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I am planning to travel to Europe in two months. However, I could not find any appointment for a Schengen C visa for the next two and a half months.

Is there any way around this? What's the probability of me getting this visa? It would be a shame if I have to call off my vacation because of visa appointments not being available, or if I have to change my itinerary to include a country where there is a visa slot.

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  • More details are needed: your citizenship, country where are you applying in (i.e. country where you reside) and your European itinerary.
    – mzu
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 20:29
  • @mzu I reside in USA. I will first enter France, the same day I will fly to Italy for a week. Then Greece for 3 days. Finally from greece I will get back to France for 5 days.
    – Ace
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 20:32

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It appears that your main destination is France/Italy, so you should apply in appropriate French/Italian consulate. If the appointments are all booked, well tough luck.

I, however, would do the following in your case:

  1. Try contacting other consulates Same country, different consular districts. Maybe they will make a one-time exception.
  2. Can you apply for a Schengen visa from a country of your citizenship? It may be way faster.
  3. Some consulates (partially or in whole) outsource visa processing to 3rd-party companies (most notably VFS). Those companies can sneak you in front of the queue sometimes.
  4. Shifting 1-2 days of your journey from Italy to France or vice-versa will allow you to choose between the French and Italian consulates.
  5. Weigh the financial burden of changing your itinerary to the country with the shorter visa waiting queue vs cancelling the trip overall. E.g. spend several days in beautiful rural Lithuania. Last time I checked, the Lithuanian embassy in the Washington DC accepts walk-ins, and issues their visas promptly.

PS. Appointments for Schengen visas in the US are hard to get for some countries / some consular districts. The person I know planned her trip half a year in advance, and started looking for appointments back then.

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  • Thanks for the inputs. The sad part is I had half an year to book appointments. But never thought it is this big of a deal. I almost had it solved yesterday where I got a great slot with Italian Embassy, but alas! I forgot to book my wife and now I am back to square one. Curse my luck!!!!
    – Ace
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:14
  • Note, I still have two months. So it is really not neck to neck.
    – Ace
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:16
  • @Ace you can't apply more than 3 months in advance anyway. But applying in a consulate whose district you do not live in is not supposed to be allowed, even in your country of citizenship. You can try, but don't hold your breath.
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:28
  • @phoog Yeah but I think I could have blocked the appointment well in advance. Last time I checked in 2016, the slots were available next week! and for rest of the month. Dont know why I screwed up here.
    – Ace
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:35
  • @phoog About juristiction, yes that is very correct. Looks like they are pretty strict about it. Not worth taking chance over it.
    – Ace
    Commented Jul 3, 2017 at 21:36

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