Schengen visa: Germany relaxes visa appointment rules for Indian tourists

Big news for Indian tourists who are planning to travel to Germany for tourism purposes. The country has relaxed some of its visa application rules for Indian tourists.

As per the authorities at the German Missions in India, Indian travellers can now book their visa appointment in any of the VFS global Visa Application Centres (in any major cities) in the country, as per one’s convenience.

The Schengen visa can be applied three months before the travel date. However, this relaxation is not applicable for the D-visa category (for example student, employment and family reunion visa among others). A Schengen visa will allow travellers to legally stay in any of the states in the Schengen area for up to 90 days of any 180-day period.

There are 26 member states that together form the Schengen area: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Germany is one of the most visited Schengen countries, and for travellers visiting Germany, it gets easy to travel to Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.

For most of these places, you won’t even have to take flights. A quick train ride or a fun road trip sounds a lot like an exciting holiday.

In case you are wondering, a German Schengen Visa will cost you 80 Euros per adult and 40 Euros for minors. There is no visa fee for children under the age of six years.