What to do if you get rejected: Schengen Visa Remonstrance Process

No one wants to receive a letter that says, “REJECTED”. But it happens more often than not.

The first time my sister visited me in Europe, her Schengen visa got rejected too. Shit happens.

You still have hope. The hope is something called the “remonstrance process’ which is something impossible to find information for.

It’s like this top-secret process that apparently no one wants to talk about.

Take a deep breath. And do what I tell you-

Step 1: Find the local embassy or consulate contact to see what their contact email is.

Make sure you find the embassy that rejected you. This means you have to write the local embassy (such as New Delhi embassy/Bangkok embassy, etc.) that finally checked your visa application. Not the VFS centre that merely “processed” the application.

Step 2: Write an email at this address with a hand-signed letter explaining why you should get this visa.

Think of this as a second cover letter. For Indian passport holders or other developing countries, visa rejections most often have the following reason->>> No guarantee that you will come back to India.

Unless a major document was missing, you can be assured this was most likely the reason you got rejected. Sometimes the embassy will tick a reason why they rejected your visa, but due to the overload of applications, they sometimes give no reason at all. This can be incredibly FRUSTRATING.

Anyway, once you have collected extra information and written the letter and signed it off by hand, scan a copy and send it via your personal email (which you used in the application) and send it to the local embassy.

Step 3: Prepare for a call back.

If you’re lucky you will get a call or an email back setting up a face to face appointment either for an interview or to resubmit missing documents.  Thisof this as a visa interview, and if you pass, you will get your visa stamped onthe same day or next day!

This process happened to my sister and within a week of her visa being rejected, she was given hers.

Now, how the hell do you figure out what to write in this remonstrance letter? Here’s the exact sample that I sent: