With the advent of Brexit, the freedom of movement within Europe came to an end: une fin; ein Ende; una fina etc. I’m not sure that I wrote a blog about applying for our French visas last year. We needed a visa because, as non-EU citizens, we can only spend 90 out of a rolling 180 days in the Schengen zone (named after the small wine-making town in Luxembourg where the initial agreement was signed).
There are a few countries in Europe not in Schengen – e.g., Eire, Cyprus, Montenegro and Croatia, but Croatia has applied to join, and when that happens, then Croatia’s coastline will only be available to us as part of the 90/180 days. (Interestingly, Switzerland is part of Schengen even though it is not a full EU member. Switzerland agreed to take on the Schengen freedom-of-movement in exchange for extensive trading access within the EU. The Canaries and Madeira are also members of Schengen through being autonomous communities of/owned by Spain and Portugal respectively.)
Now in the good old days, we could have spent time in France, Spain, Italy, Greece etc, and no-one would have batted an eyelid at our arrival and departure dates. But not so now; so how do we overcome the 90 / 180-day restriction? Non-European yachties from Australia, New-Zealand, USA and Canada, have for years, applied for a Schengen visa for a trip up to 90 days. UK citizens do not need to, but we must apply (to the individual nation) for a visa for visits longer than 90 days.
Last year we succeeded in securing a 6-month visa for France. It was a bit like a task from ‘The Apprentice’. You can imagine Lord Sugar growling, “I want you to apply for a French visa. You’ll need to decide which visa to apply for, and get all the paperwork together. I’ve arranged for you to have an interview at the French Visa Centre, where you’ll have to convince them why you want one. The winning team is the one who gets the visa, and on the losing team, one of you will get fired!”.
Off we went to plan our campaign. Richard decided he should be project-manager, he’d got experience of applying for visas for Australia, India, Tanzania etc. I was the sub-team leader. We decided we’d apply for the six-month, short-term visa. Karen Brady nodded, and said to camera that it was the right choice for what we wanted. Richard filled in the forms on-line, booked the appointments at the Visa centre in London (in case Lord Sugar had forgotten), and then told me as sub-team leader that it was my job to get the paperwork together. This included: a sworn statement (the French do like these) that we would not undertake any work; our socio-economic situation (bank statements and savings); travel insurance including hefty health cover and repatriation; proof of French address etc. It doesn’t sound much, but I also ordered new GHIC cards and took copies of those, plus our marriage certificate. My biggest concern was whether our health and travel insurance would be sufficient? Social media was divided on the issue, with some saying we needed private health insurance like BUPA, and others saying a cheap European policy would cover us. The project manager upgraded our travel insurance to include single trip cover for 184 days (6 months). We thought we’d be okay with the health cover, but who knew?
We went to the interview armed with a covering note and bundles of documents all separated by named dividers in hard, lever-arch files and.
We chatted to the visa clerk, who promptly emptied the files, discarded our cover note and our neatly arranged separators: “What eez all zees?”. We had our photos and finger-prints taken, and three weeks later, we faced Lord Sugar in the boardroom. The courier had returned our passports, and Claude (Littner) informed Lord Sugar that our visas were printed into our passports. Sir Alan told us we were hired! Whooo hooo! Our treat was the freedom to spend six months in France without counting down our 90/180 Schengen days in Italy or Greece etc. And we could enter and leave as often as we wanted.
We had only been back a few days from last year’s Grand Tour, where we had left Missy Bear in Preveza, when Richard informed me that he’d been doing some research. We should apply for a long-term Type D visa for Greece! We would apply under an obscure category called “financially independent” visitors. We could demonstrate financially independence by our pensions and savings, so he thought we should go for it.
I have to admit, first of all I said “no”. [Ed, plus ça change!] The thought of doing all that paperwork put me off, especially as this time we needed other stuff as well, including an ACRO police certificate to prove we do not have a criminal record, and also a medical certificate from the doctor. Sigh.
But Lord Sugar must have appeared to Richard in a dream in December, because two days later he said he’d submitted an on-line application form for himself. He submitted it and arranged interview dates. And then did the cycle all over again when the forms were deleted by the Greek visa centre with no explanation. My father used to have an expression, “it’s enough to make a cat swear”, and I tell you, Gordon Ramsay would have blushed. After a few phone-calls to the visa centre, R eventually found out that you can only apply within three months of your target entry date. And dates for January appointments at the visa centre would be released on December 15th.
I had to move back into my role as sub-team leader, as I have more patience than Richard, and a greater attention to detail. I think Karen Brady felt I should have been the project manager but hey ho. Richard went through a rigmarole with our travel insurance, which was only due for renewal in May 2022 (and therefore did not cover our target visa period – April to September of that year). But he persuaded them to cancel our policy and open a new one starting at the right date.
We applied for our police certificates (DBO checks), which came back very quickly. I misread mine and thought I had some misdemeanours and went into a mild panic. We also had our certificates back from the doctor stating that we were free of tuberculosis and syphilis! I also printed a year’s worth of bank statements as proof of income. R printed a single file download of 12-months of transactions...
When we were applying for French visas, we were lucky enough to get support from the Cruising Association website (other sailors wishing to spend time in France), and also the Facebook page “Living in the UK and France”. One woman, Judy, was very helpful, passing through feedback on length of visas, health insurance etc., as well as case studies of others who had applied already. Unfortunately, there was no such support for the Greek visa application. R was the vanguard. I had put out some feelers, only to be told that on-one had heard of a six-month visa for Greece, only for one year. I mentioned this to Richard, who said the woman at the Greek embassy had told him on the phone we could apply for “any length of time that you want”. He didn’t have it in writing, but he thought we’d be ok.
The day of our interview at the visa centre loomed. We decided to turn it into a trip to London, with the theatre ("Lady in Black"), a later supper and on overnight stay. We boarded GWR train to the big smoke, excited and nervous.
We registered on arrival at the visa centre and sat in the waiting room, looking at the ticket screen for our number to be called. Like the French visa centre, there are cubicles around the room, but these had seats, rather than making you stand at a counter. Travel posters were displayed on the wall, together with their mission statement which said something about making the process as easy and pleasant as possible. We sniggered.
Our number was called, we went to the cubicle. Only one chair…
Keida, the clerk, said she would deal with us one at a time. So R left, and she started working through my papers. Very quickly she told me there was a problem with our travel insurance: it only lasted for six months for a single-trip and not a year. My heart sank, “We are only applying for six months”, I explained. She replied that she didn’t believe the embassy issued visas for six months, it had to be longer. I went to get R, while she kindly rang the embassy. After a long conversation, she explained to us that the visa had to be for a duration of longer than six months – in fact, even six months and two weeks would do it! But our insurers limit for a single trip is 184 days!!
Not to worry she said. Go away and book insurance on-line for a longer period, and come back to me later today. Although she couldn’t recommend one, she mentioned some names where we could start looking. She also pointed out that R’s bank transactions did not show his name and address, only his account number. Readers, I have to confess, I smirked. She also told us where to find a print shop to get all this stuff onto paper to hand in.
Away we went, and found a bright table in a coffee shop. We both Googled one-year, single-trip travel policies, and found a good one with a company we recognised through our Cruising Association chats. R also downloaded a bank statement with his name on it! We headed for the print shop. We were about number four in the queue, and everyone was there to get more paperwork for their visas. I should add that the visa centre for Greece also deals with about ten other countries. The guy behind the counter was actually explaining to one woman what it was she needed. We joked with him that he should get set up a consultancy to help people apply.
Back we went to Keida, and just caught her before she left for lunch. She looked through all our new paperwork, and circled and ticked the key parts. We thanked her for her help, and we parted knowing that we had done all that we could.
Our passports have just arrived back, two weeks and a day after we applied. We trooped back into boardroom, where Karen told Lord Sugar what had happened during the task. He asked Karen to open our passports and tell us the news. She informed us that we had both been granted our visas.
Well done, said Lord Sugar, and pointed at us again. ‘You’re still hired!!
Very good! What a rigmarole! Glad it’s all sorted now x
Fantastic news. And I’ve followed my email invitation so I can now comment 😀😀