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I am Indian national residing in UK and have been issued Schengen visa by Norway Embassy which is Type 'C', multiple entry and expires on 21st oct 2014.

Unfortunately I have never used this visa to travel to any country in Europe.

My question is whether I use this Schengen visa issued by Norwegian Embassy to travel to Switzerland for a 10 day holiday?

My first port of entry will be Geneva airport.

Please let me know if I can use this visa and if I need to carry some additional documents to clear immigration control when I land in Switzerland.

hippietrail
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vicks1
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    Have you been in Norway by this visa? – MikkaRin Jun 19 '14 at 13:03
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    See http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/26939/can-i-use-my-schengen-visa-for-a-completely-different-purpose-and-entry-point (nearly identical situation?) – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 13:10
  • FYI This question appears to have been asked identically in a bunch of different forums, such as here on flyertalk – Gagravarr Jun 19 '14 at 14:19
  • Never been to Norway. I tried applying to Swiss embassy for tourist visa - but they didnt accept my application saying that i already have a valid Schengen visa. I have cancelled flight and hotel tickets which were booked for Norway but the trip never happened - will it help to carry those and travel? – vicks1 Jun 19 '14 at 16:07
  • @vicks1 You can ask the Norwegian consulate to revoke their own visa (but you still need to obtain a new visa with all the delay and difficulties involved). I don't think that merely having some cancelled hotel booking with you will help. – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 19:18
  • One detail which I should have shared earlier is that I got this schengen visa in oct 2013 for business trip which got cancelled. It is multi entry visa which expires this year in oct 2014. I am in a fix now as either I can go to Norway on my personal cost or get this visa cancelled by Norway embassy and reapply with swiss embassy. Thanks for all your help. – vicks1 Jun 19 '14 at 19:35
  • You said one needs a schengen visa in conjunction with a travel document. Whjat document are you referrng to? AS – user60780 May 04 '17 at 19:29

2 Answers2

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New response from FOM, switzerland when i asked them what should i do next as i tried applying to swiss embassy but they didn't accept my application

Dear Inquirer

Schengen visas are accepted in conjunction with a valid travel document for entry into Switzerland. If not otherwise noted, the Schengen visa is valid for all Schengen member states.

While your Norwegian schengen visa is thus acceptable for entry into Switzerland you may be questioned at the border because you have not used it before and have no intention of visiting Norway.

We therefore suggest to you to take with you any documentation to prove that you have tried to apply for a new Swiss schengen visa but were not able to get one because it is not possible to hold more than one valid schengen visa at a time ( e.g. a printout of this email conversation and your application to the Swiss embassy). Further it might be helpful to take your UK residency permit with you, for further proof that you are a legal resident of the European Union and to dispel any doubts at the border about possible visa fraud.

We hope that this information is helpful to you. Please do not hesitate to contact us again, should you require further information.

Kind regards, Federal Office for Migration (FOM) Visa Team

vicks1
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    +1 Thanks for coming back and sharing the answers you got with us! – Relaxed Jun 20 '14 at 08:14
  • Also got this response from consulate -> "I can confirm that if you hold a valid Schengen visa you can travel to Switzerland for tourist and visit purposes. Kind regards Visa Officer Regional Consular Centre London c/o Embassy of Switzerland in the United Kingdom 16-18 Montagu Place, London W1H 2BQ, UK" - seems like i can use my visa for travel. Thanks to all who replied to this question!! – vicks1 Jun 20 '14 at 10:51
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It's not a good idea.

You issued visa in Norway embassy, but traveled to Swetzerland - Immigration officers may think that you try to fraud them.

Probably they will allow you to pass Switzerland border, but you will never get a Schengen visa again. Do you really need this situation?

The best way is go to Norway on your holidays to use the visa as intended.

Relaxed
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MikkaRin
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    This sounds broadly correct but I am not sure about the third paragraph. It seems border guards have three options: simply deny entry, annul or revoke the visa (which will leave a trace and can lead to further difficulties in the future and obviously also means denying entry) or do nothing. I don't see how you could enter and yet have problems getting a Schengen visa in the future. – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 13:11
  • Well, border guards cannot deny you to entry country, if all your documents is ok. As example, you may spend one day in Switzerland and than move to Norway - and this situation will be ok, because you will spend most of the time in Norway - that's why guards cannot deny pass through boarder. About new schengen visa - there must be stamps in your passport that you visited Norway - if there is no, embassy will have questions and if you have no evidence that you was in Norway( book from hotel, air flights and so on) you will never get visa. – MikkaRin Jun 19 '14 at 13:23
  • @Relaxed when requesting a new Schengen visa, the corresponding embassy checks the previous Schengen visas and how they have been used (stamps). The next consul will consider the chance that this person might not travel to my country, and just misuse it for other purposes. – Googlebot Jun 19 '14 at 13:27
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    @MikkaRin it is not common to deny a passenger with valid visa, but it is part of the visa terms: the final decision is left for boarder control. No visa guarantees entrance to the corresponding country. – Googlebot Jun 19 '14 at 13:30
  • @All I know this rule, but usually deny entrance with valid visa works only in extreme cases - passanges too drunk, aggressive, dangerous to society or carry with himself prohibited things and so on. – MikkaRin Jun 19 '14 at 13:39
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    @MikkaRin: Of course border guards can deny you entry to a country, even if you have all the necessary paperwork and it does not have to be an extreme case. The suspicion that you are planning to use your stay for other purposes than specified when applying for the visa is a good enough reason for many countries to reject immgrants at the border. – Tor-Einar Jarnbjo Jun 19 '14 at 13:49
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    @MikkaRin They definitely can deny entry especially if they think the visa has been fraudulently obtained. If they don't think that, then the point is moot. – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 14:26
  • @All True but that's only true for as long as you keep the same passport and you can easily renew it. OTOH, if the visa is annulled, there will be a record of it in a database and you're much more likely to have problems. – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 14:27
  • Below is the response i got from Federal office of Migration, Switzerland in regards to my query

    Dear Inquirer

    If not otherwise noted, the Schengen visa is valid for all Schengen member states.

    If you have no intention of visiting Norway and are planning a visit solely to Switzerland you would thus need to apply for a new visa at the Swiss embassy.

    If you do not plan on travelling to Norway, we do not advise you to try and use this visa for entry to Switzerland as you may be denied entry at the airport.

    What are my choices now?

     – vicks1 Jun 19 '14 at 16:11
  • @vicks1 This pretty much confirms Mikka's answer and my answer to the earlier question. You can find more details there but short of applying for another visa or actually going to Norway, there isn't much you can do. – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 19:17
  • One detail which I should have shared earlier is that I got this schengen visa in oct 2013 for business trip which got cancelled. It is multi entry visa which expires this year in oct 2014. I am in a fix now as either I can go to Norway on my personal cost or get this visa cancelled by Norway embassy and reapply with swiss embassy – vicks1 Jun 19 '14 at 19:35
  • @Relaxed European embassies normally ask for the copies of previous Schengen visas (past 3 or 5 years) along with an application. – Googlebot Jun 19 '14 at 22:26
  • @All Indeed. There is also a database of visas, but not of entries. Here again, having a visa being annulled is what you want to avoid the most. – Relaxed Jun 19 '14 at 22:31
  • Do I need to stay for one night or can i plan same day return from london to Norway?.. is there 1 night stay required to make it a valid trip to norway? – vicks1 Jun 20 '14 at 08:01
  • @vicks1 No, you would get a stamp in any case. But none of this is automatic, the point is to avoid raising suspicion in Switzerland. – Relaxed Jun 20 '14 at 08:14