What's the quickest Schengen consulate to issue a Visa in London?
Basically I want to travel as fast as possible to France, and since any Schengen visa will work, I want to go to the consulate with the shortest processing time.
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3Have you seen Applying for a Schengen visa in another country than my main destination? Just because any Schengen visa would be valid for France, doesn't mean any Schengen country would be willing to give you the visa if you're planning to go elsewhere...– GagravarrApr 27, 2014 at 11:19
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1I don't know which one is the quickest, I imagine it can also vary over time (depending on the number of applications, holidays back home, etc.) but it doesn't really matter because if you only intend to go to France, other consulates should (and almost certainly will) refuse to consider your application. If you are in a hurry, it's even more important to apply to the French consulate and nowhere else because other attempts will probably just be a waste of time.– RelaxedApr 27, 2014 at 12:42
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Why not just call the respective consulates and find out whether or not they can process the visa in the time you need them to?– KarlsonApr 27, 2014 at 14:39
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1It all depends on your application and the evidences provided. France processed mine in 3 days. But every consulate says might take upto 2 weeks.– DumbCoderApr 28, 2014 at 8:18
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I couldsay "Probably Malta" but as pointed below, it is just a bad plan.– MadlozozMay 13, 2014 at 11:51
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1 Answer
As explained in Applying for a Schengen visa in another country than my main destination and elsewhere, you should in principle apply to the country that will be your main destination. There are a few other rules and procedures but in any case, you cannot simply chose a consulate that suits you, there should only be one competent consulate for a given situation.
If you apply to another consulate, you might get lucky but in all likelihood it will refuse to consider your application (as it should). In principle, consulates should do that quickly and then give you back the visa fees and all the documents you submitted so it's not as bad as a refusal but it would nonetheless cost you a few days.
If you are in a hurry, it's therefore especially important to apply to the right consulate from the get go (in your case the French consulate for your place of residence – not even another French consulate) and not waste time shopping around.
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Technically, you can just get a refundable plane ticket and hotel reservation for the country of your choice and then use the visa for a different country altogether. Lots of Russians living in St. Petersburg do that with Finnish visas, for example, since they can get one very easily.– JonathanReez ♦May 13, 2014 at 11:43
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@JonathanReez It depends on what you mean by “technically”. It would be fraud and grounds for annulment of the visa. But you might get away with it, yes.– RelaxedMay 13, 2014 at 11:48
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"Technically" means you can make it work. Whether or not you will get away with it depends on the embassy.– JonathanReez ♦May 13, 2014 at 12:54
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I would think that “technically” more commonly means “according to the regulations, if not in practice” but I did get what you meant. More importantly, I think success mostly depends on the border guards, actually. The consulate should have no problem issuing a visa for something that looks like a legit trip, the choke point is showing up elsewhere entirely and convincingly justifying that.– RelaxedMay 13, 2014 at 12:58
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You can get a visa (say) for Slovenia, buy a fully refundable flight from Paris to Ljublana, and fly to France. The border guards should be perfectly satisfied.– JonathanReez ♦May 13, 2014 at 13:10