Schengen country than the country we were rejected from? We don’t want to appear to be “visa shopping” by applying for a Schengen visa in France rather than Switzerland.

Yes that's exactly the risk. If you submit the same application, it's somewhat likely the other country's consulate would reach the same conclusion and it will be very easy for them to see the earlier decision and just check the same box on the form.

In fact, an appeal is very difficult and likely to be too long to rescue this trip and both other options are risky and not particularly likely to be successful. The safest way to proceed to secure future travel to the Schengen area would be to give up on this particular trip and apply again later (in 1-2 years) making sure you have excellent documentation.

Note that “justification for the purposes and conditions for the intended stay was not reliable” is not only about getting invitation letters but also about your credibility in general, see Schengen Visa Refusal: Justification for the purpose and conditions of the intended stay was not reliable. If you already had several (properly certified) letters, I don't see how one or two more are going to change much.

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  • Would you recommend reapplying to the same country we were rejected from and including more detail about our itinerary in Switzerland? I'm afraid our cover letter and itinerary was not detailed enough in terms of what we were doing on a day to day basis and more general dates of when we were going to be in Switzerland and France and Italy. So if we apply again with better documentation, do we have a chance? Everything else in terms of flights, bank statements, hotels, ect was detailed. – Meagan Teutsch May 19 '23 at 08:20
  • As I wrote in the second paragraph of my answer, my recommendation is to give up on that trip and not apply anywhere (not France and not Switzerland). Whether the refusal is meritless or there is some other reasons for it we haven't understood, immediately reapplying is likely to make things work and unfortunately I do not have any solution to offer. As @phoog commented something seems off. – Relaxed May 19 '23 at 10:13
  • One thing that's important to understand is that the reason for the refusal does not mean there is an issue with the itinerary per se. It could be about your husband's credibility, how he can afford 45 days off work, some red flags about your relatives or his situation in the US, etc. – Relaxed May 19 '23 at 10:14
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    @MeaganTeutsch "not reliable" doesn't mean that there wasn't enough detail. It could mean that they aren't convinced of some document's authenticity or of the applicant's credibility. It's puzzling that they would find such a deficiency in an application from someone with a green card and a positive travel history. – phoog May 19 '23 at 10:18
  • My husband is a senior software engineer with a tech company for 5 years, has a green card, and is eligible for citizenship next May,. He owns 3 homes. My aunt and uncle are French, we visit them several times a year and they’re also elderly, hence the need for us to visit and help them - we’re going for their 70th birthday too. We can cut Switzerland out of the trip, as we don’t actually have family there, but we really want to see my aunt and uncle who have medical issues in France this July… – Meagan Teutsch May 19 '23 at 13:39
  • @MeaganTeutsch Honestly, the refusal doesn't fully make sense to me but the fact remains that pushing through is risky and I would not recommend doing it lightly. Has he stayed in Switzerland for a long time before (you mentioned two earlier visas)? Why doesn't he have a French visa if you go there regularly? At the very least make sure the trip is significantly different (e.g. shorter, cutting one country) before you apply. – Relaxed May 19 '23 at 14:08
  • Also, am I understanding this correctly that both of you are travelling, you got a visa but your husband didn't? Or you are a US citizen yourself? – Relaxed May 19 '23 at 14:10
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    Thinking about it, being eligible for citizenship next May could change the calculation a bit. The risk of a new application is that a new refusal could make Schengen visa applications more difficult for years to come. But if and when your husband becomes a US citizen all this will be mostly irrelevant, at least as far as visits to the Schengen area are concerned. – Relaxed May 19 '23 at 14:21
  • At this point, given the date and time constraints, we’ll only visit France and Italy for most of the time and only Switzerland for a week – Meagan Teutsch May 19 '23 at 14:22
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    I’m a US citizen so don’t need a visa. If he’s denied again, at least he’ll be a US citizen next May any way – Meagan Teutsch May 19 '23 at 14:24
  • We spent time in Switzerland in the past since I went to undergrad there and lived there for 5 years. – Meagan Teutsch May 19 '23 at 14:26