How to get a Schengen visa as a Work Pass Holder in Singapore (2024) - Essential Tips and Steps
TL;DR
- Destination: Applied through the Italian Embassy, as Italy was our primary stay during a 15-day trip to Switzerland and Italy.
- Key Documents: Included employment letters, original bank statements, and a marriage certificate.
- Agency: BLS International Services handled the processing.
- Application Tips: Essential to have original documents, travel insurance, and confirmations for flights and accommodations.
- Costs & Time: The process cost SGD 344 for two and took 5-6 weeks due to the application timing.
People worldwide want to visit Europe because of its history, culture, and beautiful scenery. This continent includes many countries, each with its history and identity. People who love to travel to Europe require a Schengen Visa to explore this amazing continent.
Our Trip
I recently visited Europe (Apr-May 2024) with my wife from Singapore. We spent over 15 days in Switzerland and Italy. In this article, I will share how we obtain a Schengen Visa via the Embassy of Italy in Singapore.
We entered via Switzerland, stayed five nights in Switzerland, and then flew to Italy. We stayed nine nights in Italy, returned to Switzerland via train, and then returned to Singapore from Switzerland.
Singapore🇸🇬 -> Switzerland🇨🇭-> Italy 🇮🇹 -> Switzerland🇨🇭 -> Singapore🇸🇬
Our Background
We are from Sri Lanka. I hold an Employment Pass (EP) in Singapore, and my wife holds a Dependent Pass.
Choose the Embassy
It’s crucial to choose the right embassy for your Schengen visa application. You must apply for a Schengen visa through the embassy of your primary destination. The primary destination is defined as the country where you intend to spend the most nights.
We spent five nights in Switzerland and nine nights in Italy, so Italy is our primary destination. Therefore, we applied for a Schengen visa through the Italian Embassy in Singapore.
If you plan to spend an equal number of nights in multiple Schengen countries, apply for your visa through the country’s embassy, where you will first enter.
The Agency
We submitted our application via BLS International Services, the designated agency facilitating Schengen visa applications for the Italian embassy. This agency is officially listed on the Italian embassy’s website in Singapore. For more details, please visit the following link.
Here is the website of the BLS International Services:
🎁 Tips: The Schengen visa application requires hard copies of many documents. If you frequently travel or travel to the EU with your spouse, it’s worth considering buying a printer (at least a used one from Carousell) for your convenience.
Prepare Your Documents
This step is crucial for a successful visa application. The embassy or agency will notify (or contact) you if any documents are missing, potentially delaying your visa or leading to its rejection. Before initiating the visa application process, gather the documents listed below and verify that they meet the specified criteria.
1. Document Checklist
- Please visit the BLS website and download the latest document checklist using the link below.
- https://www.blsitalysingapore.com/touristvisa.php -> Please refer to the “Requirements” tab.
- Print this Checklist, as it must also be submitted with the visa application.
2. Original Bank Statements
- The embassy requires original bank statements; those downloaded from online banking platforms are not accepted.
- Please visit your local bank branch to request printed statements for the last three months.
- Ensure each page of these statements is stamped by the bank as proof of authenticity.
- Depending on the bank, you may charge a small amount for this.
- 🎁 Tips:
- Avoid printing your bank statements at home to bring to the bank; they may not be accepted. Having the bank print the statements directly allows for immediate verification and stamping.
- If your visa application includes your spouse, you do not need to provide two original sets of bank statements. Submit one original set for yourself and a copy for your spouse.
3. Original Employment Letter
- An employment letter is required for submission to the embassy.
- This letter should include your full name as it appears on your passport, your job title, date of employment, salary details, the purpose of your trip, and the duration of your travel. It must be addressed to the Embassy of Italy in Singapore.
- To get this, ensure that you provide accurate information to the appropriate department in your company.
- Please note that the embassy does not accept electronically signed letters. The employment letter must be printed on official company letterhead and signed by the authorized signatory by hand.
- You can submit the original letter for yourself and a copy for your spouse’s application.
- If your spouse is working in Singapore, get an original employment letter from your spouse’s company and attach it to your spouse’s application.
4. Singapore Work Pass (EP) or PR
- Your work pass must remain valid for at least 90 days after your intended visit to the Schengen area.
- If you are a Permanent Resident in Singapore, you must also present your Re-Entry Permit. Ensure it is valid for at least 90 days after your planned return date from the Schengen area.
- For example, if you intend to return to Singapore after your Europe trip on June 30th, your pass must be valid until September 30th.
- Add the front and back sides of the work pass on the same page.
- Use the “SGWorkPass” app to scan the QR code in your work pass and include the print of work pass details (which include the expiry date) in the application.
- 🎁 Tips:
- My company helped me submit the EP renewal to MOM 5 months before to facilitate this visa process. If your work pass expires in 4-5 months from the travel dates, you can request it from your company to submit the renewal.
5. Visa Application Form
- Please download the visa application form using the link below.
- https://www.blsitalysingapore.com/touristvisa.php -> Please refer to the “Download Form” tab.
- In the application form, please note the following fields;
- 13. National identity number, where applicable: -> Add your Singapore FIN number.
- 13. Number of travel document: -> Add your passport number.
- 20. Residence in a country other than the country of current nationality: -> Employment Pass, FIN, Expiry Date
- 25. Member State of main destination (and other Member States of destination, if applicable): -> We put “Italy and Switzerland”
- 30. Surname and first name of the inviting person(s) in the Member State(s). If not applicable, name of hotel(s) or temporary accommodation(s) in the Member State(s): -> We mentioned, “Accommodation details will be provided separately.”
- Address and e- mail address of inviting person(s)/hotel(s)/temporary accommodation(s): -> We mentioned the name and the address of the first hotel where we stay in Italy.
- Cost of travelling and living during the applicant’s stay is covered: -> For your application, select “by the applicant himself/herself. For your spouse’s application, select “by a sponsor.”
- Please mention “NA” for the fields which do not apply to you.
- Please see the sample application form below.
6. Passport
- Your passport must be valid for at least three months from when you plan to return to Singapore from Europe.
- Take printouts of your passport’s first three pages, including the bio page.
7. Past Schengen Visas
- Take a printout of the Schengen visa or any EU visas (if any) issued within three years.
- If you have any, you must mention this in the visa application form under the “28. Fingerprints collected previously for the purpose of applying for a Schengen visa” field.
- 🎁 Tips:
- Years ago, my wife and I got the entry visa for the EU Blue card from the German embassy in Singapore. Although we didn’t visit, we attached this to our visa application.
8. Photos
- A photo taken within six months must be submitted.
- The size should be 4 cm x 5cm.
9. Flight Reservations
- For your visa application, you must submit ‘Confirmed‘ air tickets.
- If you’re unsure how to obtain a ‘Confirmed‘ status air ticket without full payment, here are some options:
- Travel agencies can reserve a ticket for you.
- Some airlines offer ticket holds without payment.
- You can also use specialized services that provide flight itineraries for visa purposes.
- For our trip, which included travel from Singapore to Switzerland, then to Italy, and back to Singapore via Switzerland, we submitted the following:
- A fully paid, confirmed return air ticket from Singapore to Zurich and back was purchased through Singapore Airlines.
- A confirmed, fully paid air ticket for our flight from Zurich to Rome was purchased through Swiss Air.
- A confirmed train ticket for our journey from Italy to Switzerland.
- To fulfil the visa application requirements, we provided two air tickets and one train ticket, all with ‘Confirmed’ status.
10. Accommodation
- You must provide booking confirmation for all accommodations during your stay in the Schengen area.
- If you are travelling as a group, ensure your name (spouse’s name is not mandatory) must be present in the booking confirmation.
11. Travel Insurance
- You must obtain travel insurance; the policy must be attached to the visa application.
- The name on the policy must exactly match the name on your passport.
- Additionally, the coverage amount should be at least SGD 50,000.
- For our application, we opted for travel insurance from Singtel. For more information, please visit https://insurance.singtel.com/travel.
12. Marriage Certificate
- Include an English-translated copy of your marriage certificate along with a photocopy of your spouse’s passport in your visa application.
- Similarly, your spouse should submit a copy of the marriage certificate and a photocopy of your passport.
- When submitting your application, bring the original marriage certificate to the visa application centre (BLS). The staff will verify the original document, return it to you, and certify the copy for the application process.
13. Sponsorship Consent Letter
- If you sponsor your spouse’s trip, the visa processing agency (BLS) will require you to sign and submit a sponsorship consent letter.
- Tip:
- If BLS didn’t give such a letter, remind them. They forgot to get this letter from me. After three weeks, the embassy emailed me and requested me to submit it via email.
Steps
1. Book an appointment to submit documents
- Once your documents are ready, book an appointment in BLS to submit them. Do not wait until the last minute. Sometimes, getting an appointment for 2-3 weeks is difficult.
- Use this link to schedule an appointment at BLS https://www.blsitalysingapore.com/booknow.php
- Schedule two appointments if you are going with your spouse.
2. Go through the Checklist
- Go through the printed document checklist with your printed documents. Do not tick the Checklist. When BLS collects documents, they mark them.
- Please have the original work pass (EP card) and marriage certificate. BLS will verify those.
3. Have cash in hand
- BLS did not accept any card payments, PayNow or PayLah. They only accept cash.
- Finding an ATM near the BLS is difficult. Hence, please have some extra cash in hand.
4. Visit BLS and submit documents
- Visit BLS 5-10 minutes before the appointment time and submit your documents.
- You have to submit your biomatrix as well (fingerprints)
5. Collect the Passport from BLS
- Once you receive an email and a text message from BLS, please go and collect the passport.
Congratulations! 🎉 🥰
Cost
- It will cost SGD 344 for a couple, including all the charges (including the BLS service charge), which means $172 per person.
- Please visit here to learn more about the cost. “Visa Fees”
- Remember to have some extra cash in case anything unexpected comes up.
Processing Time
- According to BLS, it usually takes 15 working days to process. However, for us, it took 5-6 weeks.
- We checked with BLS to find out the reason for the delay, as we were worried. They mentioned that this happens when the travel date is far from the application date, as the embassy prioritizes applications based on the travel date.
- We got the visa on the same week we travelled. We travelled on Saturday and got the visa on Monday of the same week.
- Remember, you don’t have your passport with you during this period, as you submitted it to the embassy. Hence, you cannot leave Singapore.
Our Way
We booked and fully paid for everything (flights, trains, travel passes, attractions, hotels) before applying for the visa. We may be overconfident. 😃 Luckily, everything went well as planned. Please do this in your own way.
Here are some clicks which we took in beautiful Switzerland 🇨🇭 during our trip.
That’s it for today, guys. Thank You for Reading! I hope you found this article informative and useful.
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Need more support?
If you want to know the itinerary of our trip, how much it costs, or some more tips related to the overall journey in Switzerland and Italy, you can book an appointment (1 to 1) via Topmate. Thanks for your understanding.
Thank You 🙏🏽
I want to go France for work visa.can u Help me.