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A Russian citizen, permanent resident of the US, lives in the US and travels to Russia 3-4 times a year for about a week or two. Since most convenient flights for her habe an intermediate stop in Europe (e.g. Frankfurt, Helsinki, Paris, Milan, Reykjavik) she would like to exit the transit area of the airport and spend a day or two in the country of transit.

At present, she applied and received multiple short-term Schengen visas from Finland, Sweden, Iceland, France and Germany (about 5 total). However, despite her requests the visa was always granted in the C-1 category (30 days validity) single or double-entry. The visa process is very time-consuming (collecting all the paperwork) and has to be planned many months in advance (waiting line for German consulate is 1.5 months as of today). She, to the best of my knowledge, has always complied with the visa requirements, has a reasonably well paying job (>$100K) and some property in the US. However, each and every time the visa granted is C-1 with 1 month validity and with the duration of stay for tje exact duration of transit +1 day.

Why? What is the secret to obtaining a multiple-entry Schengen visa with at least half a year validity?

It turned out that receiving a MEV does not mean it is in any way a long-term one. The next visa received is a MEV, but for the exact duration of the trip: 14 days.

The current table for Schengen states US consulates, sorted by % of MEVs given per consulate: enter image description here

PS. This question partially overlaps with this one. However, the forms were always filled requesting multiple entries, so the answer provided in the linked question is not sufficient.

mzu
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    One solution would be to apply for naturalization in the US. – phoog Jun 24 '17 at 17:36
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    C1? C1 is a US visa, not a Schengen visa – Crazydre Jun 24 '17 at 17:40
  • @Crazydre or maybe it's just a mistaken identification of a C (short stay) visa. In some versions of the sticker, the number of entries is listed to the right of the type, so you get something like Type: C Number of entries: 01. Since the question is about how to get a multiple-entry visa, and the traveler is a US green card holder, this is a much more likely interpretation than that it is a US C-1 (transit) visa. – phoog Jun 24 '17 at 20:12
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    @Crazydre, see e.g. this http://www.esteri.it/mae/en/ministero/servizi/stranieri/ingressosoggiornoinitalia/visto_ingresso/tipologie_visto_durata.html – mzu Jun 24 '17 at 20:36
  • @phoog, not a mistake. They are actually being referred to as such on respective government sites. E.g. http://www.esteri.it/mae/en/ministero/servizi/stranieri/ingressosoggiornoinitalia/visto_ingresso/tipologie_visto_durata.html – mzu Jun 24 '17 at 20:37
  • @mzu but the C1 visa described on the page you link to does not match the visa described in the question. The page describes a multiple-entry visa valid for one year (which would satisfy the question), while the question describes a single- or double-entry visa with 30 days' validity. From this I conclude that the designation "C-1" or "C1" varies from one Schengen state to another, and that one of the five countries named in the question, at least, uses the designation differently from its use in Italy. – phoog Jun 24 '17 at 20:42
  • @mzu Ah, get to something new every now and then! However, even Multi visas would be of the C type for visitors, and could be C1 (if it's a one-year Multi visa). The relevant part is that she's only got single or double so far and not multi – Crazydre Jun 24 '17 at 21:24
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    I once had got a multi-enter visa from German visa center in Moscow valid for three days. – bipll Jun 10 '18 at 05:57

2 Answers2

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First you have to realize the logic behind multi-entry, multi-year visas: they're given out to legitimate visitors who are constantly visiting the Schengen area for tourism or business. People visiting for transit are generally not the kind of travelers who need multi-entry visas, since you can usually stay in the airport transit area. Hence the solution is to start visiting the Schengen area for a purpose other than transit. Here's what your friend should do:

  1. Pick a country that's likely to give out multi-entry visas in the first place. We have a question on this topic already. Make sure to check out this multi-entry statistics table and only apply at the consulates of the countries at the top. That's very important since technically multi-entry visas are not supposed to be issued for tourists, as outlined in the Handbook for the processing of visa applications and the modification of issued visas - section 9.1.1.3. Number of entries.
  2. Plan a tourist trip to the country of your choice and ask for a multi-entry visa, showing your previous transit visas as proof of your established character. Don't mention the word transit anywhere in the application - remember that tourism should be your primary purpose of visit.
  3. If you successfully get a visa at the first attempt, fly to the country as planned, spend a few days there, and then head to Russia. Try to visit the same country again a couple more times before you apply again, just to make sure you're not seen as a 'visa shopper'.
  4. If you don't get a multi-entry visa at first, still fly through that same country, however on your way back to the US you will need to avoid exiting the transit area. Apply again afterwards and it's extremely likely that you will finally get the right visa.
JonathanReez
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  • Thanks. She applied using your advice. She specifically asked for multi-entry visa valid for at least 1/2 year. At the German consulate counter she was told: "this is not possible for tourist visas in your situation. Only business visas or visas to visit close relatives would do". We'll see what the actual visa will be – mzu Jun 26 '17 at 20:11
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    @mzu her mistake was that she applied at the German embassy. Next time check out this chart and only apply for the countries at the top. – JonathanReez Jun 26 '17 at 20:18
  • wow, the numbers in the chart are really surprising: such a large discrepancy between DE and AT, low chances for CZ, you'd think ES (tourism-dependent) would be higher... do you have an idea, why it's the way it is? – LLlAMnYP Jun 29 '17 at 07:40
  • @LLIAMnYP it depends on the country. Czechs are simply way too protective of precious Schengen visas (although they've improved - see my updated link). Spain issues a lot of visas in former colonies which skews the statistics. – JonathanReez Jun 29 '17 at 07:55
  • @JonathanReez, what is the source of this table? This table: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/visa-statistics-2016/ says 82.58% of MEVs issued for Germany, putting Germany close to the top of the list. – mzu Jun 29 '17 at 17:56
  • @JonathanReez, I see what your problem is. You averaged the results of the last 3 years. In Germany, in particular, the results were 82,6%, 27,8%, 23,9% for 2016, 2015 and 2014 respectively. With 3x difference between measurements, averaging makes 0 sense – mzu Jun 29 '17 at 17:59
  • @mzu as you can see stats can change wildly between years, so an average gives you a better perspective. Personally I'd apply for Finland - there are plenty of flights from there to both Russia and the US. – JonathanReez Jun 29 '17 at 18:06
  • @JonathanReez, Finland was the first choice. She loves Finland, I enjoy a Helsinki stopover. However in the Finnish consular district we are in, Finnish visas are handled by Sweden. 2 visas: 1 - single entry, 1 - double entry for the duration of stopover: (5 and 7 days) – mzu Jun 29 '17 at 18:13
  • @JonathanReez, I posted last year table for the US consulates specifically – mzu Jun 29 '17 at 18:15
  • @mzu great point! I didn't think about looking up individual consulates. – JonathanReez Jun 29 '17 at 18:19
  • @JonathanReez, It turned out that receiving a MEV does not mean it is in any way a long term one. Next visa received is a MEV, but for the exact duration of the trip: 14 days. :( – mzu Jul 03 '17 at 18:36
  • All this Schengen MEV statistics is utter nonsense. I was once issued a MEV with 2 days validity (for the purpose of transit). No doubt it's counted in this MEV percentage ratio, to make everyone see how liberal Schengen visa regime is, but in reality it's mockery. – ach Jun 10 '18 at 14:29
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I'm a Russian citizen and US resident as well. My advice to you: always apply for a Schengen visa in Russia! I have had 1 and 2 years multi-entrance Schengen visas, and now I got a 5 years one! This would never happen if I apply in one of the US embassies. For some reason, they're giving out short visas only (I've heard this before, that's why I never go there).

Glorfindel
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Angela Parker
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