Swiss visa for H1 holder in US

[manu79]

I am here in US on H1 for couple of years.
Can i get a swiss visa only from USA and not India?
If yes then what is the process of getting swiss visitor's visa

[waitin_toolong]

check out the swiss consulate website for more info (googling will help)

[arvindkappula]

I am sure this below copied URL's will answer to most of your questions followed with additional information on my experience:

http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/nameri/vusa/ref_visinf/visusa.html#0015

http://switzerland.visahq.com/embassy/United-States

http://www.swiss.org.tw/visa

Last year when I was on EUROPE trip with family which started from Switzerland and ended in Paris, I had to get all of these below listed items in hand prior to applying for tourist visa:
Note: If you are planning to visit Schengen states, then I recommend to start working on these tourist visa’s at least 1 month in advance because, it took little more then 2 weeks to get stamped Schengen visa and almost 10 working days to get Swiss visa

Requirements:

1. Letter from your employer including your position, salary and granting you vacation etc, etc
2. Confirmed flight tickets (consulate office don’t accept “expedia.com” or other travel booking itineraries) and they would like to see confirmed round trip flight tickets
3. Confirmation from Hotel (check in date and check-out date) detail of your stay
4. In addition to your hotel confirmation, we need to make sure hotel folks fax reservation confirmation to the consulate where you are planning to attend for visa (3 days prior will be good enough..). FYI --Pretty much all the hotels in SWISS are aware of this process and they will ask you to which SWISS consulate in US to fax the confirmation ..LOL) make sure they do this else it might delay in process
5. Travel Health insurance (again have to provide already purchased/confirmed one and quote’s doesn’t work) – same story with travel insurance too…they want these folks to have insurance contract to be faxed to SWISS consulate in advance)
6. Confirmed transportation (rental car, rail booking etc) since we traveled all the way from Swiss to Paris by road I had to provide rental car confirmed agreement along with car insurance at the time of application submission
7. Bank statement
8. visa fees (not sure how much it is now....)
9. Since I was close to Switzerland consulate office in DC office, we went there directly and submitted my application and other doc's. It was like a drop box, a person will collect all the documents and forms and will say thank you...dont expect any receipts from them because I was not given one and was told dont worry you will get your passport in provided paid envelope...daam it was very scary for me to give my passport because you will not have any proof of receipt etc., that passport was given to these folks..don't understand what type of consulate process is this but that's how it was in last June 2006
10. Don't forget to enclose paid return envelope (next day delivery would be better)!

After I went through all this tourist visa process personally I felt it was easy process to get US visa than these tourist visas..again things might have changed in this 1 year but above URL's should be able to help you

Good luck!
Arvind

[knowledgeable]

Why aren't there more detailed people like ARVINDKAPPULA?

Thank you Arvind, you're simply great. Such excellent details will be beneficial to all.

Although, I'm sure people will still ask questions first and not search through the forum for already posted answers.

Take care.

PS: Do note that Schengen visa can be obtained from French consulate in minutes if you personally go.
You can also ask your regular travel agent to send you the itinerary which will be accepted as proof of hotel reservations. This can be changed later if required.
Lastly, your regular medical insurance may cover your international trip, check that out first. I have used mine in Europe a few times (unfortunately!)

[insubuy]

Some regular health insurance products may provide international medical coverage but most of them don't provide emergency medical evacuation or repatriation of remains. And those are required for Schengen visa.

You can read Schengen visa requirements at https://www.insubuy.com/schengen-insurance/

And you can purchase Schengen visa complicant health insurance products in minutes at https://www.insubuy.com/schengen-visa-insurance/

[knowledgeable]

You may be right but ...

You may be right and it's definitely a good idea to buy the specified insurance from you. Your personal service and your insurance companies have indeed been very good for people travelling to the US from India. I have no complaints on that front, whatsoever.

However, for clarification, my own personal US medical insurance was considered perfectly okay by the French counselor for my Schengen visa.

My insurance company also confirmed that this was more than necessary for my travels.

People may not have the medical insurance that I have or theirs may not cover everything. It'll be a good idea for one to call up their insurance company.

Best regards.

[insubuy]

I don't mean to dispute your experience.

I have a friend who works for a big telecom company that has offices both in US and in Paris. He travels to Paris, France several times a year for work purposes. Several years back, French consulate used to accept the insurance provided by his employer. However, for last couple of years, he has been buying insurance from us every time he travels because French consulate refused to accept the insurance from his work because it didn't have emergency medical evacuation and repatriation of remains.

Therefore, the current situation is that, in order to get Schengen visa, the insurance company must provide a confirmation of coverage letter in a specific format and must meet the requirements mentioned at https://www.insubuy.com/schengen-insurance/
Of course, the person can show the proof of any insurance from any company as long as it meets the requirements.

However, many domestic health insurance companies would not be willing to provide such a letter or may not have all the coverages required.
Some times, even if all of that may be possible, in a big employer, you may have to go through various departments like HR and so on to get that letter and that may consume so much of your time and delay your visa so much that your manager would just ask you to buy a separate insurance from people like us. Such insurance would be instant [visa letter can be downloaded in 10 minutes] and for most people, it would cost less than $25.

I hope that gives enough explanation.

[knowledgeable]

Dear Narendra, appreciate your clarification & details.

Dear Narendra, appreciate your clarification & details. You were always the best.

On the positive side, having an added insurance never hurts and considering that an average European vacation costs few grand, what a few more bucks.

[insubuy]

You can look at the specific page for Switzerland Visa Travel Insurance.