How to apply SCHENGEN Visa from the USA? Process, Documents Needed, Cost | Europe Tourist Visa 2024

hello everyone today I have brought a very uh helpful video for you all about the travel to European country from United States uh while you are not a US citizen we recently traveled to European countries few of them from United States uh while we are not US citizen uh we learned a lot uh about the about the application process what kind of Visa we would need what all the countries that we could visit uh and what are the challenges that that that we fac if you are living in the US with the legal status uh maybe in F1 or H1B or any other legal status and thinking of traveling to Europe this video is for you so we're going to talk about all of that here shortly without a further Ado let's jump right into it first of all let's understand what is sanen Visa first before that let's understand what is sanen okay we always talk about Europe European countries but we we hardly use the word senen senen is basically the list of 27 countries which have made a common understanding of uh of sharing lots of their uh rules regulations and stuff I'm not a legal expert uh making them a sent area yeah so for these 27 countries you can have a Visa for one place and that one place is an access to all 27 countries so you are not def you're not really uh bond to only one country you can visit any of those 27 countries so those are the sanen area and the Visa that you will get for these uh 27 country is called sanen Visa now these Visa uh are can be issued as a short term as a longterm or a Transit a short-term Visa would be considered any any any any any travel that you would make for less than 90 days in last 180 days a longterm would be more than 90 days uh and for a longer term stay a Transit would be like you know while you are you have a layover from your flights and stuff that's called transit Visa we traveled as a two tourist for 19 days or so in Europe so we applied for short-term tourist visa and and that's what we're going to talk about here uh so during our stay uh for those 19 days we went several countries uh so you can do that too so do you want to understand how we made it happen here here are we going to talk about all of that so now that you know what what is what is senen area what are senin countries what is senin Visa now let's understand who needs it do you need it it all depends upon few factors your nationality where you're burn or what's your residential status uh or any special circumstances so for instance if you are a United States citizen you do not need a sent Visa you can just fly get a Port of Entry over there get the visa stamp on a passport so easy but if you are a legal uh resident in in the United States uh you are on your F1 maybe you are in your J1 you might be here as an H1B H4 or any other legal status in in United States and you want to travel to Europe you will need sent Visa pre-stamped before you take that flight okay uh now there might be special circumstances you might be a diplomat you might be a you know government officials uh you might have some other uh uh special unique circumstances that we are not going to talk about I don't know those I don't have one of those special circumstances so we are not going to talk about that here today but what we are going to talk about is uh for those people who needs uh Visa uh stay and who are living in the United States not as a United citizen but as an immigrant okay you can check whether you need a Visa or not going through uh any of the official sites from these 27 countries that I listed before so let's uh I picked up France uh so I am in the France visas.com I just need to fill out the information is pretty straightforward nationality let's just pick uh I don't know uh any country here so uh to check whether the country uh citizen need that Visa or not so I'm in United States so let's pick this and I'm going as a tourist for less than 90 days I going to visit France um and I going to use passport as mine uh so all righty let's go here here you see it says you need a visa so uh I have to apply for visa and then if you want to go a little bit more I want to say like I'm traveling as a tourist my main purpose is the tourism uh then if I check it it'll also give me the list of different um documents that I will need my application fee which is €80 and things that is needed we'll talk in detail about these uh uh a little bit later uh now that we understood understood that you need a visa where do you need to apply for this Visa because there are 27 countries right so out of those 27 countries where should I apply for the sent Visa that really depends upon upon few factors okay uh if you are just traveling to one country as for your you know any specific reason uh then just apply for that one country and you're done with right it's easy now if most of the people what they do is when they go to Europe they tend to go to multiple countries so because it's so easy it's like going from one state to another states in United States right just drive to and you are now in Tennessee you were just there in Oklahoma the other day you know and so from now you you can drive to uh I don't know you can go to uh Nebraska and then now the next day you are in New York so you know you can drive around here in the United States you can do the same thing in uh Europe just but there instead of States you are visiting different countries they have inter countries trains it's so it's so awesome it's cheap uh you can do it you can make it happen so if you if you are in that situation then you would either apply for the country the first country that you're going to enter into okay or the country you're going to stay the longest meaning you are visiting three different countries let's say France it and Greece uh you happen to enter the France you stay there for 5 days you stay 10 days in Italy and then 3 days in Greece now you have multiple option you can either apply to France because you enter the senen area through France so you can apply on on on a French Embassy you can apply on Italy because you are staying the longest there but the rule of thumb is either wherever you enter or where you stay the longest but once you get the visa you can go to any of the 27 countries there is no limitation for that for us though we we were entering France and if France happened to be the a country where we stay the longest too we applied for uh for France and with France the way they have done their things is they have outsourced their visa process to VFS Global as a Visa partner so so what what happens is like you have to go to the uh French website fill out your application the sine application online uh once you fill it out you you'll pick where you're going to go for the for your uh Visa appointment at which location of the VFS so for me it was Houston in Texas so once you pick that up you fill it up you get a like a confirmation number you don't pay anything yet okay so once you fill it out use that that confirmation number to set up an appointment at the VFX Global VFX Global uh it's just a third party uh taking care of the uh the application process for the Visas so once you get an appointment then you will start collecting all the documents prior to your appointment so that you can take all the document to to the uh to to the to the appointment center okay okay uh now uh regarding the documents it's uh it's straight forward so first of all you will need a valid travel Document or a passport okay in most of the cases it will be passport uh your valid uh immigration status at the country you are in so so if you are in United States how what is your status in the United States if you are F1 F1 related document if you are H1B your employment related document if you are H4 your your spouse related document um if you have a green card your permanent residency card and stuff like that right so you need those information you need a uh you need to submit the photograph for your pass for your Visa so that has a special uh requirement so I would recommend just sign up for the uh op in for the the the photograph service at the VFS Global it's around $15 go for it don't worry about trying to hunt it down at the Walgreens because the one at Walgreens and stuff that they do uh that's the US Standard not the sine standard uh you would also need a cover letter explaining what all the documents that you have in the binder basically and an itary it's the most you need to have the itenary itinary is nothing but the uh list of things that you're going to be planning to do in your stay in this engine area don't don't burst your head on in into this I spent a lot of time and and came to a conclusion that this is not necessary to spend so much time all they are looking for is your plan and how you are planning to travel whether you actually know what you want to do you know it is for them to understand that you don't get lost or you don't get like you know surprises and stuff while you go for a multi-country trip uh in Europe right so it is for you to help plan your uh vacation uh so you don't have to worry about while you go there right so so all you need in that case is when are you entering which country you are entering how many days you are planning to stay in that country what are the basic things that you're planning to do uh how how are you traveling around is it train bus you're renting a car where you are staying Hotel friends stuff like that and then how many days in each country you'll be spending and which country you're flying back from so things like that you don't not need to say like in the morning I going to eat the breakfast that is at the this restaurant and I going to eat the lunch at this restaurant I'm going to spend two hours at the Eiffel Tower from 5: to 7:00 you don't have to say that detail all you have to say is I going to be in the Paris area visiting the Eiffel Tower and and the vicinity and doing some shopping that's it you don't have to spend way too much on to onto writing your itary the other other important thing is flight reservation they have a very strict rule they they want you to have a confirmed FL flight reservation my Tong cannot talk today you need a flight reservation that is confirmed so not like you know once you book on the like one of the American Airlines company where you have a 24-hour cancellation no can I mean 24-hour free cancellation and stuff without paying don't do that after 24 hours that's no more valid and whenever they are trying to issue a Visa if it's not valid you don't get the visa so try to get a confirmed uh flight reservation which is hard to get I understand I wasn't ready to spend $5,000 for my family on a flight without knowing that I going to get the visa and I wasn't 100% sure like exactly when I want to fly so for that there is like the Visa services like third party that you can use uh to book your reservation for your flight for what $150 or something that will give you the confirm flight and you can submit that to get your visa and once you get the visa you can buy the ticket the normal way you would you would usually do accommodation it's very important you have to have accommodation in place before you apply during the documentation that you're submitting you need to submit all the hotels that you have already booked for your stay as you have explained in your itinary you cannot just say I going to stay at my friend's place if you're going to say if I going to stay at my friend's place be ready to provide the the the document from your friend's city council stating that they allow you to stay there it is a much difficult process that you need a physical copy uh the hard copy not a not a not a emailed copy um that need to be submitted during your application so that's a difficult way to handle so try to go ahead and just book it from the like you know Expedia and stuff and you can cancel it afterwards it's not a problem once you get the visa you need a no OB no objection letter from your employer if you're an employee stating that they have already approved your vacation they don't have any concern you traveling to Europe once you come back from Europe you have your job ready for you and if you are a self employee or self- employer and then uh be be ready to provide the documentation stating that your absence of 10 15 20 days would not impact your business dramatically that your business should be closed once you come back uh you know just just bear that in mind to provide that the now the next thing you will need to submit is the bank statement make sure you have the bank statement in hand to prove that you have enough fund uh to to to to fund your vacation over there you will need a medical uh insurance for your travel not the you know uh the interance that you have from your employer that's not going to cut the deal you have to buy the the medical uh the travel medical insurance with minimum of €30,000 uh coverage for each traveler so during a stay in the countries that you'll be visiting so the good thing is if you buy a travel medical insurance it covers all the sine area make sure to have the dates correct you need to buy that you can buy that and then later on you can ask them to like you know cancel and then readjust according to your new plan but you you you need that to sub during during submission now that you have your document ready your visa interview date or the Visa appointment date is here there are a few things I I want you guys to be very um careful about right the first thing is be on time be on time be on time take the appointment letter that that you received on your email because once you walk in there there's somebody at the door security guard or somebody who may not have a scanner and things like that so all they need to have a physical copy as a proof to let you go inside for your appointment so make sure to have it handy print it uh print the the completed sent Visa uh form that you filled out on your on the like French website that I told you about earlier um you do not need that absolutely you do not need that because that's already been submitted but then just in case to show that hey I already filled out here's the reference number okay uh bring the copy of all the documents that you are planning to submit you do not need to submit the original document except your passport okay but just in case take the original also take the copies take make two copies one bundle to give it to the the VFS one bundle for yourself to keep uh you can print at VFS but it's not it's not free so bear that in mind you also need to make the payment during your visit there because until now you have not really made any payment uh uh or or you you you you already have on your while while setting up the application um so setting up the appointment okay but take take the payment method over there as well as well okay uh so now uh once once you have it there you're going to they're going to take your biometric uh they're going to take a photo of yours if you have if you have bought the photo service they will review the document that you're submitting okay uh and then uh if you are applying as a family make sure to have the copies on on all of it because um I'm not really sure how they did that for for for me and my spouse because I submitted them but then they put it in two different packets and then we receive the uh password separately so uh you know if you have a bank statement that is shared make two copies and put it in each bundle so that way you know if if if uh two different people reviews the document you know they they have the enough information in hand to make that decision as well okay now that all of this is done submitted you walk out all you you got to do is wait for the password to come to your house right uh now let's talk about the cost uh besides the other uh cost of like preparing the documents and stuff the application process itself is there's a visa application fee of 88 it's standard uh there is also an VFS application uh VFS appointment fee which is around $35 if you are opting for the photograph service it's around $15 um if you need to use a photocopy service at the VFS it's $150 each or something like that $120 uh there's a career fee a mandatory fee that you have to pay which is basically to receive the password back to you which is around $35 each uh so you're you're you're looking at around uh $200 to spend at the at the application process now you also have to bear this in mind that you have to buy the medical insurance ahead of time for for your time span uh which might which might be like $60 $70 to $150 depending upon if you're traveling by yourself versus your family uh you will also need to buy the flight reservation remember we talked earlier around1 $150 or so of each so uh there's that cost in there um and there there might be like you have to prepay the hotels and stuff there there are things that you're going to have to spend there as well so so you you you are looking at around like $300 to $400 uh expenses up up front to get your visa uh approved now usually like the the the approval process takes two to three weeks we got hours and 9 days U for both of us uh Eighth Day and ninth day I think we got we received uh two different mails for me and my spouse um but we we got it we got it pretty quick uh so once you get it all you got to do is finalize your trip buy the real tickets don't try to fly on the ticket the the flight reservation that you made at $150 I wish that was that cheap to actually fly uh but once you have it uh book your book your book your flights as soon as possible they tend to go up really quick um and then uh revisit your hotel bookings to make sure they align with yourself and then you're ready to fly to your destination and have all that fun but if you do not uh get approved uh then don't worry uh it happens there will there there might be uh there might be some uh document missing or there might be some other other questions they might have look into those review those uh ask and then uh wait for a couple of weeks and reapply uh with the with the proper documentation and addressing the things that they are talking uh to address once you do that you should be able to get your visa uh to visit your dream countries uh I know everybody want to travel um different countries in Europe we went to uh France uh Switzerland and Italy it was awesome uh we loved Switzerland the beauty we loved uh Paris uh with its uh art and Museum and Eiffel Tower and and the vibe the love you know and and uh venness oh my goodness you the the place with the water everywhere you know there's no car all you're doing is you know boting around uh taking like a water bus and stuff it was amazing experience for me and my family I know you guys will have fun as well don't wait if you have plans just do it uh it hardly took us two to three weeks to plan uh our our uh our vacation and then we made it happened and within a month we had the Visa uh and uh and we went there it was the wonderful experience our kid loved it uh he still draws Eiffel Tower everywhere you know he had he's he he he he was able to make a memory of of our vacation so that's how you buil a relationship within the family and um and and and that's what we carry as we grow old so don't hold go for it and you can do it nice talking with you all thank you so much for listening uh let me know if you guys want to know more about our trip uh any anything that you guys want to know uh I'm more than happy to answer in the comment section below or if you guys want me to make any other videos I'll be making more videos in future as well thank you so much guys bye

Channel: iShoot

Views: 1,133

Keywords: schengen, schengen visa, europe, tourism, usa, f1 student, h1b, h4, visa requirement, how to apply, how to, application, Europe tourist visa, paris, eiffel tower, France, Italy, switzerland, travel, medical insurance, travel insurance, application cost, cost, flight, reservation, accommodation, 2024, summer, vacation, Rome, indian, passport, nepali, asian, photo requirements, photo, vfs global, vfs, hotels, expenses, Houston, Biometrics, Texas

Id: YadjDX9sZIs

Length: 24min 0sec (1440 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 10 2024