Schengen Visa

[chris4336 3]

Hey all,

My husband is an Algerian Citizen, with Advanced Parole so he can travel and return to the US. He is looking to make a quick trip to Spain ASAP. We are looking to get him a Schengen visa from the Spanish Consulate here. A letter of invitation would take a few months, and we are looking to do the trip faster than that. The Spanish Embassy requires flight confirmation and a hotel reservation. I am wondering how we are supposed to book a flight if they might deny the visa? The refundable flights are about $1000 more than the regular flights, and even those still will charge you a $250 booking fee to cancel.

Does anyone have any experience with getting a Schengen visa for their spouse?

Thank you.

Christina

[mawilson 2,133]

The refundable flights are about $1000 more than the regular flights, and even those still will charge you a $250 booking fee to cancel.

I've successfully booked fully refundable flights in the past and never paid any cancellation fees.

BA is one of them.

Edited October 31, 2007 by mawilson

[pbgirl 1]

We applied for a Schengen visa to visit Germany last year. We booked our flights and then went for the visa. Although I think they just ask for a copy of your flight itinerary, so technically, you can book something, print out the itinerary and then cancel it within 24 hours (or whatever the airlines policy is).

Do you think that would that work?

Do you have airline miles you can use to buy the ticket? Those are easier to cancel.

[Nikita2Charles 32]

We were faced with the same problem over the summer trying to get a visa to France for my wife. Here's the trick

Book the ticket online using a credit card 24hrs[/b] before you go for the visa, that way you will have a full reservation, and ticket for the flight. They would not take just the itenerary they said it had to be a confirmed ticket. At that point it may not even be feasible to pick a correct flight date. So Make up a date range that you will travel and book the ticket for that date

Some office give you the visa the same day, once you have the visa on hand and come back home, cancel the ticket, then you can book it through expedia or one of those website where you might be able to get a cheaper fare.

2) Book your hotel reservation with a MAJOR HOTEL CHAIN, you have to book the hotel using your credit card, but the big chain will give you at time 1week or some 48hours to cancel your reservation.

Hotel reservation and flight tickets on hand you are set to go. Until citizenshiip where we don't have to worry anymore about visa, hmmm at least for a lot of countries.

Good Luck!!

[chris4336 3]

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice, we did the ticket on Travelocity, so that we could cancel within 24 hours. We did the reservation on Holilday Inn. We went this morning and Spain would not give us the visa because my hubby is not working. Even though we have proof of more than enough money in the bank. Sigh...maybe we will try through France.

Thanks again,

Christina