Third country nationals are entitled to travel to the Schengen area and to stay there for no longer than 90 days within 180 days with a Schengen visa issued by a member state. In case of an intended stay that exceeds this time of period, a sort of residence permit (residence permit, residence card, permanent residence card, permanent residence permit, EU Blue Card) will be necessary that entitles the applicant to a permanent residence (that exceeds 90 days within 180 days). The holder of the uniform visa is entitled to free movement in the entire territory of the member states.
Uniform visa may be issued for single, double or multiple entries. Limited territorial validity visa entitles to free movement only in the territory of one or more member states, the airport transit visa makes it possible to pass through the international transit area of any Schengen country airport. The uniform visas, limited territorial validity visas and airport transit visas issued by the member states will be set out in uniform visa stamp format.
Circle of citizens who are obliged to visa
Third country nationals are entitled to travel to the Schengen area and so to Hungary as well with a visa. Citizens of certain third countries are exempt from the visa obligation that means that the citizens of these countries are entitled to travel to the Schengen area for a stay not exceeding 3 months. In case of the duration of the stay of these persons exceeds 3 months, they are obliged to procure a document depending on the title of the stay.
The issue of the Schengen visa is regulated in EU level that means that during the judgement of the application for a visa the same order will be applied by the consulate of any countries.
Submitting the application
The application for a visa shall be submitted at the consulate of the competent member state. If Hungary is competent for issuing the visa and Hungary is not present or has no diplomatic representation in the country of the residence of the applicant, it shall be examined if the diplomatic representation of another member state or a Hungarian consulate in another country is competent to judge the visa application. The examination of the competence is substantial, because only the visa application of those persons may be accepted, who have a lawful residence in the territory of the competent consulate.
The visa application shall be submitted at least 15 days before the day of the intended entry and it shall not be submitted more that 3 months before the day of the intended entry. The visa application shall be submitted by the applicant personally, an appointment shall be booked previously at the consulate. During planning the day and the duration of the intended travel the applicant shall consider the day of submitting the application and the duration of the proceeding that is 15 days. By the time of submitting the application a photo will be taken of the applicant and the applicant will be fingerprinted as well. The datas related to the applicant will be stored in the visa information system (VIS).
The attachements of the application
The supporting documents shall be attached to the application form. The aim of the supporting documents is to enable the competent authorities to judge whether the applicant fulfils the entry conditions or not and to estimate the risk of illegal migration and the security risks. The number and the type of the supporting documents depends on the circumstances, it shall be considered in each cases which documents may be necessary to attach to the application form to get a positive decison.
Refusal of the visa application
If the entry conditions are not met, the visa application shall be refused. If the consulate refuses the visa application, it shall fill out the notification about that and a form that contains the justification that shall be delivered to the affected third country national. The applicant may submit an appeal against the refusal.
Visa information system (VIS)
At the time of submitting the visa application, the proceeding authority shall examine in the VIS system if the applicant has submitted a visa application previously. If not, the datas of the visa application will be registered in the VIS system. If yes, the datas of the new application shall be recorded in the VIS system enclosed to the previous application and examines the datas of the previous visa application recorded in the VIS system (reason of refusal, overstay etc.). Regarding these facts it is highly suggested to proceed carefully at the time of submitting the first visa application.
Read about the Schengen visa in Hungarian language by clicking the following link.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
