On this page Which country do you apply to · When to apply · What everyone brings · What it costs, and how long · The decision, and what a refusal means · What you get, and how long you can stay · At the border and afterwards · What only your mission can tell you
Step 1 of 8
Which country do you apply to
You apply to the embassy or consulate of your main destination — the country where you will spend the most time. Not the first country you land in, unless that is also where you are staying longest. Many consulates collect applications through a visa service centre such as VFS, which handles the appointment and your biometrics but does not decide your application.
The Schengen area is 29 countries with no border controls between them: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Indian passport holders do need a visa — India is named in Annex I of the regulation listing the countries whose nationals must hold one, so this is settled law rather than a consulate's practice.
If you are the family member of an EU citizen who has exercised free movement — that is, the EU citizen lives in or is travelling to a member state other than their own — you are entitled to procedural facilitations under the Free Movement Directive, and the fee is waived. The rules are genuinely different from the standard ones, so it is worth identifying yourself as such rather than applying as an ordinary visitor.
Source: European Commission
Step 2 of 8
When to apply
Submit at least 15 days before you travel, and no earlier than 6 months beforehand. You may have to book an appointment before you can lodge the application, so the practical earliest date is whenever the appointment slots open.
🔴 Your passport must still be valid for 3 months AFTER you return, not after you arrive and not on the day you apply. This is the requirement people miscount most often, because every other date in the process runs forwards from the application. A consulate may set it aside in a justified emergency, but you should not plan on it.
Source: European Commission
Step 3 of 8
What everyone brings
Everyone brings these
- A valid passport, expiring at least 3 months after you leave the Schengen area — and for a multiple-entry visa, at least 3 months after you leave the last country you visit
- A completed visa application form
- A photo meeting ICAO standards
- Medical insurance covering emergency care, hospitalisation and repatriation, including in the event of death
- Supporting documents for the purpose of your stay, your financial means, and your accommodation
- Evidence that you intend to return home after your stay
- Your fingerprints, taken when you lodge the application
The Commission's own ICAO photograph guidelines set the specifics: a plain light-coloured background — not white — with the width given as a range of 35–40 mm, the face unobscured and evenly lit. Background and size are where a photo gets sent back.
There is one application form, published by the European Commission and identical across all 29 states — not a different form per country. If you are hunting for a country-specific form, you are looking for something that does not exist.
Build these files with the checklist above
Source: European Commission
Step 4 of 8
What it costs, and how long
€90 for adults and €45 for children aged 6–12. If you apply through a visa service centre it charges its own fee on top of that — the Commission says so plainly, and it is the part people are surprised by. The fee can be waived for some categories of applicant.
🔴 Several categories pay nothing at all, and this is the most under-used fact about Schengen visas. The fee is waived entirely for children under six; for school pupils, students and postgraduate students travelling to study or train, and for the teachers accompanying them; for researchers travelling to carry out scientific research; for representatives of non-profit organisations aged 25 or under attending a seminar, conference, sporting, cultural or educational event; and for family members of EU or EEA citizens under the Free Movement Directive. Children aged six to eleven pay a reduced €45. Individual member states apply further optional waivers of their own, so it is worth asking the consulate rather than assuming. One caution: if you apply through an external service provider you will still be charged their service fee on top, and that is not waived.
Source: European Commission
Step 5 of 8
The decision, and what a refusal means
The normal processing time is 15 days. It can be extended to as much as 45 days if your application needs a closer look or more documents, which is why the 15-day minimum before travel is a floor and not a plan.
🔴 A refusal comes on a standard form that must give the reasons it was based on, together with the appeal procedure and the deadline for using it. You can appeal, and you can also simply apply again — though it is worth reading the stated reasons and fixing them first. One point that catches people: where one state handles visas on behalf of another, the appeal goes to the state that actually took the decision, not the one you were travelling to. And the fee is not refunded, because it pays for examining the application rather than for the visa.
Source: European Commission
Step 6 of 8
What you get, and how long you can stay
Schengen visas come in three forms: single-entry, multiple-entry, and airport transit — which only lets you connect through the international area of a Schengen airport, not enter the country.
A Schengen visa allows up to 90 days in any 180-day period, and the 180-day window starts the day you first enter. It is a rolling count across every Schengen country together, not a fresh 90 days per country and not a fresh window per trip.
The visa itself is a sticker in your passport, and three headings on it decide what you can actually do. “Duration of visit” is how many days you may stay. “Number of entries” shows 1 for a single entry, 02 for two, or MULT for multiple — with a single entry, leaving the area uses the visa up. “Valid for” is the territorial validity: normally all Schengen states, but it can be narrower. Read all three before you book anything.
If you already hold a long-stay visa or a residence permit from a Schengen state, you do not need a second visa to travel to the others. The permit itself lets you move around, as long as you keep inside the 90-days-in-180 limit in the states that did not issue it.
Source: European Commission
Step 7 of 8
At the border and afterwards
🔴 A Schengen visa does not by itself entitle you to enter. At the border you may still be asked to show that you have enough money for the stay and the return journey, and what you are coming for. The Commission's own recommendation follows from that and is rarely passed on: carry copies of the documents you submitted with your application — the invitation letter, the travel confirmations, whatever established your purpose — rather than leaving them at home once the visa is in the passport.
Changing planes in the Schengen area is two different situations. If you stay inside the international transit area of the airport and fly on to a non-Schengen country, an airport transit visa covers it — and that visa does not let you enter Schengen territory, so you cannot leave for a hotel or take an onward flight to another Schengen state on it. If you leave the transit area at all, you need a short-stay visa, even for a few hours. Flights between two Schengen states count as domestic. Individual states can also require airport transit visas of nationalities the common list does not cover.
An extension is not a routine option. You have to show that force majeure, humanitarian reasons or serious personal reasons make it impossible to leave before your visa or authorised stay ends. Even then it is only available if you have used less than 90 days in the past 180 and your current visa has not already expired.
Source: European Commission
Step 8 of 8
What only your mission can tell you
The Commission's own page calls itself a general overview and says that for more detail you must contact the embassy or consulate of your main destination — and that consulates may ask for additional documents. So the list above is the floor every applicant meets, and your mission's own list is the one you file against. Any site presenting a single definitive Schengen checklist is describing one mission's practice as though it were all 29.
Source: European Commission
Each section names its source underneath it. Where a line came from the agent channel rather than the authority, or from a single filing, it says so on that line — those are not the same kind of fact and this page does not blur them.
Frequently asked questions
Schengen visa from India — what documents are needed?
Commonly requested: Passport (photo page scan), Visa photo, Visa application form (filled), Old visas / travel history, Bank statements (3–6 months), Income proof — ITR / Form 16, Employment proof / NOC letter, Flight itinerary / ticket booking, Hotel booking / accommodation, Travel insurance, Cover letter, Invitation letter (if visiting someone). The European Commission publishes the floor every applicant meets — passport, form, ICAO photo, medical insurance, and evidence of purpose, means, accommodation and intention to return. Your main destination's consulate may ask for more, and its list is the one you file against.
Schengen visa — where do I apply?
To the embassy or consulate of your main destination — the country where you will spend the most time — not to “the Schengen area”, which issues nothing. Many consulates collect applications through a visa service centre such as VFS, which takes your appointment and biometrics and charges its own fee on top of the €90, but does not decide your application.
Can I print my visa documents from here?
Yes — print any document individually, print the whole set as one PDF, or print a blank checklist to tick off. Useful here because most Schengen applications are lodged in person at a visa centre, with the papers in your hand.
Are my documents uploaded anywhere?
No. The checks, the merged PDF, the ZIP and printing all happen in your browser. Your passport and bank statements are never sent to any server.
A PDF was skipped when building.
Password-protected PDFs (like some bank statements) are no longer skipped — the pack asks for the password while it builds. A file is only skipped if the password was not given.