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I am a Indian citizen, traveling to Paris via Frankfurt with a multiple-entry French Schengen visa.

Since, I have a French Schengen visa. Would I need to get an airport transit visa or transit visa just to change my flight in Frankfurt (I have a short layover of 2 hours) I will not be going out of the airport.

I am not sure if the German authorities would consider my first point of entry as Germany and deny my entry as my Schengen visa was issued by French authorities

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  • Are you on your way to France? That's unlikely to be a concern with a multiple entry visa in the first place but being in transit with a ticket to France (if that's your case) makes the fact that your visa was issued by France even less of an issue.
    – Relaxed
    Feb 17, 2016 at 21:59
  • I would be travailing from Jeddah to Paris via Frankfurt.
    – ASM
    Feb 17, 2016 at 22:24

1 Answer 1

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No, you don't need any other visa. You would not get one if you tried to apply for it.

On the other hand, your point of entry is indeed Germany, it's not even something that's a matter of interpretation. You will go through a passport check and get an entry there, at which point there is nothing physically stopping you from leaving the airport and driving through several countries if you want to. That's the way airport are setup everywhere in the Schengen area.

But allowing you to enter a country with a visa issued by another one is the whole point of the Schengen regulations (or at least one of its cornerstones). It's by no means mandatory to have a visa from every Schengen country you intend to visit (what would be the point of a common visa policy if it were the case?) nor even from the country you are entering first (as the rule is very clear: you have to apply to your main destination, not to the country of first entry).

In some very specific cases, showing up somewhere unexpected with a visa from another country can raise questions about the truthfulness of your application and your real intentions but in your situation, transiting through a major hub with a multiple-entry visa and a ticket to somewhere else, that's extremely unlikely to be a concern.

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