Schengen Visa Approved - Italy from VFS London

Hi all. Thought I’d write a quick post to share the timeline and some tips for applying for a Schengen Visa from Italy via VFS London.

Appointment date: 9 July 2024

Email from VFS - forwarded to consulate: 10 July 2024

Email from VFS - collection date: 19 July 2024

Getting an appointment: hardest thing to do. Glad I joined this channel which alerted me of the “timeouts” VFS website gives you if you login/refresh too often to find appointment slots. I joined a telegram group of a bot that tracks appointment availability for free, and only logged in whenever the Italy slot notification pops up - had my credentials all saved so all I had to do was copy paste, you need to be quick as it disappears within a minute. Bot’s not perfect but it helps a bunch. Got an appointment within 2 weeks.

Documents:

Everything you need to prepare is on the website checklist, follow it to the letter and all will be well. Italy is one of the more stringent ones in terms of visa requirements. Some things that are more strict than others:

  1. Italy requires flights/trains/all transportation booked from the official airlines/train website. Don’t use travel websites etc, it won’t be accepted
  2. They require insurance to have company stamp and signature. Unfortunately CoverWise which I wanted to use initially doesn’t have that, so I went with Axa.
  3. Italy now requires a share code to prove immigration status - get it from https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status and print out both the share code and the page that has your photo + visa length.
  4. Got my photo done at Snappy Snaps, no issue from VFS
  5. Do write an itinerary and cover letter especially if you are applying for Multiple Entry

Appointment at VFS:

The officer will ask when your travel dates are. If it is less than 15 calendar days away you will be turned away - happened with one person at my appointment. They will also count the number of days you spend in each country, if Italy is not the main destination/most number of days you will also be turned away.

Come 15 minutes or less before appointment, not longer. They let you in based on your group times. My appointment was 9:15, arrived 9:05 and the guards called for the 9:15 group about 9:13ish. Since my documents were complete, I left VFS at 10am. 

Good luck to other Schengen visa hunters :)