Can I apply for a Finnish Schengen visa after a French visa refusal?
My French Schengen visa was denied last week for two reasons:
Your intention to leave the territory of the member states before the expiry of the visa is uncertain.
The purpose and conditions of the intented stay are not reliable.
My previous Schengen visa was issued by Finland.
After a refusal from one Schengen country (France, in my case), must I re-apply only to that country until I get visa (to avoid suspicion of visa shopping)? Can I apply to a different country like Finland? And if I apply to Finland for a visa, will the French refusal be a problem?
I am planning to visit both countries — 5 days in France and 5 days in Finland. This time I wanted to make France as the first entry country but I got refused. So can I change my plans and ask for a Finnish visa and enter to Finland first ?
Best Answer
You are a free human being and therefore you always have the freedom of applying. The question is only whether the application has any chance of success.
In general, if you have been refused a visa in any country anywhere, you want to display a change in circumstances on your next application. This is outlined by many answers all across this site. Reapplying under the same circumstances (same trip planned, no change to one’s situation, employment, finances, …) is typically doomed to result in another rejected application. However, the change of circumstances must also make sense; you cannot, for example, acquire a lump sum of money, put that on your account and call it a change in circumstances.
In your case, your train of thoughts seems to be ‘I was rejected by France so maybe I should try Finland for the same trip; I need to visit both countries equally long.’ In one word: don’t! This will be exactly the same application except that the country you are applying to is different. Schengen countries share a lot of information about travellers and issued/rejected visas in databases among themselves. Finland will perform a database check and they will find your previously rejected application with France. This will result in:
- extra scrutiny because you are applying again after a very short time
- extra extra scrutiny because you have simply swapped your main destination; this reads like visa shopping (choosing the country with the largest hope of success).
After those two layers of scrutiny, I would be extremely surprised if the Finnish officer comes to any conclusion other than reject.
The rules at which Schengen country you should apply for a visa are very clear: the main destination by days spent; if that leaves ambiguity the entry country. Applying for a visa with any other country will immediately raise suspicion that the person has applied in hope of the highest success rate; this will immediately reduce the applicant’s credibility. Reduced credibility means reduced chances of success.
Finally note that they concluded you cannot be trusted to leave Schengen at the end of your visa duration. That rings like very serious news; the assume you want to go undercover. Without being a lawyer, I would strongly suggest you do not try again unless you have gotten good legal counsel by one or until your circumstances — especially the ties to your home country — have changed significantly.
(This last paragraph is an extrapolation of many answers I read concerning UK visas. If Schengen visas are notably different in this respect, I would welcome correction in the comments.
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Can I apply Schengen Visa after rejection?
In most cases, you'll be able to reapply for your Schengen Visa as soon as you've been informed about your visa rejection. There are a few exceptions though. Schengen Countries like Switzerland and Finland have their own rules in regards to reapplying for a visa after its been rejected.What happens if visa is rejected France?
An applicant whose visa has been refused may lodge an appeal against the decision to refuse a visa to the Commission de Recours contre les D\xe9cisions de Refus de Visa, BP 83609 44036 Nantes CEDEX 1, within two months of being officially informed. This appeal must be motivated, signed and written in French.Can I apply for visa after refusal?
Yes, you can apply if you have detected a mistake in your visa application. However, a country's immigration department may ask you for the copy of your refusal to enter the country before giving you the permission to reapply. If the reasons for the visa refusal are satisfactory, you will be allowed to reapply.Do embassies know about visa refusal in other countries?
The embassy doesn't track your refusal, CLASS does. That's a database accessible to every American consular officer in the world at the click of a mouse, so it's not just the embassy where the visa refusal takes place.SCHENGEN VISA AFTER FRANCE REFUSAL 2022
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