- Thread starter johne
- Start date
Travelling to Europe for Dominican citizens changes in 2024
As a spouse of a USA citizen, my wife was refused a US visa three times. I applied for legal residency for her and then turned it in for a 10 year visitor's visa. That is the ONLY way I could get her a visa to the US . I confirmed this at a meeting of US Embassy personnel that was at Sea Horse Ranch many years ago. As a spouse of a US citizen back then, she would never have gotten a US visa without doing what we ended up doing at their advice. Did all of that piss me off? You bet it did.
I was told by a visa expert in Puerto Plata that France was the easiest, but have since found out that she would not meet the income requirements because she does not work and the retirement we live on is mine. Oh well.
Exactly. I'm no expert at all on things related to US, but unless I'm proven wrong, to me it still appears that Schengen Visa is much easier than the US visa to get, as said above.
What windeguy also write above, sounds surreal and I'm sorry he has had to do all that just to get the visa for his wife, as in the eyes of Schengen migration me an my wife definitely are treated the same and without any hassle. Good example: Normally, you can only get a German visa for residency after you complete the A1 language test. However, as I'm not German, she does not have to speak one single word of the language either. Obviously does not mean she doesn't speak it, but in the eyes of the migration, they don't care of she speaks the language or not - same rights as the rest of us...
What rights do you mean exactly? I am a dual USA and DR citizen so I use my USA passport to leave the DR and my DR passport to enter the DR.
I do have to show my DR passport to the immigration agent in the DR so they don't try and charge for an illegal overstay past 30 days.
My wife is a DR citizen. Because of that she needs a visa to visit the USA, Canada, Mexico, the EU and most other countries Dominicans cannot visit without a visa.
When we fly to my home country of the USA, we have to go through the immigrant line at US border immigration. I cannot bring her with me to the USA citizens line. She is not eligible for global entry. The second to the last time we went trhough that line at JFK there were more than a thousand people and three agents of twenty working and it took over 3 hours to get into the USA.
So, as you can see, she does not have the right to enter the USA without going through the immigrant line.
My wife even lived in Germany during her first marriage but divorced before she was able to become a naturlaized EU citizen. She would still need to prove to the EU that she would return home after a visit. On the Schengen visa application form there is a clear requirement to prove recent income. That is where we have no response possible since we have been retired for over 21 years. How could even the best lawyer work around that?
(That I had to get my wife residency in order to get a visitor's visa to the USA was ludicrous, but that is what had to be done)
Please feel free to correct me if I'm missing something, but for every single occasion we've applied for German visa, I've worked as a freelancer, so no guaranteed income. Obviously, you can see the incoming funds via account statements, so that is what we have provided and they have been happy.
Not sure if I misunderstood something, but you're saying that you're living with your pension but you have no income monthly? If the pension is paid monthly, you would just provide an account statement for the embassy?
Yes, I can understand that if she has no current residency in Schengen and you're not a EU citizen either, then the normal visa requirements would be those enforced. My wife has had residency twice. She got one more than 10 years ago but lost it because while having that, we lived in POP for 5 years, so obviously that plastic was no longer valid... It expires after 6 months of continuous stay abroad. So we had to do the whole freaking process twice...
The point is this: The pension is mine and not hers. She needs to show a source of income which she does not have, because the pension is mine.
Neither of us has worked a day job in over 21 years.
What about the apartments she owns and rents out all these years on Airbnb? No records?
There are virtually no rentals for years now. The market is saturated and we have far fewer tourists in Cabarete than ever.
There are far more expats now. So the Airbnb business is just about over except for the very occasional client. She used to
turn away 3 clients for everyone hosted. Those days are long gone from Cabarete. So, she cannot show income that is needed
for the Schengen Visa application.
I'm sorry, but I still don't get this. I apologize for the personal question but are you then married? I'm asking this because my wife has not had registered income either, I'm the only one that can show something with account statements too, and obviously that has never been an issue.
Same goes for us, but for a bit shorter time (4-5 years), at the time when we applied for her visa, neither of us had a normal day job either.
You are talking about “my wife”. In a normal situation in a marriage everything belongs to both.
And in fact everything does belong to both of us. No doubt about that.
BUT, the money that we live on is not from her pension and therefor not something she can likely claim on the Visa Application form as I have read the requirements.
Where have you read this? Do you have a link? As said, we have always clearly put on the applications that my wife does not have her own reportable income, and nobody has ever even asked about that. It's irrelevant, we're married, I'm responsible for her. No, she would not claim your pension on the application, neither does my wife (I work, it's my salary but our income), but if you are legally married and have the appropriate documents to prove that in the embassy (if needed, translated by an authorized translator and with an Apostille if needed), even your pension is income for you both.
I have no expertise on this, but I believe I have read somewhere, that pension is actually really good thing, because I can be fired from my job and therefore lose my income but you cannot be fired from your pension (I think?). It belongs to you by law and therefore stable, monthly income.
Now, the situation would be very different if you were not married, then I don't even know what you would need to prove, but as you are under the law, if only one of you work, that should be irrelevant.
After 35 years, I still enjoy every single day. Never a dull moment and I love the movement in the city (There must be something wrong with me)
Although I have different escape routes from time to time...
But if she is applying for a visa the rules as I understand them are different as opposed to obtaining US residency for example (based on marriage). Since the visa is for the wife then the burden of proof (income, etc.) would be on her. US residency the burden of proof would be on the sponsor. This is how it has been explained to me by the consulate. I know when my SIL/BIL were getting their visas for Spain (other points in Europe) they each had to present their own proof of income.
Guys (and ladies). We were all debating whether you should or should not use a lawyer, by which we mean a lawyer who handles visa applications day in day out. And now we've segwayed into a conversation about why or if someone should be granted a Schengen visa and we're demonstrating beautifully that we aren't experts on the subject and it would be much better to consult an expert.
Winde I strongly advise you to chat to a lawyer who specialises in Schengen visas. They usually do the initial consultation for free, or for a low cost, just check what their thoughts are. Way better than going round in circles on this forum because honestly we aren't experts and we can't give you an accurate assessment of your wife's chances.
Winde I strongly advise you to chat to a lawyer who specialises in Schengen visas. They usually do the initial consultation for free, or for a low cost, just check what their thoughts are. Way better than going round in circles on this forum because honestly we aren't experts and we can't give you an accurate assessment of your wife's chances.
In what setting did they apply? Alone/as a family/couple etc. That would make a difference?
Straight from the German embassy:
"Si el/la solicitante no tiene suficiente solvencia económica, debe traer original y copia de la declaración formal de compromiso (“Verpflichtungserklärung”). La firma del que invita debe ser legalizada por la autoridad de extranjería en Alemania (en original y una copia)."
Please keep in mind that the above is when the sponsor is already in Europe and for 90 day visa. This has never been the case with us, so we just both showed up at the embassy, me proving income, case closed.
You are right, If I may add, my specific advise, based on experience, would be perhaps not even a lawyer or any middleman, but check any topics straight with migration/embassy, as they are the ones with the last word anyway. When we did the most papers for migration back in 2010, I did not even know about DR1 yet...