Do you need to enter exactly the country for which you received a visa in order to “print out” your Schengen multiple entry visa? Is it possible to enter Schengen through another country and what are the consequences?

Hundreds of materials and articles have been written on these and many other questions related to the use of a multiple-entry visa. Once again, we see no point in describing what has long been known and written by others.

It is for this reason that we present below an article by the famous tourist blogger Sergei Vinsky about what you can do with the coveted multiple sticker in your passport.

First entry rule to the country on a Schengen visa, agencies have come up with helping tourists obtain a Schengen visa for money, in fact, which tourists can do on their own at the visa center closest to their home.

First entry rule to Schengen They say it's cancelled. Well, yes… canceled something that never happened.
It was simply profitable to maintain this misinformation in order to provide tourists with “services” for obtaining a Schengen visa to “complicated” Germany or exotic Denmark.

Conclusion:
- you have every right to send help from the agency and get a Schengen visa yourself at any visa center.

For example, let's take the simplest French visa.

  • you have every right to travel with a Schengen multiple visa issued by the French Embassy to any Schengen country.
    Do you want to go to Croatia? - No question, Do you want to go to Germany? - very simple.
  • YOU ARE NOT OBLIGED TO GO TO FRANCE “OPENING” A SCHENGEN VISA ISSUED BY THE FRENCH EMBASSY

Yes, when filling out an application for a French Schengen visa, you write in one of the paragraphs of the form “First country of entry - France”. But this is a formality of the questionnaire. You came to apply for a Schengen visa to travel to France - that’s why write the country “France”. If we came to the Bangladeshi embassy, ​​we would have to write country = “Bangladesh” in the application form.

  • By not going to France first, did you break the rules or laws? — NO.

Example: You arrived in Spain with a new French visa. Return ticket home from Spain. But you will go from Spain to France to see the grave of Karl Marx on Père la Chaise... And you will stay there until the steam locomotive departs for the Spanish airport from which you have a ticket home. Why such a tricky route? Because because…

You can tell this legend to a sleepy border guard at Barcelona airport. If he asks. Although he won’t ask you about it, I assure you.

Now let's understand the concepts: " country of first entry" And " country of largest residence«.

The visa rules of the Schengen Agreement suggest that a citizen of a foreign country must obtain a Schengen visa from the country in which it is intended to spend most of the time allotted by the visa. For example, for an annual visa there is a quota of 90 days per half-year, that is, 180 days per year

Thus, a citizen who received an annual French Schengen and visited Spain for 10 days, Germany for 2 days, France for 14 days, Finland for 7 days... did not violate anything, although he entered Spain for the first time.

Now I’ll explain what days you are given to stay in the Schengen countries: Duration of stay

On your visa you see on the second line: from dd/mm/yy to dd/mm/yy - this is the period of validity of the visa. Simple arithmetic subtraction operations and you know what kind of visa you have: six-month, one year, 3 years, 5 years

You have the right to stay in the Schengen zone for 90 days during the first half of the year. The half-year begins from the day of the first crossing of the Schengen border. These 90 days are made up of your visits: 10 days in Spain, 14 days in France, 7 days in Finland = 31 days you were in Schengen in the first half of the year and still have the right to 90 days in the second half of the year if you have an annual visa. That is You can stay in Schengen for 180 days per year.

If you have a five-year Schengen visa, then the total period of stay in Schengen = 900 days and this does not mean that you can go to the island of Capri for 900 days to write a novel. You will be kicked out of there after 90 days and invited back through:
180 (days in a half-year according to the European Commission) - 90 (you wrote a novel on the island of Capri) = 90 days must pass in order to come and finish writing a novel on the island of Capri for another 90 days (and then you will be sent outside Schengen again).