'Main destination' for Schengen multiple entry visa
I am an Indian citizen based in the UK. I intend to make a series of trips to France in the next few months, but firstly, I intend to visit the Netherlands in April. In keeping with the rules in the Schengen handbook, I had applied for a multiple entry visa at the French consulate through TLS. I attached flight and hotel bookings in both France and the Netherlands, but the Netherlands ones were paid, but the French were not.
However my visa was refused, with the reason that my main destination was the Netherlands. This goes against the rule in the Schengen handbook, and the TLS authorities were also saying stuff that went against the guidelines in the handbook.
The exact example relevant to my case in the visa handbook:
Example: A Senegalese national regularly visits her family in France but also travels to other Member States for business purposes once or twice per year. The destination of her first journey is Switzerland.
In this case the French consulate should deal with the application because it will be the most frequent destination.
Due to this unfair refusal, I am losing out on a lot of money - the travel costs to the Netherlands, the trips to London for the visa process, and the accommodation charges. We are depressed that in spite of following the Schengen rulebook to the letter and spirit, due to the ignorance of the consulate officials, we have had to lose out on so much money.
We have an appeal process, but is it possible for us to get compensated for these losses too?
Best Answer
You will not be compensated. Even if they made a clear-cut mistake, the standard for compensation is much higher and French immigration law is generally painful to deal with.
But it's not even clear to me that the French consulate disregarded the rules or the handbook. You said they “refused” and you appealed. If I am reading this correctly, they did therefore consider your application and issued a negative decision. Whether that's warranted depends on details you did not disclose but is in any case extremely unlikely to open any right to compensation.
By contrast, if the consulate hadn't considered your application, it would have neither granted nor refused the visa and simply refunded the application fee and invited you to apply to the Netherlands. By considering it and then deciding they were not satisfied with your application, they have “dealt with it“ and fully satisfied the obligations you mentioned in your question.
Incidentally, your comments also suggest you are somewhat confused regarding the rules surrounding multiple-entry visas and where you should apply. The “main destination” rule only applies for a single trip. Multiple entry visas fall under a separate set of rules; you are supposed to apply to a country to which you have a need to travel regularly (e.g. for professional or family reasons - not coincidentally, the example from the handbook is about family trips, not repeated touristic visits).
Consulates do frequently issue them more broadly for convenience reasons, especially to UK residents, but you are not free to chain together what are in effect unrelated trips, tally the days and declare one country to be your main destination. Under a strict reading of the rules, a consulate is perfectly entitled to demand that you apply for a single entry visa for the first trip, come back and then apply for another single entry visa for the next one, etc.
As distressful as it might be, you simply won't be able to get anything out of the French state for all this.
Pictures about "'Main destination' for Schengen multiple entry visa"
Can I travel to other Schengen countries with multiple entry visa?
Schengen visas allow to make one-entry, two-entries or multi-entries. With one-entry visa you can travel the Schengen area only once. It is indicated in your visa as \u201c01\u201d. With two-entries or multi-entries you can respectively travel to the Schengen area twice or several times during the visa validity period.Should my first trip be to the country which issued my Schengen Visa?
There is no general requirement that you must enter the Schengen Area through the country that issued your visa. Your main destination may be different than your first destination. To prevent complications, stick to your itinerary as best you can.How do I get a long multiple entry Schengen Visa?
Who Is Eligible To Apply For A 5-Year Multiple Entry Visa?What is multiple entry visa in Schengen Visa?
A multiple-entry visa allows its holder to go in and out of the Schengen Area as many times as he or she wants, as soon as they do not violate the 90/180 rule. Based on how frequently you travel to Schengen zone, you may apply and obtain one of the following multiple-entry visa types: 1 year multiple-entry visa.Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Nataliya Vaitkevich, Julia Volk, Meruyert Gonullu, Meruyert Gonullu