Hard for a Chinese woman to get Travel Visa to Europe.

[ChinaTraveler]

Is it hard for a Chinese woman to get a Visa to Europe for a two week  vacation ? Does she have to go through a Travel agency on a group tour? She is late twenties..in Masters Program in major GZ university and will graduate in December ...! She is from middle income family ..speaks and reads english perfect ...from school .

[Philip]

Hi，
my wife has just received a uk visa from Guangzhou, and a French visa from Guangzhou. I am in in Hong Kong, working for 2 years. She is not working and lives with me 90 days at a time. We will be visiting the uk and France for 5 weeks from the beginning of July. We will be travelling together and meeting family.
The uk office wanted to be assured that my wife had enough money to support herself for our trip (I provided bank statements, wage slips, proof of employment, travel insurance, etc. and said I would be supporting her). We applied for a family visit visa - I got my mum to write a letter of invitation, confirming that my wife will be visiting on the dates concerned and that she will be providing the accommodation. The second thing they want to be assured about is that she will be returning to China - she provided documents showing that her children are living in China, and evidence of me returning to my job in Hong Kong. The visa took exactly the 15 working days which is the average in Guangzhou. I accompanied my wife to the visa office just to ensure we had the right documents, passports, marriage certificate, family book, etc. It cost 835 yuan.
The French visa was much easier. She just had to turn up at the French consulate with 2 photos, both our passports, our marriage certificate and a completed form. The process was free and took less than a week. All this because my wife is married to an EC citizen. My sister gave me an attestation d'accueuil to prove that we will be staying with her in France - turns out it wasn't needed, nor were any of my financial details.
If you are applying for a simple tourist visa in either of these countries, and if she is not your wife, I would think that the process will be much more complicated and with reduced chances of success. She will need to prove that she has enough money to support herself, and they may need a lot of persuasion that she intends to return to China.
I am sure there are others here who can give good advice.

p.s. whatever happens, remember that they are making a judgement based on the evidence that she gives them. It will be unlikely that she will be interviewed. Their worst-case scenario is that she will become an economic migrant, sponging off the state, with no money and with no intention to return to China. The burden of proof is on her to convince them that that is not the case. And the proof has to be in the paperwork.

[Hajo]

Hi there,

I am German living i n Denmark. We were newly married when we applied for the visa at the Danish Embassy in Beijing. We got the visa confirmed the same day as we applied for it.

Philip mentions the rule of EC citizen living in another EC country. That was what we were applying under.

In your case, it might be difficult because she has no work. I am not sure if Embassy will accept her graduation in December reason enough for her to return to China. I would just send an email to your embassy and tell them what you want. They will be able to tell you what you need. I did that before I took to China and the Embassy replied with a list of requirements. If she is going to an EC country that has signed the Schengen agreement, she will need a Schengen visa. When applying for the visa, she will need an invitation from you, a travel ticket, health insurance, documentation that she can support herself or that there is somebody to support her while she stays in the country.

She will probably have to provide documents that proof she has strong reason to return to China. An Interview is not necessary for a tourist.

Hope that helps, otherwise you will have to come with more details.

[Jan]

I've asked about this as well from the Finnish embassy at Beijing. And cause Finland is part of the Nordic countries, it is a bit more difficult to obtain a Visa than to rest of the EU countries afaik.

They told me, that you need proof of being able to afford the trip. Bank statements of the person paying the trip.  At Finland a local tax card also does the job.

If the person is unemployed, then they need to give "Hukou" Or if the person is working, then a letter from the employer.

And of course tickets that includes a return ticket.

But a inviter is pretty much a must have (someone with an EU citizenship).
Good to have your contact information there as well. If they want to call you or ask questions. But the Finnish embassy pretty much said the Visa would be accepted, if these things are in order. And the inviter has EU/Finnish citizenship.

I'm not sure if we will do this. But I was curious and wanted to find out.

[Mikael_Shim]

Sweden is retard enough to pretty much grant anyone a visa. Where i work, lots of the chinese working there actually went to sweden to get their mba's in computer science. Some of them applied for a Swedish visa, got it with no questions asked. Went to Sweden, and from there went to visit other EU countries with no problem. Education is not for free anymore though for non EU citizens in Sweden (unless ur married to a national Swede). But it is said the visas are still very easy to get for a chinese only provided that he/she has a "sponsor" who is swedish citizen.

However, you can not take a shortcut and do like this: 1, Get a swedish tourist visa, 2, immediately go to say germany. You will most likely not be granted entry. You must first enter sweden, from there on you are free to move around in the Schengen area. To do this you must first apply for a swedish residence permit which is harder to get if you are not married to a swedish national.

Finland are tightening their rules severely against any immigration, so is Norway and Denmark right now but provided you can proove you have a return ticket, a sponsor and in they demand it, proof of financial means you should be ok still. The people at my work who went to Sweden didnt even have to show a return ticket and never proove any means of financial status. This might speak for itself why sweden has some serious immigration problems from the MENA countries.