Schengen visa question

[Pablo2023 0]

My fiance who lives in Belarus is planning on obtaining a Schengen visa so we can meet in Poland in May.  I'm being told she needs to show a bank statement with an amount equivalent to approximately 17 euros per day for 365 days to obtain the visa (approx 6900 Euros).  Evidently her account just needs to show this amount.  I was under the impression the amount you were required to show was for the duration of the trip. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

[millefleur 5,039]

**Moved from Off Topic to RUB regional subform; OP is more likely to get relevant answers there**

[Boiler 43,804]

I have not heard of this, I do know that getting a Polish visa for tourism is next to impossible. Turkey seems a popular destination and can personally recommend it.

[millefleur 5,039]

Are you still planning the "marry in Poland" thing you mentioned in your post from last year? Is there some particular reason why Poland? Many others have had better luck with Schengen visas to Greece or Italy.

 

 

[Pablo2023 0]

Yes, we are still planning on getting married but I think we may end up getting married in Prague instead since it looks much easier to do there.  She is in the process of getting her Schengen visa to Poland right now.  

[Boiler 43,804]

Lots of options to get married, less to get a Schengen visa.

[millefleur 5,039]

14 hours ago, Pablo2023 said:

Yes, we are still planning on getting married but I think we may end up getting married in Prague instead since it looks much easier to do there.  She is in the process of getting her Schengen visa to Poland right now.  

Why Poland? From news around here, this is one of the most difficult countries to get a tourist visa to right now. It seems Greece or Italy are much easier. 

 

We have a thread on the topic here: 

 

[PG0305 1]

For those who have SUCCESSFULLY  gotten a schengen visa for themselves and/or their beneficiary, I have a few questions about the process-

1. Is it true that you should not mention during the schengen process that you are going to Warsaw for the visa interview? I've had lawyers tell me this and withholding info at any stage of any visa process seems strange. 
2. Does my Russian fiancee need a return ticket for a Schengen visa? Related to the above, should I buy a refundable return ticket back to Russia for my fiancee and then cancel it and get a refund if we are hopefully issued the visa? Our plans are to fly together directly back to the US from the Schengen Zone. 
3. Has anyone successfully received a Spain Schengen visa from the Saint Petersburg office? Spain looks like our best choice because of flights and statistically they seem to have approved a lot of Russians.

Edited April 27 by PG0305
Adding another question.

[k0nstantin 5]

1 hour ago, PG0305 said:

For those who have SUCCESSFULLY  gotten a schengen visa for themselves and/or their beneficiary, I have a few questions about the process-

1. Is it true that you should not mention during the schengen process that you are going to Warsaw for the visa interview? I've had lawyers tell me this and withholding info at any stage of any visa process seems strange. 
2. Does my Russian fiancee need a return ticket for a Schengen visa? Related to the above, should I buy a refundable return ticket back to Russia for my fiancee and then cancel it and get a refund if we are hopefully issued the visa? Our plans are to fly together directly back to the US from the Schengen Zone. 
3. Has anyone successfully received a Spain Schengen visa from the Saint Petersburg office? Spain looks like our best choice because of flights and statistically they seem to have approved a lot of Russians.

1. I haven't heard such advice, but I can see the logic here. Visas are issued for a specific purpose, and if you are getting for example a Hungarian tourist visa it should be (at least primarily) for a trip to Hungary for the purpose of tourism. According to consular bureaucrats if your primary intent is to go to Poland you should get a Polish visa. The fact that you can't get a Polish visa is your problem, not theirs.
2. You should read the list of requirements on the embassy's website, but AFAIK they normally do require a return ticket.

[PG0305 1]

We are going through the process of trying to get a Schengen visa to go on to Poland and things are not looking good. Spain was our first choice and what I bought (refundable) plane tickets for but when we login, we only see "there are no appointments available." The same is true of Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Iceland. Italy has one appointment available but it is days away from our scheduled visa interview in Poland. Greece is another option that we are looking into. 

Can anyone offer some guidance or a success on securing a Schengen appointment, preferably from Spain? Are there certain times of the month that new appointments are released? It seems that there are walk-in appointments but that is no guarantee. I also understand that going to a travel agent wouldn't help either. 

I feel incredibly stupid for not looking sooner for Schengen appointments during the "busy" season for tourism and don't want this to sink the rest of our plans.

[TBoneTX 43,493]

Third post on this topic has been removed.  Everyone sympathizes and wants to help, but please post only once on the same topic.  

[BenNomad 86]

21 hours ago, PG0305 said:

We are going through the process of trying to get a Schengen visa to go on to Poland and things are not looking good. Spain was our first choice and what I bought (refundable) plane tickets for but when we login, we only see "there are no appointments available." The same is true of Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Iceland. Italy has one appointment available but it is days away from our scheduled visa interview in Poland. Greece is another option that we are looking into. 

Can anyone offer some guidance or a success on securing a Schengen appointment, preferably from Spain? Are there certain times of the month that new appointments are released? It seems that there are walk-in appointments but that is no guarantee. I also understand that going to a travel agent wouldn't help either. 

 

Try getting an appointment in another city like Kazan or Nizhny Novgorod. You'll learn a lot by reading Forum Vinskogo where there are threads devoted to the topic of getting Schengen appointments. Some people chose to pay for a bot service that searches for available slots and automatically assigns you. No doubt it's partly because of these bots that makes it so hard for everyone else to book an appointment. Apparently, the BLS-Spain visa center makes appointments available toward the end of the month for the following month. I'm attaching a screenshot of where I got that info. In other threads on that forum you can read how fast each country tends to make a visa decision, which is an important thing to consider since some of them take a month. 

 

Hungary may still be the best country to get a visa to, and maybe you should to look at other cities where Hungary has visa centers with more available slots than SPB.