Visa refused because I already have a seaman's visa

I have a Spanish Schengen visa, valid from October 19 2016 to October 20 2017. I'm a seaman. I disembarked recently in a Schengen country, in July, and I also disembarked earlier in Spain.

Now I plan to visit Germany but, when I applied for a tourist visa, was refused. The reason given was that my Schengen seafarers' visa has not yet expired.

Does this mean I can use my seaman's visa to visit Germany? Or, should I have it cancelled and then re-apply for the German Schengen visa?

Best Answer

In the website of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain it's stated:

Seamen Visa Requirements?

Only seamen who are nationals from a country which is required to have a valid visa to enter the Schengen Space need to apply for a transit visa and if they intend to:

join a ship that is (or will be) in a Schengen port

land with the aim of join another ship that is (or will arrive) in a Schengen port

land due to sickness, repatriation, holiday and so on.

So from the above reference it's clear that with a seamen' Schengen visa one can land in Schengen Area for holidays (tourism).

That being said, you don't need to revoke your Schengen visa, because with a Schengen visa (including the seamen Schengen visa obtained from a Spanish embassy) you can visit all the countries inside Schengen Area (including Germany). The states within Schengen Area are listed below:

Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Here is the map of all Schengen states from European Commission website: