Ok, so we want to go to Italy for a few days to visit some friends. Me and our son Joshua are British Citizens, but Natasha is Ukrainian. So she needs a Schengen visa to go to Italy. After having looked at the http://it.vfsglobal.co.uk for information, we have discovered that she could get a EEA/EU Family (Short Stay Up To 90 Days) type visa, which is free. So for her to get that visa, she needed to prove her relationship to the British co-traveller. So naturally, I thought that would be me. In order for her to prove her relationship to me, we had to translate and legalise our Marriage Certificate, which is Ukrainian. If it was a British Marriage Certificate, would have been much easier. Translating and legalising the Marriage Certificate and her Birth Certificate costed us almost £300. All the time and trouble that it took was crazy. But finally we had all the paperwork we need for the visa and for her to prove her relationship with me. Whilst packing the paperwork for the visa before our trip to London to the visa office, I thought to take a copy of Joshua's passport and Birth Certificate just in case.When we got there, I said to the visa officer, well this is my wife and we are travelling together and this is our son who will need to be fed by his mum on the trip. So the visa officer asks for Joshua's passport and Birth Certificate. Then she asks for the plane tickets and that is it. She needed nothing else, because Joshua is British and her name is on the Birth Certificate hence the relationship between her and Joshua's as his mother is proven.
We walked away from the application centre both relieved and upset. Relieved that it was all OK and that the paperwork that we had on us was acceptable. But upset since we went to so much trouble for nothing. We did not have to translate all the documents since we could easily prove her relationship to Joshua through the birth certificate.
So if you have a child together who is British, then you can get a Schengen visa by providing the child's birth certificate to prove your relationship to a British national. Of course don't forget all the other things like copies of everything and photos and so on.
We walked away from the application centre both relieved and upset. Relieved that it was all OK and that the paperwork that we had on us was acceptable. But upset since we went to so much trouble for nothing. We did not have to translate all the documents since we could easily prove her relationship to Joshua through the birth certificate.
So if you have a child together who is British, then you can get a Schengen visa by providing the child's birth certificate to prove your relationship to a British national. Of course don't forget all the other things like copies of everything and photos and so on.
