[ach1lles]

Hi. The appointment reservation at VFS is not working. I need to attend a conference in Netherlands and (costly) tickets have already been purchased. Intended date of travel: May 30. Conference date: June 1-2. There are a few problems:

• First, the appointments for Schengen Visa are just not available till the end of this month for most common states like Germany, France, Netherlands etc. Germany selection simply says that no slots are available, without an anticipatory date.
  France has slots available in the last week of May. Netherlands has slots available only in July!
  I even tried less frequented countries, like Finland and Estonia. Estonia has slots available on the 6th, 11th, 13th and so on, but that doesn't matter due to the second problem:
  
• The appointments are just not going through. When you click on "pay now" after filling in the forms and selecting slots, the response is that your selected time slot is filled, and that another slot should be selected. This happens for any time slot, and any date, for any country. And for any time of day. I even tried at midnight.
  Also, as annoying as this is, after telling you slots aren't available twice, the third time it'll just tell you that you've exceeded the number of attempts and for you to try "after two hours".
  
• Third, even the travel agents have an exasperated response, and say that they can't find a way through. That this has been happening at VFS since a couple of months, that they are understaffed due to post-COVID, and none of the systems are working.

What can be done here? At this point I'm not sure if we get the appointment also that the visa will be processed properly and in time. But we'll worry about that later.

I have sent emails to the Netherlands consulate if they could assist in any way, and to VFS, and even to the conference organisers.

The reason for this post is also two-fold. One, if someone here can offer a way out, and two, as PSA. I had no idea the situation was such. The past several times I have travelled, the visa timeline has been 15 days, as advised by their website too. That is clearly not so anymore, at least for now.

Some screenshots:

[akshaymahajan]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Hi. The appointment reservation at VFS is not working. I need to attend a conference in Netherlands and (costly) tickets have already been purchased. Intended date of travel: May 30. Conference date: June 1-2. There are a few problems:

This worked for VFS Bangalore last week. Visa applied was Sweden.

You walk into the VFS centre without a token at 10 AM and wait outside.
They let you in around 12 noon. And by 2:30 PM you are done. While 4.5 hours seems like a pain, it took me 2.5 hours even with an appointment and probably spent more than 2 hours in finding a slot 3 (got one for 3 weeks later)

[nitkel]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Hi. The appointment reservation at VFS is not working. I need to attend a conference in Netherlands and (costly) tickets have already been purchased.

Have you tried booking an appointment at Pune VFS?

Also, please try calling VFS directly on their helpline with a request to book an appointment. They don't respond to emails promptly, sometimes they never do.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Hi. The appointment reservation at VFS is not working.

As others have suggested, try other locations like Pune or Delhi or walkin (take your tickets along and show to supervisor). They also have some premium services (different slots - not sure).

[ach1lles]

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

This worked for VFS Bangalore last week. Visa applied was Sweden.

You walk into the VFS centre without a token at 10 AM and wait outside.
They let you in around 12 noon. And by 2:30 PM you are done. While 4.5 hours seems like a pain, it took me 2.5 hours even with an appointment and probably spent more than 2 hours in finding a slot 3 (got one for 3 weeks later)

Is this a standard queue, for non-appointment people, or was this a special situation? I don't mind the wait, as long as we can get in for the interview.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

As others have suggested, try other locations like Pune or Delhi or walkin (take your tickets along and show to supervisor). They also have some premium services (different slots - not sure).

All premium, fast-track services are not available.
Thanks gents. That's the plan for tomorrow. Walk-in

Originally Posted by nitkel

Have you tried booking an appointment at Pune VFS?

Also, please try calling VFS directly on their helpline with a request to book an appointment. They don't respond to emails promptly, sometimes they never do.

All centres are held up. I believe Delhi has the highest capacity. Will be going there.
Did call them but got the standard run-around reply. The situation isn't great. Let's see what happens at the centre tomorrow.

[Dry Ice]

If going to Delhi, you can try their premium center at Gurgaon too. Costs about 4k more. Although I am not sure if they accept walk-ins there. Worth asking on the phone?

Edit: Sorry just saw your response above. Sad state of affairs really. Their walk-in center at Shivaji Stadium seems over crowded most days. All the best, hope you get it done!

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

All centres are held up. I believe Delhi has the highest capacity. Will be going there.
Did call them but got the standard run-around reply. The situation isn't great. Let's see what happens at the centre tomorrow.

If you have to go to Delhi, please seek an appointment for your Schengen visa with the German Ambassador Mr Walter Lindner. He is a people's man and is very communicative. His tweeter handle is @AmbLindnerIndia. But please do not tweet as he has multiple such tweets from the aggrieved and hardly responds. The German Embassy owns a tomato red Ambassador 1.8 ISZ car that Mr Walter loves and uses regularly.

[ach1lles]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

If you have to go to Delhi, please seek an appointment for your Schengen visa with the German Ambassador Mr Walter Lindner.

How do I seek an appointment with him? German Embassy?
To clarify, I'm already in Delhi, not going specifically for this.

[akshaymahajan]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Is this a standard queue, for non-appointment people, or was this a special situation? I don't mind the wait, as long as we can get in for the interview.

Standard Walk In (at the new VFS centre in Gopalan Mall) - they distribute tokens and then you just wait for the guards to call you in. We got to know about this by calling the VFS helpline.

Listed here: https://www.vfsglobal.com/en/individ...xperience.html

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by ach1lles

How do I seek an appointment with him? German Embassy?

Yes, please drop in at the German Embassy in Chanakyapuri and request the concerned staff to facilitate an appointment with the Ambassador. You can express your problems to them as the reason. Of course, there would be many with similar problems but there is no harm in trying.

[AltoLXI]

If ach1lles is headed to Netherlands, isn't it required to apply for Schengen visa at Netherlands embassy? How will German embassy help in this regard?

[anjan_c2007]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

If ach1lles is headed to Netherlands, isn't it required to apply for Schengen visa at Netherlands embassy? How will German embassy help in this regard?

One can enter from, travel to/within and depart freely from any member Schengen member country till the visa is valid. Hence there is no issue if such a visa is issued by any member country. Schengen visa is valid for 90 days and if one proposes to stay beyond such period, he or she needs to apply to the respective country's mission.

Details :-

https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

One can enter from, travel to/within and depart freely from any member Schengen member country till the visa is valid. Hence there is no issue if such a visa is issued by any member country.

While that is true, there are still some rules on which embassy one should submit the application to.

If you are going to visit only one Schengen country, file your application at the embassy/consulate/visa centre of that country
If you are going to visit more than two Schengen countries, file your application:

• At the embassy/consulate/visa centre of the country where you will spend most days if you will be spending an unequal amount of days in each
• At the embassy/consulate/visa centre of the country where you will step first, if you will be spending an equal amount of days in each

Source

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

please seek an appointment for your Schengen visa with the German Ambassador Mr Walter Lindner. He is a people's man and is very communicative.

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

Yes, please drop in at the German Embassy in Chanakyapuri and request the concerned staff to facilitate an appointment with the Ambassador.

I hope you are serious will be very surprised if they even open the doors, forget the appointment with Ambassador. Many Years ago, before VFS, the consulate used to take direct requests for visas and a separate section was used to handle applicants and almost all were interviewed.

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

Standard Walk In (at the new VFS centre in Gopalan Mall) - they distribute tokens and then you just wait for the guards to call you in.

that's helpful

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

One can enter from, travel to/within and depart freely from any member Schengen member country till the visa is valid.

Correct.

Hence there is no issue if such a visa is issued by any member country.
Schengen visa is valid for 90 days and if one proposes to stay beyond such period, he or she needs to apply to the respective country's mission.

No, usually almost all Schengen Visas are given strictly date to date as mentioned in your Air-Ticket. Not even a day more. You can enter via any member state but must apply to the state where you will spend the most number of days. If you are transiting via Netherland, maybe spend a day or two but if your major stay is in Germany, you must apply with VFS Germany.

I hope, more countries switch over to eVisas in future so all this can be a thing of the past like the manual Air Tickets which one had to get from the Airline/ Agents.

[Arun_S]

As lot of other people have suggested, couple of years ago, even i did a walk-in here in Chennai. They ask you to pay extra for that, wait for couple of hours in the gate, sometimes if the someone turned late they might let you in even soon. Mails are just waste of time.