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I’m an Indian passport holder planning to Tavel from Mumbai to Prague (transiting through Qatar) via Qatar Airways. As I’m going to spend more days in France, as per the rules I got the Schengen visa issued by France.

While I’m fully aware that I can enter Prague with this visa and in fact that’s the rule that I get the Schengen visa issued from the Schengen state where I’m planning to stay the most days, what if the airline officials insist on having a visa issued from the country I’m making the first entry?

I’m just reading some incidents of airlines denying for this reason and I’m concerned about this.

For eg

Was I wrongfully denied boarding for having a Schengen visa issued from the second country on my itinerary?

Should I do anyone of the following?

  1. Try getting an email confrontation from a Czech Republic official that I can go there. (I doubt they respond to such emails.)
  2. Keep the prints of the relavant EU laws regarding this. (Will that convince the airline officials if they’re in doubt?)

PS I tried asking Qatar Airways about this and there response was as usual:

  • It’s my responsibility to check the laws through the relavant embassies and they don’t have any say in it.
ABGR
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    If they do, it's their mistake. – Leaderboard Aug 12 '23 at 06:13
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    @Leaderboard true, but the satisfaction of knowing that you are right and they are wrong is small comfort if your trip is ruined. – phoog Aug 14 '23 at 19:22
  • I'm beginning to wonder whether it might be fruitful to apply to the country of first entry in order to get a refusal explaining that Schengen rules require you to get your visa from your main destination. Then bring copies of your applications for both countries showing your itinerary along with the rejection of the first application explaining why you need to apply from the other country. Only the most obtuse of ground staff would maintain that you have the wrong visa when faced with those documents. Alternatively, just show that you submitted the itinerary for the visa that was granted. – phoog Aug 14 '23 at 19:25
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    @phoog Ah, lol yeah that makes sense actually. But I had a limited time to get the visa to this trip and if I had gone through this process it would have resulted in waste of money plus delay in the actual appointment and the VFS appointments are hard to get these days. Alternatively, just show that you submitted the itinerary for the visa that was granted. I'm actually planning to do that. – ABGR Aug 14 '23 at 19:43
  • I'm sure. At least when your visa application is rejected they refund the visa application fee (but not the service fees of the third-party processor such as VFS). – phoog Aug 14 '23 at 19:50
  • Plus I'll try to refer them to FAQ of the France embassy site mentioning this scenario. Still crossing my fingers for sometimes these obtuse subcontractors do no listen like here: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/182865/what-action-can-i-take-against-turkish-airlines-for-denying-me-boarding – ABGR Aug 14 '23 at 19:50
  • @phoog Nope the visa fees is non-refundable. Plus that puts you in situation where you forever might have to answer as to why your visa was rejected once. Also, you can not take two appointments at the same time (since they link your passport number to the appointment) as per VFS. So you actually have to wait till your first application gets rejected and by then the slots for actual appointments will have been pushed even further so you might risk not getting the visa on time. – ABGR Aug 14 '23 at 19:59
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    Nope, if the application is rejected because it was submitted to the wrong consulate or is inadmissible for some other reason then the fee is refunded. See articles 18 and 19 of the Schengen Visa Code: When an application has been lodged, the consulate shall verify whether it is competent to examine and decide on it in accordance with the provisions of Articles 5 and 6. (2) If the consulate is not competent, it shall...return the application..., reimburse the visa fee, and indicate which consulate is competent. – phoog Aug 14 '23 at 20:08
  • @phoog Got it. You're right. Although the other issues I mentioned might still hold. – ABGR Aug 14 '23 at 20:11
  • So I traveled successfully without any problem. I had all the boarding passes issued at Mumbai itself. In Qatar, all they did was only perhaps matching my passport details with the boarding pass details. No one even looked at the visa also. In Mumbai however they did enquire if I was going to say in France the longest. Again no proof was asked though. – ABGR Oct 02 '23 at 05:24

2 Answers2

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Except for some less knowledgeable subcontractors at some airports, you are very unlikely to have any issues boarding your flight to the Czech Republic, people do that every day.

what if the airline officials insist on having a visa issued from the country I’m first entry?

Ask for a supervisor while staying cordial

If you have a confirmed flight ticket onward to France this is even better

If you are still wrongfully denied boarding, if you are taking a EU airline (or a Turkish airline), you can expect compensation of upward of €600 (depending on duration of flight)

If you're not taking a EU/Turkish airline, you may then, like in the linked answer, have grounds on filing a legal claim

Nicolas Formichella
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  • Thanks for the response. I’m taking Qatar Airways. – ABGR Aug 12 '23 at 06:56
  • "If you are still wrongfully denied boarding, if you are taking a EU airline (or a Turkish airline), you can expect compensation of upward of €600 (depending on duration of flight)" The difficult part will be getting sorted to the destination; to be re-booked for free someone in charge has to acknowledge an error has been made – Crazydre Aug 16 '23 at 20:50
  • So I traveled successfully without any problem. I had all the boarding passes issued at Mumbai itself. In Qatar, all they did was only perhaps matching my passport details with the boarding pass details. No one even looked at the visa perhaps. In Mumbai however they did enquire if I was going to say in France the longest. Again no proof was asked though. – ABGR Oct 02 '23 at 05:23
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Things like this happen. Also see this.

Despite these cases, I do not believe the mistake you have mentioned is a common occurrence.

Anyway here is a short advice: arrive well in advance to your flight. That gives time for asking for explanations, reporting to superiors, calling central offices for confirmation, re-checking regulations.

Quora Feans
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  • Gosh! This is what I'm worried about (the link) – ABGR Aug 14 '23 at 19:47
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    Arriving well in advance makes sense at the first airport. What if that happens at the transiting airport like in the link you’ve shared? :( – ABGR Aug 14 '23 at 20:55
  • @ABGR: I didn't mean to worry you more, but as I said, these are rare events. Airlines have no interest in denying boarding for no good reason, but they will deny boarding if someone doesn't have all the proper paperwork, since they would be incurring costs if one passenger gets denied entry at the destination. If something pops up, just keep calm and try to talk with the person. – Quora Feans Aug 15 '23 at 02:06
  • @QuoraFeans "these are rare events. Airlines have no interest in denying boarding for no good reason" I'm sorry, but I have extensive experience with this and really disagree. Handling staff are frequently misinformed about specific details/exemptions and often refuse to let themselves me proven wrong even with official proof. If they don't know about it, it doesn't exist (so they think) and they'll deny boarding without giving a toss. – Crazydre Aug 15 '23 at 17:39
  • @Crazydre: You have extensive experience with airlines that have a vested interest in denying boarding without a reason? – Quora Feans Aug 15 '23 at 17:48
  • @QuoraFeans Not a vested interest, but being incorrectly convinced they'll be fined if they board me and refusing to let themselves be proven wrong. – Crazydre Aug 15 '23 at 18:04
  • @Crazydre maybe if you write a blog or QnA here as to how you dealt with those situations (also how you got into them at the first place each time), it would help the community immensely. – ABGR Aug 15 '23 at 18:20
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    @ABGR Wouldn't be helpful as the (single) issue I've been facing (with a variety of handling agents, though not all) is too specific and not necessarily applicable to many other cases. – Crazydre Aug 15 '23 at 18:25
  • @Crazydre: I insist. If you have proper documentation, it's rare to be denied boarding. In the link I provided people are even surprised that this is a genuine case were someone had all proper paperwork, but was denied boarding. Obviously, millions of people travel every day, and you might find several cases of people unfairly left behind. Crazydre claims it has happened to him 10 times, which, I dare say, makes me curious about the peculiar circumstances. I can image that many ground contractors might misinterpret "primary destination" as "the first country" and not the "main destination" – Quora Feans Aug 16 '23 at 04:27
  • @QuoraFeans "If you have proper documentation, it's rare to be denied boarding" I'm sorry, but no. I've witnessed *way* too many cases IRL where I know 100% the people should've been boarded – Crazydre Aug 16 '23 at 10:37
  • @Crazydre: Could it be that you are focusing too much on negative, but rare, events? Just think about all the times when someone took a flight and nothing happened: no denied boarding, no children puking on the flight, no lost luggage, no denied entry into a country and no plane crash. Most flights are unremarkable. – Quora Feans Aug 16 '23 at 16:15
  • @QuoraFeans Most flights are unremarkable, but far too many are not, that's my point. Staff doing their job correctly is nothing remarkable as they're supposed to do it at all times – Crazydre Aug 16 '23 at 17:03