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I hold a UK tier-2 work visa (Indian citizen) which will expire in May-2018 and I'm looking to apply for my first schengen visa. My aim is to receive a 6-month multiple-entry schengen visa for which I have two options -

  1. Apply through the French embassy: Itinerary would be around a week in France and a week in Germany. I know of at least 5-6 people who managed to get a 6-month multiple-entry schengen visa by applying for a 2-4 week vacation through France. Some of them didn't even visit France, they made ghost bookings for the visa but if I go by this route I will visit France as I'm not too keen on breaking the 'visa rules'

  2. Apply through the German embassy: Itinerary would be two or three 5-day trips over a course of 6 months. Justification for this would be that my girlfriend works in Germany and also I would be staying with her (she has a blue card but it's just been a month since she moved to Germany) However, the German embassy page states that the maximum duration they would provide a visa for is just 90 days? (link -> http://www.uk.diplo.de/Vertretung/unitedkingdom/en/07/Visa/1Info-Schengen-visa/Schengen-Visa.html)

I'd rather not visit France straight away so would prefer #2 over #1 provided that #2 is not a hopeless cause. I'd very much appreciate your thoughts/suggestions/experiences.

Note: I'm also planning on calling up the German embassy to enquire as well but wanted to check here first!

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  • Related, if it doesn't actually answer your question: Least Strict Schengen Visa Application? - France or Italy – Michael Seifert Jul 12 '17 at 15:23
  • Your concern about Germany confuses the visa's period of validity with the allowed duration of stay. As a visitor, you can never stay in the Schengen area for more than 90 days out of any 180-day period, so a six-month visa will be limited to 90 days' stay. That's what they're referring to. Visas longer than six months will also have a 90-day limit, but the limit applies separately to each 180-day period, so the maximum days you could spend in the Schengen area with a visa valid for longer than 180 days is actually higher than 90. – phoog Jul 12 '17 at 17:13
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    You can see case after case after case after case of people right on this site, who lied, and will never ever be able to travel to Europe again. To try to save $200, it is nuts. Really, don't do it. – Fattie Jul 12 '17 at 19:32
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  • With Schengen C visa, you can stay for a maximum of 90 days out of every 180 days. That maximum applies regardless of the number of visa or the countries which issue them, and individual visa may specifiy a shorter duration and validity.
  • It is a very bad idea to lie (those ghost bookings you mentioned). If that is found out, your credibility on this and future applications will be damaged.
  • Generally, multiple-entry visa are given to applicants with a history of single-entry visa, or when a single trip takes the applicant into and out of Schengen several times (like a trip to France, the UK, and Italy in that order).

As an UK resident, you may be seen as a low-risk visitor, but the general principle still applies.

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