Schengen agreement, location of entry
 

If I get a Schengen VISA granted for a Schengen agreement country do I need to enter the country who granted the VISA first or can I go through other Schengen countries using that visa beforehand?

Also how would you guys compare the living costs in France to England? Thanks!

Also it's going to take me maybe a good six months to get to our first Schegen country, the dutch embassy website says the earliest you can apply for a visa is three months ahead of your arrival. Can I apply in a country on the way of which we only have a tourist visa for? Or? Maybe this is the first time this subject has been addressed here - the VISA is not for me but for my wife whom is an Indonesian passport holder.

Thank you.

In 2006 we tried to get a Schengen Visa for Germany, our port of entry was to be Frankfurt. The German Consulate in San Francisco, California told us we had to get it in Germany. By the time 6 months were up we were in Spain. We tried to get a Spanish Schengen Visa and were told we had to get it in our home country (USA).

We found that NO ONE cared about the amount of time we had spent in the Schengen area. No one looked at the dates of entry and exit in our passports and did the calculations. Some of the entry/exit stamps had unreadable dates. Also we left the Schengen Area and got more stamps (two weeks in Morocco) that only served to add confusion to which stamps an agent would need to subtract to get the total days out of the six months and see if it exceeded the 180 allowed. All of the EU is open bordered and there are no passport checks. Although it is not an exact match to Schengen it is close. And the border to Norway (non-EU, but Schengen) had a voluntary check-in for persons importing declarable items. There were no border guards in a booth.

Going into any of the old Eastern Block countries (Baltic States, Poland, Czech Rep., Hungary, etc.) or the British Isles takes you out of the Schengen without any border check, hence no stamp in passport, because they are part of the EU. These days do not count towards your 180 but there is no way for a border guard to figure them because there is no stamp in the passport.

If you are planning on spending years in the Schengen I'd recommend the Visa, but if you're going to be there for a few months beyond the limit (like we were) and traveling around then I'd say forget it.

Of course, this is based on our personal experience and your experience may vary!

Have a great time!

The first entry to the Schengen Zone should be in the Country that issued your Schengen Visa. Make sure they stamp it at the border on the first entry. That then validates the Visa which you can then use during its period of validity to come and go, in and out of any Zone countries either from other Zone countries or from outside.

There are no controls or checks at road borders between Schengen countries once you are inside the Schengen Zone - just at the point of entering/exiting the Zone.

(NOTE. UK and Ireland are NOT in the Schengen Zone - Google 'Schengen Zone' to see which countries it includes)

Living costs are pretty similar in France to England. If anything France may be a little cheaper except in biggest cities, Alpine ski areas and Mediterranian Riviera - the weather is better too!

As far as I know you'll have to apply for the visa in your home country, and will not be able to do it on the way. In theory. Whether or not you'll find an embassy that will be able to grant you a visa from a foreign country I don't know, but given the sheer number of countries you might be lucky.

Regarding the point of entry: due to the fact that you'll be getting a visa for one specific country that happens to be valid in all other Schengen countries as well you have to enter the Schengen area by way of the country that issued your visa. The Spanish immigration officers will have no clue how to deal with a Polish Schengen visa and vice versa. Once you're here there will be no passport checks whatsoever anymore - there are no borders between Schengen countries and if not for the small signs that welcome you in a different country, you might not even notice you've just passed from Spain to Portugal to France to Luxembourg to Germany to ......

There are borderposts between Norway and Sweden. Both are Schengen-countries, I guess it’s because you enter or leave EU. It might be the same elsewhere.

I’ve met several people with an Italian Schengen-visa who entered Schengen in France.

Hmm. Not sure I'd agree about the comparative living costs in France and the UK. This summer we found Germany quite a bit more expensive than the UK, and France MUCH more expensive. I'm talking here about food, drink, fuel, shopping. On the other hand hotels are often more expensive in the UK.

hi,

as a turk and a turkish passport holder, i also need schengen visa to go to west. you do not have to enter schengen area where the visa is issued. for example, i had the schengen visa from spanish embassy last summer to go to morocco, however, i entered to the schengen area from greece. the embassy told me that, i need to get visa from the country where i will stay longer. in this case, i have stayed in spain total 9 days, greece 4, italy 3, france 4, thus i have applied to spain embassy. you also have to book hotel or you have to have letter of invitation to proof it.

hope this helps.

good luck.

I read above some confusion about entering Schengen Zone countries.

The FIRST entry into the Zone of a new (unused) Visa should be into the country that you applied to for that Visa. You should get it stamped by that country's entry border people as proof you did. That validates the Visa.
Once validated you are free to enter and exit the Zone through any member country as often as you wish until the Visa expires. This includes crossing the borders between member countries - which are virtually non-existant.

If the first entry according to Passport stamps is not from the issuing country that country will not issue you with another Visa (if the Clerk follows the rules). Also they can refuse a further Visa if the majority of past Visa use appear (from Passport stamps) to be in another country - "Go to them. Application refused!".

Apart from possibly Norway where I don't know (AliBaba may be thinking EU Customs Controls are Border Controls), you can move around between member countries without Border controls. Thats the whole idea of the Schengen Agreement!

Airlines always ask to see passports or other identity for security purposes even if on a Zone internal flight. On flights into the Zone they also ask to see it for a second reason also - so they don't get the bill for taking you back if you did not have a valid Passport/Visa for entry on landing.

My Partner needs Schengen Visas (I do not) and over the last 5 years we have regularly entered Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Sweden - by air, rail and road - from outside the Zone (Russia or UK) as well as 'internally' from within the Zone, moving among those countries.

Sometimes at the French Entry Eurotunnel control there is no-one on duty, or too busy reading the paper and just wave us through without even seeing a Passport cover, but we stay there until someone appears and insist they stamp her Passoprt for the reasons above.
We make sure we know the rules, and make sure we get it right, because she needs continuing Visas for business purposes - as well as being with me!!

If you don't trust our experience it's all here -
Schengen Area - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
if you believe Wiki, that is.