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Indian traveller shares why his Schengen visa was rejected twice: 'Reasonable doubts on...'
An Indian professional was denied a French Schengen visa twice, with authorities citing doubts over his intention to return.
A social media post detailing an Indian professional’s back-to-back Schengen visa rejections has struck a chord with travellers, offering a cautionary look into how applications can fail even when documentation appears to be in order. The applicant, who shared his experience on Reddit, said he was scheduled to travel to France last week for a business conference but was unable to secure the visa in time.
According to the post, the individual had applied under the short-stay business visa category with an Indian passport. He said the first application was “weak” due to incomplete documentation by the agency handling his case. After the rejection, he reapplied independently and submitted a more detailed file addressing the earlier gaps, but was denied again on the same grounds.
The Redditor shared the reasons for rejection. They said that the rejection letter stated that the “purpose and intention of stay felt unreliable” and that authorities had “reasonable doubts on whether (he would) leave the member states” after the visa expired.
“Now that I am past the travel date, I’m in no hurry to re-apply but was still thinking going for an appeal so that these rejections won’t affect if i’m planning to travel next year for business or other tourist reasons. What do y’all think I should do?” the user concluded.
(Also Read: ‘My heart is full again’: British woman celebrates India visa approval after two rejections)
Social media reactions
Reacting to the post, one user wrote, “Do you mean to appeal at the Embassy or to the Commission in Nantes? You can always give it a shot, worst that can happen is they say no again, but you can’t be more refused so you have nothing to lose.”
“Appeal for what? The conference is over. Maybe it’s a mistake from their part, I get that but appealing for an already past event doesn’t paint a good picture of you (it is actually backing up their reason for rejection). You probably don’t want that in your file – which is a centralised and shared database from like 20th of October (or something like that). Getting a business visa is much easier than getting a tourist one. You probably need a stronger case for your tourist application in the future,” cautioned another.
“Can you share what you gave a response on showing a strong bond with India. They are majorly looking for this from the first timer. This will give you some idea what went wrong. Marriage in India, Having property in India, Past travel to any other country etc give some reliability that you will come back to,” shared a third user.
