The Schengen area includes 26 member states of the agreement of the same name. It is necessary to obtain a visa in the participating country where the largest number of days of stay is planned.
Despite the Schengen agreement, the list and execution of the required documents varies somewhat depending on the consulate of the intended country of visit. The rules for filing and the types of visas issued also differ. At the same time, it is worth emphasizing that there is, one might say, a single list of mandatory documents that must be collected in advance, regardless of which visa you plan to receive.
Documents for obtaining a Schengen visa
Much depends on what kind of Schengen visa is requested: tourist, national, transit, one - double or multiple. Most travelers apply for a tourist visa, therefore, documents for this type of visa will be discussed below. For a tourist visa, it is necessary to prepare: a certificate from work, certified by the signatures of the head and the seal of the enterprise, indicating the details of the company, position, salary, date of issue of the document; statement of accounts, cards, savings books at the rate of 60 euros / day per person. If you do not have passbooks, bills and cards, you can buy traveler's checks or ask your next of kin to sponsor.
In addition, you will need a questionnaire of the country of visit filled in in Latin letters; copies of foreign and domestic passports; 1-2 photos 3, 5 * 4, 5. By the way, some private visa centers require three photos. The third is clearly for the center itself, since no embassy requires so many photographs. It should be borne in mind that if the tourist is the director of the company, the chief accountant, the personnel department must sign the document, but it should not be signed with his own hand.
Major differences in visas of some consulates and practical advice
The Consulate of Spain, by default, sets half-year multi-entry visas (multiple entries), with a stay of no more than 90 days. Documents differ in design: a photocopy of all pages of a valid foreign passport is required, photocopies of all pages of an all-Russian passport are also requested. It is advisable to provide photocopies of previous canceled passports.
The consulates of Italy and Greece put visas exactly under the trip, if a tourist travels for the first time to the country. If not the first, then they can deliver from 3 months to a year. On a Spanish visa, you can immediately go on vacation to any other state of the Schengen zone, and this will not be an obstacle to issuing a re-visa. However, receiving the German Schengen, it is better to go to Germany for the first time on it, and only then to travel on it freely across Europe.
Moreover, you should not first enter the aforementioned Germany on a "foreign" visa, if it is not transit, aircraft docking and other situations where your stay in the country is insignificant. German border guards will certainly ask why you have issued, for example, a Finnish visa to travel to the country. If they do not hear an adequate answer, they may well not let you into the country.
Observing the above simple rules, there will be no problems with obtaining any visa. A vacation or a regular trip will be easy, and the impressions will only be pleasant.
