Schengen visa

[caminocoffee]

Hi
We did our first camino in June 2024. We already booked for June/ July 2025.
We need a Shengen Visa to travel to Spain. The visa is only valid for 90 days.
The visa application is very expensive. Is there a way to get an extended visa? As I said, very expensive to apply each year.

 

[Molly Cassidy]

As far as I'm aware, unless you intend to live, work or study in Spain, there is no way to get an extended visa. Even when I went to Spain on a study visa, it was restricted to the exact dates of my contract (I was a teaching assistant but it's a study program, so you get a student visa, not a work visa).

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

Another thread was started this morning that might possibly give you a tip or two on your visa application. I'm hoping that it will prove helpful anyway.


https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/spain-visa-itinerary.89870/

M

Thread 'Spain visa itinerary ???'

Dec 11, 2024

Hi!
Would anyone be able to share what their visa itinerary for a Spain visa application looked like? I'm filling it out right now and I'm having trouble figuring out the formatting of it all. I'll be doing the camino de santiago frances and i'll be on the trail for 38 days and i'm not sure if I should book all my hostels in advance and put them in the itinerary or is that not required by the visa office? I've been trying to contact the embassies and consulates in Canada but they haven't been very helpful. I would appreciate any info on this.

• melooon
• travel-documents/insurance
• Replies: 21
• Camino de Santiago Forum: Life on the Camino - Miscellaneous Topics

 

[Kathor1]

The visa application is very expensive.

How expensive is it?

Isn't the fee for the uniform Schengen visa for up to 90 days in any 180 days period currently €90 (R 1798) plus perhaps an obligatory agency fee (BLS International, isn't it?) which is something like €20 (R 338)?

So you are looking for a national long stay Spanish visa that costs less than €110 to obtain and lasts longer - for 6 months or a year or even several years? If such a thing even exists and you don't have to prolong a long stay visa year after year in Spain where you are then supposedly a resident with a residency address?

 

[peregrina2000]

These visa discussions (which seem to be proliferating recently) seem to be all over the board in the advice they provide, the steps they recommend, the costs supposedly involved, etc.

The moderators are not equipped to evaluate the veracity of each of these posts, just as we are not able to screen out health-related comments based on the latest science.

The warning I would give to anyone using this forum is to remember that people are giving opinions, not professional advice. I do not doubt that members are trying to help, but these discussions frequently veer hopelessly off-point and are filled with contradictory opinions and advice.

If you have a question that requires a professional/expert opinion (health, legal, etc), please take what you read here with a grain of salt. Conversely, if you want to give advice, please take care to understand the specific question and to limit your answer to things you know to be factually true.

 

[Kathor1]

Is there a way to get an extended visa?

A Schengen visa (for a stay of maximum 90 days within 180 days) cannot be extended. A Schengen visa is a short stay visa and there are uniform rules for it in all the Schengen countries.

For other stays, you need to get a long stay visa. These are national visa and the rules for obtaining them are different from EU country to EU country. In general and in most cases, you will become an EU resident and you will get a residence card. There are many different categories of EU residence cards for non-EU nationals.

I remember the report of one forum member who obtained a long stay visa for Spain. He describes his first-hand experience with the application process in their home country and the subsequent process in Spain to establish residence in Spain (see links below to his posts). The poster does not mention how high the cost were in the end but he estimated it to be $1500 before he started the application process. I don't know whether this estimate was made for 1 person or for 2 adults and 1 minor.

Spain's non-lucrative visa is granted for 1 year initially and can then be prolonged for the following year. You will get a residence card. If you do not spend at least 6 months (out of 12) in Spain you risk not getting a prolongation for a second year.

Of course, detailed information about applying for a long stay visa can be found on the websites of the Spanish embassy and/or Spanish consulates in your home country or on the websites of BLS International who have been subcontracted by the Spanish government and are your first port of call for visa applications in some 40 countries including SA, UK and USA.

- https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...th-spanish-visa-application.51888/post-570685
- https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...th-spanish-visa-application.51888/post-596568
- https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...th-spanish-visa-application.51888/post-628621
- https://www.caminodesantiago.me/com...th-spanish-visa-application.51888/post-637136

 

[oursonpolaire]

Hi
We did our first camino in June 2024. We already booked for June/ July 2025.
We need a Shengen Visa to travel to Spain. The visa is only valid for 90 days.
The visa application is very expensive. Is there a way to get an extended visa? As I said, very expensive to apply each year.

The Confraternity of Saint James in South Africa once had-- perhaps still has-- a protocol established with the Consulate in Cape Town for the regular 90-day Schengen visa--- I do not think that an extended one exists. Get in touch with them, and they may be able to help you.

 

[Kathor1]

Just to be clear and to make sure that I understand correctly: The OP is looking for a "Schengen" visa that is extended, or of a very long duration, so that it covers this year's camino trip and next year's camino trip - and in between these two camino trips the OP is not in Spain but in their home country ... and all this for a fee plus overall cost that is less than the fee for two separate standard Schengen visa (with a duration of maximum 90 days) for the two camino trips.

If such a budget-friendly thing existed, would not everybody on this forum who does not benefit from the Schengen visa waiver program get it or already have it?

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

The official europa.eu website says:

Multiple-entry visas with long validity may be issued for one, two or multiple entries. The Visa Code sets out rules on the issuing of multiple entry visas with a progressively longer length of validity:

• 1 year, if the applicant has used three visas within the previous 2 years;
• 2 years, if the applicant has already used a 1-year multiple-entry visa within the previous 2 years;
• 5 years, if the applicant has already used a 2-year multiple-entry visa within the previous 3 years.

Airport transit visas and visas limited to particular countries are not taken into account when taking decisions on the issuing of multiple-entry visas with a long validity.​

The quoted webpage:

Visa Code | EUR-Lex

eur-lex.europa.eu

This non-official commercial website may be helpful too:

Multiple-Entry Schengen Visa - Schengen - AXA Partners

Those who want to make multiple trips in and out of the Schengen Area will require a multiple-entry Schengen Visa

www.axa-schengen.com

 

[caminocoffee]

The official europa.eu website says:

Multiple-entry visas with long validity may be issued for one, two or multiple entries. The Visa Code sets out rules on the issuing of multiple entry visas with a progressively longer length of validity:​

​

• • 1 year, if the applicant has used three visas within the previous 2 years;
  • 2 years, if the applicant has already used a 1-year multiple-entry visa within the previous 2 years;
  • 5 years, if the applicant has already used a 2-year multiple-entry visa within the previous 3 years.

Airport transit visas and visas limited to particular countries are not taken into account when taking decisions on the issuing of multiple-entry visas with a long validity.​

The quoted webpage:

Visa Code | EUR-Lex

eur-lex.europa.eu

This non-official commercial website may be helpful too:

Multiple-Entry Schengen Visa - Schengen - AXA Partners

Those who want to make multiple trips in and out of the Schengen Area will require a multiple-entry Schengen Visa

www.axa-schengen.com

Thank you.
This is helpful.