Our Passports arrived today in an Express Post envelope – with no other paperwork, no words of explanation – the only thing in the envelope was the Passport. Two envelopes – two passports. SO, we thumb through ….
We thumb through the passports to see if there is anything different – YES – a Long Stay Visitor Visa is stamped inside – both passports too.
There have been quite a few hoops to jump through; their system is not designed for long stay visitors in a motorhome. All Australian Passport holders are allowed to stay in Europe for up to three months every six months, but you need to “Ask Nicely” if you want to stay for longer than that. {Refer Schengen Visa on Wikipedia for more info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policies_in_the_European_Union }
This is fantastique news. Now we will be able to meander around France without a restricting deadline that precludes us from visiting Spain, Portugul & Italy!!
On January 14th, Mark and Bev had appointments at the French Consulate-General to Australia in Sydney and met a very officious French Official and jumped through a variety of hoops. “pas assez d’informations {Not enough info}” she declared, so we went away jumped through more hoops, submitted more forms – and hooray it all worked. Although the Visa Application Fee was only A$150 each, the costs associated with “jumping through the hoops” to get this visa was significantly more. On January 31st, we discovered that it has been successful.
So good to hear preparations are going just fine,and to have your Long Stay Visa. Well done!!!!!! BRUCE LOOKS GREAT,and revives great memories of Bruce. Love Bette, Jim xx
Yeehah….congratulations!
Hi Mark & Bev, glad to hear you got that sorted and that us ‘short stay’ visitors won’t have the same problem. Remember we’ve got a date for dinner in London or Paris sometime in mid July!, Wayne
Hi Mark and Bev
Great blog
We are a retired Aussie couple heading off to London on March 7, 2017
We have a friend in Staffordshire looking for a used Hymer B544 for us and intend touring for about 3 months through the UK and then about 9 months through continental Europe
Have been tearing our hair out trying how to extend time in the Schenhen zone beyond 90 days in and 90 days out
Our research has found that Australia has about a dozen bilateral agreements with countries within Schengen that are separate from the Schengen Agreement which may allow Aussies to stay up to 3 months in each of the Schengen countries, rather than 90 days combined
The most confusing of these agreements is the one with the French – the others are very straight forward
DFAT here in Aus don’t seem to want to make any definitive statements so we have decided to email each of the embassies directly
We would be very interested in hearing the hoops you had to overcome with the French embassy to get your long stay Visa as this is the track we would like to take
Thank you
Rob and Krys