Schengen Visit Visa Support

Which embassy you must apply to

The rule is not "whichever appointment is available soonest". You apply to the country that is your main destination — where you will spend the most nights. If the trip is split evenly between several, you apply to the country you enter first.

Applicants who book with whichever mission has a free slot and then travel elsewhere are misusing the visa, and it is visible: the entry stamp and the itinerary do not match the issuing state. It puts future applications at risk for a saving of a few weeks.

The 90/180 rule

A short-stay visa allows up to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period across the whole Schengen area. The window is rolling, not annual, so every day you have already spent in the area during the previous 180 days counts against the trip you are planning now.

We calculate this properly for applicants who travel repeatedly, because overstaying by even a few days is recorded and carries into every subsequent application.

What every Schengen file needs

• Travel medical insurance valid across the Schengen area for the full stay, with the minimum cover the rules require. Cover that stops short of your return date is an automatic problem.
• A confirmed itinerary — flights and accommodation for the whole trip, consistent with the country you are applying to.
• Proof of sufficient means, assessed against the daily rate the destination country publishes rather than a single flat figure.
• Employment or business evidence and proof of your ties to Pakistan.
• The completed application form and biometrics, which are reused within the validity period if you have given them recently.

Appointments and timing

Most Schengen missions in Pakistan take applications through an outsourced visa application centre, and appointment availability is the real bottleneck — in peak season it is measured in weeks, not days. Applications can be lodged well in advance of travel, and doing so is the single best protection against a slot shortage.

Decisions are usually returned inside a couple of weeks, but files that need consultation with another member state take longer, and that consultation is not something the applicant can influence. We plan bookings around that rather than against it.