Unable to schedule a Schengen visa appointment through VFS Italy. What are my options?

Question

I have to obtain my Schengen visa through the Italian embassy on the VFS global website. I am from Melbourne, Australia; my travel dates are in August, so the earliest I could apply is in May.

I am trying to book an appointment on the VFS website and it gives me an error stating "There are no open seats available for selected center - Italy Visa Application Centre, Melbourne".

What does this mean? It does not display a calendar and I have heard that the VFS website has technical/system issues. Does this mean there are no appointments available with VFS Melbourne?

It doesn't seem possible, when you can only apply 3 months ahead, that there would be no appointments available now for travel in August.

Answer 1

What does this mean? It does not display a calendar and I have heard that the VFS website has technical/system issues. Does this mean there are no appointments available with VFS Melbourne?

Nobody can answer this definitively except the people at the VFS/embassy

Re-purposed from an answer here for a similar problem with the French embassy appointment system

To move forward, you can pursue one of several options...

Start (very tactfully) haranguing them on Twitter about it.

Contact the consulate using their 'contact us' details and explain what the problem is. It's likely this may result in a problem ticket being raised at the IT support facility.

Book your appointment in Sydney.

Rework your itinerary such that you will land in a different Schengen member (thereby changing the cognizant issuer to say France).

Keep trying and trying to wait for the site to have something available.

Or ask them to read this.