Red Greece

Travelling to Greece?

My daughter (South African citizen) currently stays in London on 2 year travel/work visa. Had a dream holiday planned to go to France (3 days) then Greece (7 days) and a day trip to Turkey. Visas for France (single entry) and Turkey came through but the one for Greece was issued for 4 days only, and for totally incorrect dates! She only found this out on Friday and was too late to visit the Greek Embassy - and Embassy closed at 13:00. The travel agent says that there's nothing she can do - she's going to lose the money she had already paid for the trip. She's due to leave for France on Sunday (25th June) and return on Wed 28th June and was due to leave for Greece on the evening of 28 June. Surely this is not how Greece treats its tourists? Is there anything that she can do when she's back in London on Wednesday? She could forfeit her trip to France and hope to sort out the Greece visa but then she may lose out on both trips.

Public Comments

1. Why not visit the Greek embassy in France, provided of course that she will be going to Paris. Even if the visa is for only 4 days to Greece but one of those 4 days is the day of entry, then it's okay, she'll enter and leave in 7 days.
2. I will try to explain the better I can. France and Greece are EU members and are part of the Schengen treaty. That means that theoreticaly these two countries do not have internal boarders. The flight from France to Greece is considered domestic not international. Your daughter will enter with her French visa France and then she is in the Schengen zone. Her trip to Greece does not require a second visa. It is like she did not enter France but a counrty called "Schengen-land" or something. Part of this make belief country is Greece. I really can not understand what really happened. For some years now there is no French or Greek visa. There is only one, the Schengen visa. You apply for this visa to the Embassy that belongs to the country that you will make your first entry. These visas are approved, if I am not wrong in Belgium. The system will have picked up that someone has applied for two visas. Tell her to look at the visas. If the dates on the French visa covers the duration of her trip in Greece then she is fine and she can do both trips. If not she has to go back to the French embassy and ask for an extension. She should also check which country did she declared as the first entry country. This is really important. It would also be a good idea to go directly from France to Greece and not back to London. Getting back in the UK makes things more complicated. Probably she did not state that she will go back to London and the system considered that she will be inside the zone for the whole time. Also she applied for a single entry and that means single entry to the Schengen zone. She should also check the duration of the visa. Travel visa for Schengen countries is 3 months. There is chance that the French issued a visa for a smaller period than three months and the Greek just put an extension to cover the three months.Maybe that is the reason that the dates are wrong. You should understand not Greece or France are issuing these visas but the Schengen authorities. The countries have nothing to do with that. If still she does not feel safe, when she enters Greece she can always ask the authorities there. I am sure that they will give her a small extension. When she will be leaving the country they may ask her why she stayed for a longer period but since she will be leaving the Schengen zone they will not have a problem. It is only three days and they will not care. She can also show the British visa. This will make things much easier. UK is not in the Schengen coutries but is an EU member and the whole situation will look totaly different since she has a visa from a EU country and she will be in an EU country. I do not believe that there is time to make many corrections. I understand that she will go back to the UK and leave immidiately for Greece. The best solution is to go directly from France to Greece.
3. With the Schengen visa she should have no problem travelling between France and Greece. However, there may be trouble if she enters the Schengen zone, then gets out to visit Turkey, and then back in... If it is a single entry visa, she will not be able to get back in. It has happened to a friend of mine who got stuck in Istanbul this way. Ouch.
4. I think she should skip the Greece part. Not many people speak English there and she may suffer when she tries to enter the country. I hope she isnot too young or too inexperienced in dealing with different cultures. Also though there is a Schengen visa, the countires have the right to implement rules to those outside EU. So since she is a SA citizen, she won't have the right to travel freely within EU.