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I'm planning to travel to the Netherlands, Spain and Bulgaria. My longest stay will probably be in Bulgaria. Now, Bulgaria doesn't issue a Schengen visa but allows people with a Schengen visa to visit. Which visa should I be applying for? Bulgarian Visa AND Schengen visa or just the Schengen visa for Netherlands or Spain?

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    Hasn't this been asked before a couple of times?
    – hippietrail
    Oct 12, 2013 at 14:11
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    @hippietrail Perhaps not exactly in this form, the connection with other questions about Schengen only becomes obvious once you know the answer to the question, i.e. the fact that the travel to Bulgaria does not matter.
    – Relaxed
    Oct 12, 2013 at 17:42
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    @hippietrail My question in Meta was about this, the answer for another question works with this questions as well, but since the questions are different I did not mark this as duplicate.
    – Nean Der Thal
    Oct 12, 2013 at 20:16

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The way I see this, you will need a Schengen visa in any case and therefore need to apply for one either from Spain or the Netherlands following the usual rules. The fact that you are also going to Bulgaria does not change that and Bulgaria obviously isn't the country where you are staying the longest within the Schengen area. And once you have a Schengen visa, I don't see any point in getting a Bulgarian one as well (provided you satisfy all relevant rules as far as Bulgaria is concerned – I assume this could mean staying less than X days, not working, having sufficient means, documentation of your return trip, etc.).

On the other hand, IANAL and I never went to Bulgaria on a Schengen visa so I have no personal experience to report.

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  • If I'm travelling the first few days in Netherlands and then the last few in Bulgaria, will I be issued a visa for the entire duration or will it be only for the duration of my stay in Netherlands?
    – tapan
    Oct 15, 2013 at 9:38
  • Created a new question for this here: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/21236/…
    – tapan
    Oct 15, 2013 at 9:48
  • You might want to check previous questions and other sources of information on the various types of Schengen visa. I assume you would need a multiple-entry visa (both to be able to travel back to Spain after visiting Bulgaria and for Bulgaria to accept it as a valid Schengen visa). If you have a single-entry visa or a visa somehow limited to your stay in the Netherlands, you would not have a valid Schengen visa when entering Bulgaria and would therefore need a Bulgarian visa at that point. But again, I don't know anything about the rules in Bulgaria.
    – Relaxed
    Oct 15, 2013 at 9:55

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