How to Apply Schengen Visa (Europe) for Indonesian

"Don't just follow your dreams, chase them."

me at Cinque Terre, Italy, the view is fabulous! I love it! <333 #traveldiariesbymj

(mixed English - Indonesian post)

Finally I did one of my dream trip which is outside Asia and I am doing it solo! *proudwithmyself* *throwconfetti* :)

Okay, in this blogpost I am going to share how did I manage to apply my Schengen Visa for the first timer by myself :) since this is about Visa so this blogpost mean to Indonesian citizens.

To apply this Schengen Visa you can choose which embassy or representative agent to apply your visa based on these 2 conditions :
1. Your first Schengen country destination or
2. Country where you plan to stay longer

I booked my flight few months before departure like 6 months, I decided to book multi-city so start from Amsterdam and back from Milan, with the route is Jakarta - Kuala Lumpur - Abu Dhabi - Amsterdam and Milan - Abu Dhabi - Jakarta, this is my first longest trip so far, in total is 19 days from 14th of Jun - 2nd of Jul, 2017.

How does it feel like to go solo traveling?

Worried, of course :) those things on your mind sometimes still come and go but only to distract you, don't worry too much and prepare everything, but actually, this time I didn't prepare my itinerary really well :p my itinerary that I will share to you at the end of my Europe trip was based on what I actually did so I will write down my itinerary after I did my traveling instead. And above of all, I feel so excited for this trip! besides, I am going to visit some of my friends there and meet another new people and well, you'll never know what surprises might waiting for you there :)

I applied my Schengen Visa quite rushed, I only prepared the documents within a week. At first, I want to apply through VFS (representative agent for Netherlands) but the available schedule was quite long so I decided to apply via TLS (representative agent for France) and I got my appointment on 18th of April 2017 even though I also just register too in VFS just in case and got appointment on 8th of May and need to reschedule couple times because I still didn't get a news from TLS and finally I cancelled my appointment in VFS.

Here are the requirements that I prepared and brought to apply my Visa (Tourism) or you can refer to this website for the requirements :

DokumenDeskripsi
Formulir permohonan Schengen, asli
Download / Simpan di komputer
Diisi dengan lengkap, dengan tanggal dan ditandatangani oleh pemohon di kedua kolom tanda tangan (kolom 37 DAN kolom tanda tangan dibagian bawah pernyataan dihalaman terakhir)Untuk anak-anak dibawah umur, kedua orang tua harus menandatangani formulir aplikasi visa.
2 lembar foto yang sama dan baruUkuran 3.5cm x 4.5cm, foto berwarna dengan latar belakang putih, diambil dalam 6 bulan terakhir
Tiket perjalanan pulang pergi dari Indonesia, fotokopiKonfirmasi pemesanan tiket pulang pergi dari Indonesia.
Asuransi perjalanan, asli       
Asuransi perjalanan, fotokopi

Asuransi perjalanan dengan perlindungan minimal sebesar 30.000 Euro yang mencakup seluruh durasi perjalanan anda selama di area Schengen harus mencakup biaya pengobatan, perawatan rumah sakit darurat serta repatriasi untuk alasan medis.
Mengenai wilayah cakupan asuransi perjalanan Anda : harus mencantumkan Schengen, Worldwide atau Europe dan secara khusus salah satu dari ketiganya jika anda ingin mengajukan visa jangka pendek / berlaku di Perancis jika anda ingin mengajukan visa jangka panjang / berlaku di DROM/CTOM jika anda ingin pergi ke wilayah luar teritorial Perancis.
Silahkan buka daftar asuransi perjalanan yang diterima.
Konfirmasi pemesanan tempat tinggal (hotel, apartemen), fotokopiBukti konifrmasi pemesanan tempat tinggal untuk setiap malam selama di Negara Schengen.

Buku tabungan pemohon, asli
Buku tabungan pemohon, fotokopi


Melampirkan referensi bank dan setiap lembar fotokopi tabungan di legalisir oleh pejabat bank yang berwenang untuk membuktikan kemampuan keuangan pemohon dalam menanggung biaya-biaya selama di Negara Schengen, dan untuk anak dibawah umur melampirkan fotokopi buku tabungan orang tua.
Surat keterangan pensiun, asli
Surat sumpah pensiun, fotokopi
Surat sumpah pensiun, terjemahan
(Diperlukan jika bukan dalam bahasa Inggris atau Prancis)
Jika status pekerjaan pemohon adalah pensiun
Surat keterangan resmi yang menyatakan pensiun, nama dan alamat perusahaan terakhir, lamanya kerja yang terakhir, dan jumlah gaji yang terakhir, surat ini dikeluarkan oleh pejabat yang berwenang.
Surat keterangan bekerja, asli
Surat keterangan bekerja, terjemahan
(Diperlukan jika bukan dalam bahasa Inggris atau Prancis)
Surat keterangan bekerja asli dari perusahaan yang menyatakan nama, jabatan, dan gaji pelamar visa, , alasan dan tanggal perjalanan dan siapa yang akan bertanggung jawab atas dukungan keuangan selama perjalanan. Dokumen ini harus tertera alamat, nomor telepon dan fax perusahaan, cap perusahaan, dan tanda tangan, nama dan jabatan orang yang mengeluarkan sertifikat tersebut
Slip gaji 3 bulan terakhir, asli
Slip gaji 3 bulan terakhir, fotokopi
Slip gaji 3 bulan terakhir, terjemahan
(Diperlukan jika bukan dalam bahasa Inggris atau Prancis)
SIUP Perusahaan, asli
SIUP Perusahaan, fotokopi
SIUP Perusahaan, terjemahan
(Diharuskan jika bukan dalam bahasa Inggris atau Perancis)
Ijin bisnis, kode oraganisasi atau sertifikat lembaga hukum, yang menyatakan nama pelamar, tujuan organisasi.
Atau sertifikat dengan fungsi yang sama. Tidak diperlukan untuk pekerja bebas
Rekening bank perusahaan 3 bulan terakhir, fotokopiDi legalisir oleh pejabat bank berwenang
Bukti penggantian nama pemohon atau orang tua pemohon, fotokopi
Bukti penggantian nama pemohon atau orang tua pemohon, terjemahan
Jika diperlukan, dalam bahasa Perancis atau Inggris
Surat keputusan perwalian anak oleh administrasi Indonesia (atau sertifikat wafat orang tua), fotokopi
Surat keputusan perwalian anak oleh administrasi Indonesia (atau sertifikat wafat orang tua), terjemahan
(Diwajibkan jika bukan dalam bahasa Inggris atau Prancis)
Untuk pemohon visa dibawah umur (dibawah 18 tahun)
Surat ini wajib dilampirkan jika salah satu orang tua diberikan wewenang mengijinkan salah satu orang tua mendampingi anak dalam perjalanan atau sertifikat wafat orang tua yang lain dengan terjemahan
Surat persetujuan orang tua,asli
Surat persetujuan orang tua, terjemahan
(Dalam bahasa Perancis atau Inggris)
Untuk pemohon visa dibawah umur (dibawah 18 tahun)
Surat persetujuan orang tua dengan informasi orang yang bertanggung jawab atas anaknya selama perjalanan.
Jika anak melakukan perjalanan sendiri atau dengan salah satu orang tua yang dikuasakan.
Surat keterangan sekolah, asli
Surat keterangan sekolah, fotokopi
Surat keterangan sekolah, terjemahan
(Diharuskan jika bukan dalam bahasa Inggris atau Perancis)
Untuk pemohon visa berstatus pelajar/mahasiswa
Surat keterangan ini dibuat untuk menginformasikan bahwa pemohon berstatus sebagai pelajar disekolah tersebut, dalam surat ini mencantumkan informasi nama pemohon, dan keterangan mengenai rencana perjalanan ke Negara Schengen, juga menginformasikan untuk pengajuan visa dikedutaan.
Akte kelahiran, asli
Akte kelahiran, fotokopi
Akte kelahiran, terjemahan
(Dalam bahasa Perancis atau Inggris)
Untuk pemohon visa dibawah umur (dibawah 18 tahun)
Kartu keluarga dan tempat tinggal yang terdaftar, fotokopiFotokopi dari halaman yang berisi informasi tentang pemohon dan anggota keluarga.
Ijin masuk yang berlaku sampai tanggal pulang pelamar, fotokopiUntuk orang asing yang tinggal di Indonesia
Cap ijin masuk dari imigrasi masih berlaku didalam paspor untuk kembali ke Indonesia.
Bukti tempat tinggal di Indonesia (visa non-imigran, kontrak kerja, dll), asli
Bukti tempat tinggal di Indonesia, fotokopi
Untuk orang asing yang tinggal di Indonesia
KITAS, KITAP
Paspor, asli
Paspor, fotokopi
(Fotokopi 2 lembar halaman paspor yang berisi data pribadi.)
Paspor pribadi nasional atau dokumen perjalanan yang resmi dengan tanggal berlaku lebih dari 3 bulan lewat dari tanggal berlaku visa yang diminta, dengan 2 halaman kosong untuk dimana visa stiker akan ditempel (tertera tulisan “Visa” )
Paspor lama, asli
Paspor lama, fotokopi
(Fotokopi halaman semua paspor lama yang berisi data pribadi.)
Jika anda punya 1 atau lebih paspor lama, anda harus membawa paspor-paspor lama tersebut.

Those are the requirements that you can also find in their website (Yellow Highlighted is the one that I prepared). In addition, I will give some informations related with some documents that I submitted last time, and before you submit the documents, I suggest you to reserved the schedule for the interview first and prepare the documents after you got your schedule, just in case if you will hard to get appointment due to high season like mine, especially Summer.

So, I registered for the appointment on TLS website (sign up needed) before get the documents done, I choose 18th of April, 2017 at 8 AM for the Appointment, I choose in the morning so from there I can go to work right away. Register your email on their website and when you register for appointment, they will ask your address in France, so I booked a hotel in France through booking.com since they have free cancellation, and put the Hotel address in my registration form. And you also need to have travel insurance for this trip so I also bought it as soon as possible before registered.

I bought my Travel Insurance through AXA online and the process is so fast yet simple, just input your date and choose which class do you want, mine is Gold, Rp572,000, need to be covered from Jakarta until you go back again to Jakarta, and the insurance value is covered minimum 30,000 Euro and don't forget to make sure your Travel Insurance cover Schengen countries. You can also pay with Credit Card which totally make you easy.

Since I applied visa to France (via TLS) so due to their requirements for making Schengen Visa, because of France is not my first Schengen country so I have to make France to be the country that I will stay longer even though I am not, so I booked Hotel in France quite long and I made my itinerary for this Visa. I make the simple one like Amsterdam (2 days), Belgium (1 day), France (8 days), Italy (6 days), that's for my Visa Itinerary and I booked the hotel based on that itinerary. So, first step is buy Travel Insurance & Book Hotel at France. (Note : don't cancel your booking before your Visa get approved).

After that, I registered and get ready to prepare my documents. I asked my Human Resources Department (HRD) Department for the Working Certificate Letter (Surat Keterangan Kerja) in English and go to the Bank to print out Last 3 months Bank Statement and Bank Reference Letter, (for reference letter BCA is Rp50,000) and the process only took one day even only around 1,5 hours since I went to Bank at Lunch time and it's finished very fast, when you print out the Bank Statement Account (Rekening Koran) make sure to ask their stamps, just in case. 

For Pas Photo, I didn't go to Photo Studio, I just took my picture by asking help from a friend at office, find white wall and took the picture with my phone, remember to have 70% full with your face. Original Passport that need to be attached is maximum 2 passports, because I gave them all my 3 passports and they only take 2 passports.

Make your documents translating in English according the above requirements, Working Certificate Letter and Salary Slip. For the letter already in English but for the Salary Slip, I made it following my Salary Slip at office, thankfully the slip is so simple.

How much money do you need on your bank accounts? Well, I think at least your bank accounts need to cover all the expenses for flight, hotel, living cost etc. Maybe [Rp1,000,000/day x (how many days)] + Flight Ticket = this cost maybe pretty make sense to think how much you need to have in your bank account. And make sure you have your cash flow in your bank account, means you use your Bank Account for transaction, anyway they don't have fixed rate so this is only my assumption.

So well, I gathered all my documents, managed by sequence and come to the appointment Schedule, please make sure be ready 15 minutes before the time and don't be late.

TLS Contact Address :
Kantor TLScontact 
Menara Anugrah Lantai 3
Lingkar Mega Kuningan
Jakarta (disamping kedutaan Thailand)

I went there and it's quite strict since you're not allowed to bring your cellphone inside and they provide locker to put your phone inside. After you get into building, store your phone in locker and register your name since they will have your name based on the schedule. From there you can wait until your name being called for Documents Verification. The officer are so friendly, they will help you so no need to be afraid and just relax.

After verification, you have to go to Cashier to pay your application Visa, for how much the cost you can refer to this website. Please note to bring Cash, because they only accept Cash for payment. At that time, I will have to pay for Visa & Service Fees, so I paid Rp847,500 for Visa Fees and Rp390,000 for Visa Service Fees so the total is Rp1,237,500. From there you will go to have Fingerprints Scan and Photograph (Biometric Data Collection) then finished for the process for that day, it's really fast though, it takes about 20 minutes in total for all those process.
TLS office, front door at 3rd Floor
Your application progress can be checked on their website and usually it will takes time about minimum 5 - 14 working days. During April and May, there are so many National Holiday so my Visa quite delayed and I got my information for my Visa that can be collected at 17th of May, so it's a month for me but still 14 working days. Granted or not they couldn't tell because you will find out once you get your visa because they will seal the envelope that consist of your passport.

For the Visa fee is non-refundable and TLS can't guarantee if your visa approved or not. Because they are not in the position to approve your visa but Embassy do. If you want to follow up your visa it's also easy to contact TLS, just contact them and leave your number and they will contact you back. I tried to contact them too since I thought my Visa was pretty long and kind of worried back then, but the officer said it was delayed because there are so many applicants on this season, it's high season though and so many National Holiday too.

Anyway you can also check the Visa Procedure here, I just want to post because maybe you will find it useful since I also looking for this kind of blogpost before applying my Schengen Visa :)

So I went to TLS building on 17th of May 2017 to get my passport back and YAY! My Schengen Visa is approved! wohoooo...I got 6 months, Multi-Entry and Valid for stay 90 days. Usually it will be different for each person, depends on Embassy but I am grateful since my Visa is granted! :) Anyway they put your picture on the Schengen Visa. Ohhh so tempting to use all the 90 days! haha..anyway, Europe here I come!!
My Schengen Visa, yay!! :)

No need to worry to apply Schengen Visa by yourself, as long as you fulfill all their requirements then usually it will granted.

Thank you for reading my blog and I'll see you in upcoming exciting blogpost soon! :)

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