How to get a Schengen visa in summer? Why are Belarusians denied and where is it easier to get a visa?

— What's the easiest way to get a Schengen visa now?

— In my opinion, the easiest way to get a visa is if tourists apply for a package organized tour. And I think you can consider any country here: it can be France, Hungary, Greece, or Spain. The only thing is that you need to apply for such a visa very far in advance.

Now, to get into even a package tour, it's advisable to submit your application six months before your intended vacation to simply be included in the list.

Because there are significantly fewer spots, quotas have appeared, and there are still many eager applicants. If we talk in terms of statistics, then, in my opinion, Germans, Italians, French, and Hungarians have good approval statistics.

— What are the most common mistakes people make when applying for a visa themselves?

— First, incorrectly prepared documents. For example, applying for the wrong visa type, an incorrectly filled application form. A missing signature somewhere, a missing tick box, or a person indicating one piece of information in one document and different information in another.

Second, canceling hotel bookings immediately after receiving the visa.

Consulates selectively check tourists, and if a person falls under such a check and it's found that hotel bookings were canceled, the consulate can immediately, without any calls or notifications, annul the visa in the system.

And then people arrive at a border crossing, they have a Schengen visa in their passport, but they are told that their visa is invalid.

— Why might a tourist with a good visa history be denied, while someone with a clean passport gets a visa?

— Even if you have a good visa history, for example, 20 visas, all perfectly used, there's still no guarantee that you'll get a visa on the 21st time. The embassy is generally not obligated to explain why it made a denial decision. The opposite also happens: a person can come with an absolutely clean passport, never had a Schengen visa, and they will quietly be granted a visa.

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Each application is reviewed anew. They look at documents, finances, employment, purpose of travel, how the person used previous visas, if any. We even have situations where a family applies with an absolutely identical package of documents, the same itinerary, the same bookings — and as a result, the child might get a multiple-entry visa, the mother a single-entry, and the father might be denied altogether. We don't understand the logic in this either.

Therefore, previous visas are, of course, a plus. A good visa history shows that the person traveled, returned, and used their visas normally. But it certainly cannot be taken as a guarantee.

— What amount is advisable to have in your account to obtain a Schengen visa?

— Each European country has its own specific financial threshold that a person must adhere to. If they don't meet this threshold, then, naturally, such a tourist is considered financially unreliable, and they may be denied. Therefore, here you need to consider in more detail the package of documents required by a specific embassy and comply with its requirements.

For example, in Spain, the minimum threshold is €122 per day per person. If you have even €3-4 less per day in your account, it is already considered that the tourist's finances are insufficient.

Therefore, it's better, of course, not to take the exact amount, but to calculate somewhere around €130-150 and above per person per day and then calculate the necessary amount for the entire duration of the stay from that.

If a family travels with a child, the child under 18 cannot work, so the father, mother, or another legal representative becomes their sponsor. As a rule, this is the parent with the higher income.

— Is it true that the more money you have in your account, the higher your chances of getting a visa?

— I am generally a proponent of the idea that the more money tourists show, the worse it is for them. Because many consulates interpret this not as a direct, but a partial reminder: "I have finances, and you are obliged to let me in."

Therefore, don't try to impress the consul with a huge amount in your account. You need to show real money that the person genuinely possesses and that matches their income and trip.

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— What if you ask acquaintances to transfer several thousand euros to your account before applying for a visa?

— If a person earns, say, 1000-1500 rubles a month, and suddenly €10,000 appears in their account before applying, it raises questions. Consulates now look not only at the final amount a person shows in their account but also at the movement of funds: how much money is usually deposited, how much the person spends, what amounts pass through the card. That is, it's important that everything is proportionate and looks credible.

— How do consulates check applicants now?

— They might call your workplace — I had such cases last year. If any additional questions arise, they might contact the employer to clarify information.

Moreover, they even call directly to a manager to double-check what interests the consulate.

They also check how tourists used their visas previously: stamps, bank statements (whether money was debited from cards abroad, in the country through which tourists applied and wanted to enter).

Plus, they check for any ties in Belarus, meaning a guarantee that the tourist will return home.

If, for example, there is a marriage, then a marriage certificate, a photocopy, must be attached.

I've already talked about accounts and finances, but as for unusual things, they might also look at your social networks or, for example, what you wrote in Telegram channels and groups related to visa applications.

There are, for example, various visa communities where people share statistics or other information. But sometimes questions arise there like: "I'm unemployed, if money is transferred to me, will it work?" So, think about what you ask.

— Is it true that one denial can spoil your visa history and lead to subsequent denials from other embassies?

— Yes and no. There are a number of consulates that "override" a denial, and there are those that don't override it and issue a repeat denial. I know for sure that the Greeks or Spaniards almost never override a denial, meaning they issue a repeat one. But the Hungarian embassy or the Italians can override a denial. Of course, this also doesn't happen immediately, you have to wait a certain amount of time, but the chances there are much higher.

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— Is there a "blacklist" of tourists and how can one get on it?

— Yes, such databases exist. Primarily, tourists who have done something in Europe and may not even know about it can end up there. For example, they exceeded the speed limit in a car and didn't pay a fine, got into a fight somewhere and the police were called on them, or otherwise broke the law.

Such a tourist will not be granted a visa until the term of this ban expires.

Also, internal border crossings between EU countries have now been reinstated. Tourists are selectively checked, especially cars with foreign license plates and buses: passports and visas are inspected, and how these visas are used is very carefully verified.

For example, if a person is going to Spain but opened their visa through Greece – this can already be considered a failure to comply with the visa's purpose. Border guards have the full right to annul such a visa and stamp it as invalid. In the worst case, they might also prohibit entry to the EU – for up to 5 years.

— It is said that some visa agents have connections in consulates and can help "resolve the issue" with a visa?

— No, that's not true. No visa agency has direct contacts with the consulate. That is, we cannot call a consul and say: "Good day, it's me, please grant my tourist a visa."

If an agent tells you that they have acquaintances, "their people" working there, and so on, don't believe it.

The decision to issue a visa is made only by the consul, and no visa agent, no tourist company can influence their decision.

Even if one imagines that somewhere behind the scenes, a consul is asked to issue a visa to a certain person for money, this is called a bribe. It is clear that no one would take such a risk.

As travel agents, we can only prepare documents, check the financial part, itinerary, bookings, visa history, and point out the tourist's weak points. But we can absolutely not guarantee obtaining a visa, nor the period for which it will be issued.

— Are there any secret consulates where it's easier to get a visa, but few people know about them?

— This is another myth. When we talk about Denmark, Norway, Switzerland — these are countries that, in my opinion, have never issued good visas. They have always been characterized by a strict approach to document verification. Has anything changed now? No.

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If you apply, for example, to Denmark, few people hear about it and know it, and the embassy understands this perfectly well. There are very few applicants for these countries, and naturally, each such applicant is scrutinized literally under a magnifying glass. So, if you don't want to get a denial, it's better to choose a more optimal option.

— How much does it really cost to get a Schengen visa today?

— The cost here heavily depends on how a person registers for submission. For example, you can catch an appointment independently and pay only the mandatory fee — €35. However, waiting for such a "window" can take more than a year. Therefore, paid registration options appear, where the cost can reach 1500 rubles.

At the same time, the outcome for a person who paid 1500 rubles for registration and a person who waited for a free appointment is the same.

So the visa itself is relatively inexpensive if a person does everything independently and is willing to wait.

— Can a visa denial be appealed?

— Yes, you can prepare an appeal, but, as a rule, it won't help you. Mostly, if the consul decided to issue a denial, most likely, they will issue a denial again.

I've heard stories when people applied to the Poles, went in principle, received denials, submitted appeals, proving their point, and then received four or five denials in their passport without achieving anything.

— Why did tourists massively start applying for Polish work visas?

— Firstly, it was relatively affordable, and secondly, tourists got used to getting long-term visas — at least for a year. The Poles consistently issued one-year visas, and tourists happily traveled until mass checks began.

People received work invitations, and accordingly, all of this was reflected in the Polish state bodies. Then they started comparing: Belarusians received invitations, but virtually no one actually started working in Poland. Instead, people ended up somewhere in Greece, Spain, Italy, and so on.

Then the Poles strengthened their approach to issuing such visas, and eventually, all of this came to naught.

It's important to understand that a work visa is a very specific visa that implies a concrete use. If a tourist received a Polish work visa, then used it, let's say, to buy powder in Lithuania, and then decided to apply for a tourist visa, this is a direct signal for denial from the embassy.

There were real stories when, after a Polish work visa, a number of embassies denied a person a tourist visa. It's very easy to check this by the stamps: if the person actually went to work, they stayed there for several months. But if they constantly traveled back and forth — what kind of work is that?

What to do in such a situation? Change your passport.

— Can visa centers impose additional services that are actually unnecessary?

— For example, a basic service like passport collection: some visa centers don't want tourists to come and collect their passports themselves, and they deliberately include mandatory courier passport delivery in the list of services.

Of course, if a tourist lives, say, not in Minsk, and applied somewhere in another city, it's not very convenient for them to travel back and forth. But if it's easier for the tourist to pick up the passport themselves, what's the point of overpaying for it?

Or filling out the application form. Sometimes, a visa center might quibble about some point to, roughly speaking, put the tourist on the meter and make them pay for an additional service of filling out the application form directly at the visa center.

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