SCHENGEN VISA ; 3 Things Need To Prepare

For Philippine Passport Holder

It took me about 1 year to prepare all necessary documents for applying for schengen visa then I was approved within 3 days for 90 days tourist visa that allow me to visit 26 countries of the European Union / Schengen area.

I will suggest that prepare all the requirements ahead of time and arrange the appointment at least 30 days prior to your departure.

Mandatory Requirements & Supporting Documents – Make a checklist and gather all mandatory requirements and supporting documents. You can download all the forms you need, checklist etc at the Embassy/ Consulate website of the country you will be staying at the most and apply for a visa. In my case I apply and make an appointment at ( vfsglobal ) It will show you what type of visa you must apply, how to apply and what you gonna do after submission, where and how to track your application online.
Round Trip Reservation Tickets – Look for travel agency/operator that can find the best route and make a flight reservation for you. In my case, I pay only 500 pesos and once I decided to book a ticket with them, the tour operator will less this 500 pesos in my total payment for the plane tickets. Remember that you don’t need to booked and pay for the tickets. One must have only a copy of the reservation of the return ticket for the time intended to be traveling.
Travel Insurance – The travel medical insurance policy is to be secured, covering any medical emergency with hospital care and travel back to one’s native country due to medical motives. This health insurance policy has to cover expenses up to 30,000 euros, the sum depending on the residing days, and also it has to be valid in all Schengen countries. They say the health insurance must be purchased before picking up the visa and if your visa is refused you can cancel it but I will suggest you must find insurance company where you can purchase insurance before applying visa & can refund payment once you refused. I will recommend AXA Insurance Company. Click here . I purchased online and they immediately email my insurance certificate. Superb hassle free!

When you are have done with these 3 things, you can now make an appointment to the embassy for the submission of all you gathered requirements and supporting documents. When applying for the visa you should bear in mind that you have to personally hand the required documents once you’ve made an appointment at the embassy/consulate.

Be neat and clean and make sure you dress presentable & be on time during the date of appointment and once you did interview and submit all papers, you can now relax at home and track your application online and pray that your visa application will be approved then wait until courier deliver your passport with visa!

VISA FEES

Tourist visa fee is 60 EUR. Note that the visa fees must be paid online using a credit or debit card. Aside from the visa fee, VFS will collect a service fee of 1535,00 PHP during my application it´s only 1, 233 PHP for each visa application. VFS accepts payment in cash at the Norway counter in VFS during your appointment date. Please note that an additional courier fee of 3,00 EUR will also be charged to cover the cost of sending documents to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

You can check here all documents you need depends of what visa category you will apply according to your purpose.

Reminder! Never put any pins or staple your documents or papers together.

PHOTO SPECIFICATIONS

Use a colored photo with a plain white background.
The photo must be no more than 6-months old (not used in any visas).
Not tilted picture (portrait style) showing both edges of face clearly (hair behind ears).
Close up of the head and top of the shoulders so that the face takes up 70–80% of the photograph.
A photo in sharp focus and clear.

Reminder! Never staple just paste or glue your picture on application form & bring extra photo during your appointment date.

PROCESSING TIME

Approximate processing time is 3 or 7 days including sat. and sun. to 15 working days.

However, case processing time depends on each individual case. Applicants are advised to apply several weeks before their intended journey, but not more than 90 days in advance. I’m luckily approved within 3 days.