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I am an indian citizen and I have a valid Visa for the US. Right now I am staying in US. I want to know whether it is possible for me to stay in Leeuwarden, Netherlands for one or two days as a part of my transit while going from US to India.

Do I need to apply for a short stay visa?

Karlson
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Ananth
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    Yes, you do as you would enter the Schengen area. Transit dispositions only apply if you stay in the airport. US visa might be relevant for transit but not entry, so all the regular Schengen rules apply. – Relaxed Mar 17 '14 at 19:55
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    Your visa is for US and not for the Schengen area. So if you want to visit the Schengen area, why do you think you don't need a visa. – DumbCoder Mar 18 '14 at 09:29

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If you have a US visa which is valid (i.e. already started and not expired yet¹), then you do not need a transit visa for airports in the Schengen Area, regardless of your nationality. This requires you to stay airside at the airport between a flight from outside Schengen and a flight to outside Schengen (which is not possible for all connecting flights). Since you're an Indian citizen, you would not need a transit visa anyway, only nationals of a few countries do.

To enter the Netherlands, as a national of India and most other non-European countries, you will need a Schengen visa. Since you will be staying in the Netherlands, you must get a short stay (type C) visa from the Netherlands. You need to apply to a Dutch embassy or consulate in your country of residence.

¹ An expired visa is ok if you're returning from the US after making use of this visa, i.e. if your visa expired on day D, you left the US on day D and are transiting in Europe on day D+1.

Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
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  • So what if I have a valid US F1 visa but my I-20 (which shows intent) has expired a while back? My visa doesn't allow me to enter the USA but I still have a visa stamp. Why do some countries only need a "valid" visa and not a "valid and functional" visa? Can someone shed some light on it? Is it just because they feel that since the US visa makes sure that applicants are rigorously probed (TSA pun there), they don't need a transit visa? – dearN Mar 18 '14 at 21:43
  • @drN so you don't have a valid US visa, yet try to use it to travel to the US? Expect to be denied boarding at your departure point, and if not expect a big stink on arrival. – jwenting Mar 19 '14 at 16:02
  • @jwenting No. Let me rephrase. I have a valid us visa. Does that mean I can transit this way: India-EU-Madagascar (because thats the cheapest ticket, say). Then what? What does having a valid usa visa and have to do with transitting via EU is my question. A valid US visa doesn't mean yuo can enter the USA. As a student you also need a valid I-20. So to reiterate: why the rule about US visa = no need for EU transit visa? – dearN Mar 19 '14 at 16:19
  • @drN I don't know why this rule was set up nor what the corner cases are. You could ask a separate question about it. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Mar 19 '14 at 18:53
  • @drN One issue is that US visas work differently than virtually every other visa in the world, which muddies the waters somewhat. – Relaxed Mar 19 '14 at 20:52
  • @Annoyed At the risk of annoying ;) you, in what respects would there be differences? Duration? I realize that I may need some traipsing into "expert" territory to find an answer to this. – dearN Mar 19 '14 at 21:00
  • @drN In other countries (certainly in the EU), a visa is a visa, period. It's not valid merely in conjunction with another document and it needs to be valid for the whole duration of your stay. In the US a visa is only needed for entry and you need to deal with all manners of other documents. As far as I know, this I-20 thing looks like a loophole, the intent seems to be to allow transit to people who can enter the US or return from it. – Relaxed Mar 19 '14 at 21:06
  • @Annoyed However, to add to your comment, the French long stay visa is valid only with a "convetion d'accueil" or "Hosting letter"? Or perhaps I am wrong about this. I thought the "convetion d'accueil" was a parallel to the I-20 or DS-2019 for a US F1 or J1 visa respectively. – dearN Mar 19 '14 at 21:10
  • I believe you need to submit that and much more to get the French visa in the first place. But once you got the visa in your passport, then it's valid on its own and should be enough to enter. I might be wrong about that, though. – Relaxed Mar 19 '14 at 21:14