Applying for Schengen Visa. My UAE residence visa will expire before 3 months from the day of departure from the Schengen area

Question

I am a Indian passport holder who is currently living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Last year (2012) we got Schengen visa and visited Czech Republic and Austria for 10 days.

For this year (2013), I am planning for our summer holidays (July 15th - August 21st) with the family in Europe - France, Italy, Switzerland. However I came to know from the consulate web sites that the documents required for an expatriate UAE residents, the residence permit should be valid for at least 3 months from the day of departure from the Schengen area. Since my residence visa would expire on October 3, I am not sure if I will get the visa or not.

My questions are:

1. Whether France, Italy & Switzerland emphasize on this 3-month residence visa rule and would they reject the visa on this particular reason.

2. Is there any neigbouring countries which don't emphasize on 3 month UAE residence validity. If so I could travel to that country first and then continue with rest of my planned trip.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, yes I know that Fr, It, and Switzerland will in fact follow visa requirements very closely. My father worked in the UAE for many years, and this was something we had to deal with.

There are still currents of public discontent of what is seen as overabundance of immigration from the Middle East in many parts of the EU. This leads to occasional rhetoric from politicians about restricting immigration from these regions. I know that you are asking about just a visiting visa, but it has been my experience that such pressures tend to make the rules more closely enforced. You will note that the UAE wasn't put on the no-visa list despite campaigning.

On to question 2. Depends on what you mean by neighboring, but for the most part, no all the countries in the EU act the same way in this regard. It is part of the point of the EU to have equal protection in at all the boarders, then ease of travel within the EU once you are there. I'm afraid to say your best bet would be trying to renew or extend the UAE visa you have, but that's not a really hopeful plan (to in effect get 2 sequential visas before July).

Best of luck.