Service-visa center of Germany or the embassy - what to choose?

In recent decades, Germany - one of the fairly frequent areas where Russian tourists and business travelers aspire. But in order to get there, you need a Schengen visa. Where and how is it easier to get it?

Visa centers in Germany

For ease of registration of permits for entry, many European countries have long allowed special companies to collect packages of documents leaving and centrally submit them to the consulate. It is convenient for both parties, since in a large city there can be no embassy, and the visa center will be.

In early 2013, the German Visa Center was opened in Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Kaliningrad and Novosibirsk. All of them belong to VFS Global, which provides outsourcing services to many states. Now the service and visa center of Germany can be found in almost any major Russian city. So, why does it make sense to choose it, rather than contact the consulate directly?

Advantages and disadvantages in comparison with the embassy

Any service-visa center in Germany is a commercial organization. So, its staff is interested in the influx of customers. That is why "service" is not an empty sound in this case. A sufficient number of working windows, an electronic queue, help in completing questionnaires, collecting documents, and in Moscow - free copy services, a booth for an instant photo, etc. In addition, a visit to the embassy requires a preliminary recording that can be assigned at an inconvenient time Or on the wrong day.

On the other hand, the service and visa center of Germany, or rather its employees, do not participate in the decision to issue visas, and speaking directly with the consular officer can help in obtaining a long-term entry permit even with a minimum package of documents. Of course, in all non-urgent cases, which require explanations or personal presence of the applicant, it is also better to apply to the embassy.

Documentation

Correctly collected a package of necessary papers and certificates - already half the battle. Consular employees, as a rule, are quite picky about the set of documents, so the shortage of some small thing can cause a short-term visa instead of a long-term visa.

So, future travelers will need the following:

• Questionnaire for each applicant, filled in by hand or using a computer.
• Foreign passport + copy of the page with data.
• 2 photos.
• A copy of all completed pages of a public passport.
• Medical insurance.
• Confirmation of employment with an indication of the amount of earnings or an extract from a bank account for 3 months, or a sponsorship letter.

The further set depends on the purpose of the trip. For tourists it will be air tickets, hotel booking, description of the route, invitations from local residents, etc. In general, consular officers should understand why a person has a visa to Germany. The visa center in this case will act as an intermediary, its employees will check and systematize all documents and inform, if there is not enough of something important.

Procedure

Typically, you can choose one of two options: make an appointment or defend a "live" queue. In the first case, everything will pass a little faster, because for these clients often operate separate windows. But the second option is not too bad, the waiting time for receiving documents via the German visa center in Moscow rarely exceeds half an hour.

Everything starts from the door: the guard is interested in the purpose of the visit and issues the appropriate coupon to the electronic queue. Next, the visitor only needs to monitor the electronic scoreboard and wait until his number appears there, then go to the specified window. The employee of the visa center will accept the documents, ask some questions, ask about the need to deliver the passport. After the client signs the contract, he receives a unique identification number, according to which he can track the status of his application. Then he goes to pay the consular and service fees to the cashier. There is also an electronic queue, so all this does not take much time. After the services of the intermediary are paid, it remains only to wait. However, as a rule, the examination of documents rarely takes more than a couple of weeks.

The issuance of passports is carried out in the presence of civil identification cards, if necessary, powers of attorney, and for the next of kin - certificates of marriage or birth.

Contact details

Since now the service and visa center is in almost every major city, it makes no sense to list all their addresses. One can only say that they are in Moscow, Krasnodar, Kazan, Perm, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Vladivostok and Kaliningrad.

Contacts of the central one, which is located in the capital, are: 115162, ul. Shabolovka, 31, building 5. Tel .: +7 (499) 681-13-65.

The service-visa center of Germany, located in Moscow, works on weekdays from 8:30 to 17:00.