Hacker News Reader

Comment by sagarkamat | Hacker News Reader

EU really needs to re-do the whole Schengen process for citizens of countries like India. Right now, you need to show booked tickets, hotel reservations, Insurance with very specific terms and a detailed itinerary even before you've been granted the visa. And after all that documentation nightmare, you get granted the visa for the exact specific dates you've requested. God forbid your plans change even by a day or two.

By contrast, the Travel Visa to US, while also a painful process, at least grants you multiple entry visa thats valid for 10 years.

View on HN

why does the eu need to do that? a country with 1 billion people (majority of which is poor) is a recipe for disaster.

No, we don't need to change that. You're on a tourist visa. You arrive on day X and you leave on day Y. If circumstances change due to events out of your control, then there are solutions for that.

You want better terms, improve the situation in India. Favorable terms are given to citizens of countries where they're unlikely to violate the terms of their visa, like overstaying the validity of their visa.

you seem to have strong sense of ownership on your land, maybe your ancestors owned that land for very long time, but keep in mind that your ancestors came from somewhere and nobody denied them the right to stay and live

Around the 13000 years. The previous significant inhabitants left or were wiped out due to the ice age. The idea of a country was established in 800AD.

The concept of visas may not have existed at that point in time, but you were at the mercy of those in power. If they didn't like you, they'd banish you from their lands or worse.

The modern rules are entirely based on statistics. How many overstay their visa. How many get denied a visa. Are compromised passports swiftly dealt with. India doesn't live up to the rules for easy visas.

Can you share a source to any of these statistics you refer to that the modern rules are based on?

> then there are solutions for that

Painless solutions like email/phone call where you explain why you are extending your stay?

Or painful solutions where you need to go to an office, find somebody who gives a shit about actually doing their job?

You go sit in the airport after your passport has been exit stamped. No, you can't stay in the country after the expiration of your visa, unless you have a very good reason to do so.

<If circumstances change due to events out of your control, then there are solutions for that.> There literally are no good solutions to that. I went through the whole rigmarole of getting a schengen visa for a specific week and then had to postpone my trip by a week due to change in business plans. The 'solution' was to get a second schengen visa for that second week, by submitting the same documents again and paying the same fee again. Which involves showing up at a consulate in-person. Which are not in every city. (source: https://manila.diplo.de/ph-en/service/visa/faq-gq-change-vis...)

Literally nothing would be different if they decided to grant you the visa for the duration you asked for but allowed you the flexibility to make that trip within a time window. You would still ensure I'm in EU for a limited time, but allowed some flexibility.

Secondly, none of the measures like asking me to show booked hotels or booked flights actually ensures I wont be overstaying. I could very well show you all of those and overstay if i wanted to do so illegally. All it does is forces people to shell out of a bunch of money even before they can be sure I'll be granted the visa.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com