Has anyone taken their Chinese wife with green card to Greece

[heyjimi]

Hello everyone ,Has anyone taken their Chinese wife with green card on vacation to Greece( or anywhere in Europe)?....Wow,seems to be pretty complicated applying for the Schengen Visa..many documents....whats the chance of getting denied? Man this is bringing back the nightmares when i was trying to get my wife here to America 10 years ago now, the hassles i had with immigrations and eventual denial.Do you have to actually purchase flight tickets and hotels? seems risky to spend money on tickets that you might not be able to use.

[dnoblett]

Should not be any issue getting a Schengen Visa, typically apply for it with the country you plan on landing at and it covers the other countries in the compact, I belive the UK is not in it and would need a sepreat separate visa.

 

My Niece In Law lives here on a green-card and shedid travel to the UK a year or so ago and the visa process for there was not that complicated.

 

One option would be to contact a travel agent and work with them on getting the Euro Visa.

 

This in not an issue for my wife, 4 years after getting her green card she applied for citizenship and naturalized, she has a nice American Passport.

Edited May 12, 2018 by Randy W
sp. (see edit history)

[True Blue]

I'm not sure if this is relevant to your situation or not but I wanted to offer it up as I was in a somewhat similar situation a few years ago.

 

If you are taking a cruise, check around as sometimes (even though the country's governmental web site may show that a visa is required for visitors) you may find out that a visa is not needed as long as you sleep on the ship and take ship provided excursion tours.

 

Not sure about Greece specifically but wife and I went on a European cruise that included St Petersburg Russia a few years ago. Normally a visa would be required to go to Russia, but we happily found out no visa was required since the ship was only there several nights, we slept on the ship and we took ship provided excursions.

 

check cruisecritic.com and some travel sites related to your trip if you are going on a cruise or some sort of tour to find out if a visa is really needed or not. If you are traveling on your own and not part of an organized tour you wont find any loopholes.

[heyjimi]

Yeah my Wife and I did plenty of cruises over the years never needed a visa.We thought of doing something different and going to Greece,but i never thought it would be complicated getting a visa.Now we also plan on going to Istanbul Turkey,getting a visa for Turkey is very simple,done online.......and of course it would be so much easier if my wife would take the plunge and become a US citizen.Well my Wife has an interview at the Greece Embassy in June,we will see how it goes.

[Randy W]

Hello everyone ,Has anyone taken their Chinese wife with green card on vacation to Greece( or anywhere in Europe)?....Wow,seems to be pretty complicated applying for the Schengen Visa..many documents....whats the chance of getting denied? Man this is bringing back the nightmares when i was trying to get my wife here to America 10 years ago now, the hassles i had with immigrations and eventual denial.Do you have to actually purchase flight tickets and hotels? seems risky to spend money on tickets that you might not be able to use.

 

 

The green card won't affect the application (except maybe as evidence to make approval more likely). She will be applying as a Chinese passport holder.

[Beachey]

Hello everyone ,Has anyone taken their Chinese wife with green card on vacation to Greece( or anywhere in Europe)?....Wow,seems to be pretty complicated applying for the Schengen Visa..many documents....whats the chance of getting denied? Man this is bringing back the nightmares when i was trying to get my wife here to America 10 years ago now, the hassles i had with immigrations and eventual denial.Do you have to actually purchase flight tickets and hotels? seems risky to spend money on tickets that you might not be able to use.

 

My wife has got two Schengen Visas, one to study abroad in Prague, Czech Republic and the other when we went to Italy last year. Typically a proposed itinerary is good enough. Hotel Reservations are refundable anyway. For Italy, my wife did need a letter from her employer indicating she had approved time off. Also, even though we have full medical insurance through my employer, I bought her Schengen Medical Insurance for about ~$100 as it was simpler than trying to argue she was already covered. The big issue there is they want to make sure you have evacuation coverage if you need to be medically transported out. The hardest part is you typically do have to apply in person. We had to go to Los Angeles when we lived in Phoenix for Prague and NYC as we now live in Upstate NY for Italy. You normally have to apply in person.

[Beachey]

Hello everyone ,Has anyone taken their Chinese wife with green card on vacation to Greece( or anywhere in Europe)?....Wow,seems to be pretty complicated applying for the Schengen Visa..many documents....whats the chance of getting denied? Man this is bringing back the nightmares when i was trying to get my wife here to America 10 years ago now, the hassles i had with immigrations and eventual denial.Do you have to actually purchase flight tickets and hotels? seems risky to spend money on tickets that you might not be able to use.

 

My wife has got two Schengen Visas, one to study abroad in Prague, Czech Republic and the other when we went to Italy last year. Typically a proposed itinerary is good enough. Hotel Reservations are refundable anyway. For Italy, my wife did need a letter from her employer indicating she had approved time off. Also, even though we have full medical insurance through my employer, I bought her Schengen Medical Insurance for about ~$100 as it was simpler than trying to argue she was already covered. The big issue there is they want to make sure you have evacuation coverage if you need to be medically transported out. The hardest part is you typically do have to apply in person. We had to go to Los Angeles when we lived in Phoenix for Prague and NYC as we now live in Upstate NY for Italy. You normally have to apply in person.

[heyjimi]

yeah i learned the Schengen medical insurance is very important to get,so i been pricing this,actually not that expensive,and i learned there is a few travel agency companies that give "dummy "or "temporary"flight and hotel reservations for a small fee,not too expensive,all legit....they are real verifiable flights made just for applying for a schengen visa .We have an appointment in June,and the consulate is not far,so we lucked out there.....thanks for all your help

[heyjimi]

My wife finally had her interview in Tampa Florida for a greece visa ( schengen visa)just to visit Greece spend some money,boost their sagging economy a little...but ouch !!!! they denied her recieving one.....the whole event was an interrogation,had my wife and I looking at each other...questioning....did this really happen?they questioned the authenticity of her IDS,green card etc,they actually asked me " how do we know she is who she says she is"I'm like thats a government issued green card...have you ever seen one before..i'm thinking these clowns have a computer look the damn number up......questioning if we were still married( married going on 11 years),.....they told me because we were married in China,the marriage certificate(the red book) was not recognized in America,WHAT !!! what are these people smokin', what kind of organization they got running here,my wife works part time ,they say she has to work full time,questioned the authenticity of our W2 forms .....i was blown away.... The only good thing out of this ,my wife is seriously talking about becoming a US citizen,taking it seriously now.....yeah lets get this done,i am sick of this immigration crap.

[amberjack1234]

Wow, that's unbelievable. Make another appointment and maybe you will get one with two brain cells that actually communicate with each other. I kinda figured it would be a little harder with what is going on but that was ridiculous.

[Randy W]

Wow, that's unbelievable. Make another appointment and maybe you will get one with two brain cells that actually communicate with each other. I kinda figured it would be a little harder with what is going on but that was ridiculous.

 

 

That IS unbelievable that they wouldn't recognize an American-issued green card and a Chinese passport as valid ID's, but you DID show them the white book copy of your marriage certificate, RIGHT?

 

Technically, even THAT is not official, but is accepted everywhere as BEING official - the certified English-language translation is what is needed. To make it even MORE official, you would take it through the consulates (Chinese in the U.S., or U.S. in China, I'm not sure which) - that's exactly what the Chinese require of our marriage certificates. Any non-Hague convention legal document is required to go through this certification, but is generally accepted anyway, as long as it has the official stamps.

 

But it sounds like these guys just didn't want to let her in. There's not much you can do, except to try finding a different officer, or a different COUNTRY for entry to the EU.

[heyjimi]

Yeah i showed them the white booklet where the translation,offical stamps etc,he called in a woman to look at it,she said it was not recognized by Greece ,she said has to be an American marriage certificate....where i told her i do not have an American marriage certificate as I was married in China. She asked me have i registered my marriage in the USA...married 11 years first i heard of such a thing.Have you heard of registering a foreign marriage in USA? The officer was truly lazy,he even said i needed W2 forms for the past two years which i clearly had,when i showed him ,he then went "oh...ok,these official IRS W2?."...i was like where else would i get W2's i mean my employer handed them to me but yes official W2's. I wonder if they have a way of knowing that my wife was once denied to come to USA 10 years ago when i was applying for her to come to USA,thus really giving us a hard time ? but to be honest,i think this guy was incompetent and didn't care to look over our documents thoroughly. I was allowed to be with my wife for the interview,so i seen with my own eyes,this guy was just lazy....but as i said,My wife is really serious now becoming a US citizen,she has been putting it off for a long time,and saying she wants to do it,but never put her heart into studying for the test....i have to say,she is serious now and so some good has come out of this.

[amberjack1234]

Jimmy, that is incredible. As Randy and I said you could try again and hope for another interviewer but you could end up with the same one again. Even a new one would see where she was turned down for this one. It uses to be that an American passport was the best to have in the world but it has been overtaken by several other countries now but with one she would probably have many more options for travel. I wish you nothing but good luck whichever road you take. Let us know how it works out.

 

The test for US citizenship is really easy.

[Randy W]

Yeah i showed them the white booklet where the translation,offical stamps etc,he called in a woman to look at it,she said it was not recognized by Greece ,she said has to be an American marriage certificate....where i told her i do not have an American marriage certificate as I was married in China. She asked me have i registered my marriage in the USA...married 11 years first i heard of such a thing.Have you heard of registering a foreign marriage in USA? The officer was truly lazy,he even said i needed W2 forms for the past two years which i clearly had,when i showed him ,he then went "oh...ok,these official IRS W2?."...i was like where else would i get W2's i mean my employer handed them to me but yes official W2's. I wonder if they have a way of knowing that my wife was once denied to come to USA 10 years ago when i was applying for her to come to USA,thus really giving us a hard time ? but to be honest,i think this guy was incompetent and didn't care to look over our documents thoroughly. I was allowed to be with my wife for the interview,so i seen with my own eyes,this guy was just lazy....but as i said,My wife is really serious now becoming a US citizen,she has been putting it off for a long time,and saying she wants to do it,but never put her heart into studying for the test....i have to say,she is serious now and so some good has come out of this.

 

You CAN get married twice - not legally, of course, but you would probably get away with it, since it's doubtful that anyone would challenge it. I'm sure there are people who have done this, thinking they needed to "register" their marriage in the U.S. I think laowhy86 (C-Milk the YouTuber) did exactly that. Definitely NOT something that I would recommend.

 

In order to get married, you MUST be single. You clearly are not. There IS no "registry of marriages" to register your marriage in. The white book is it.

 

They were simply giving you a VERY hard time, sad to say.

 

But I believe that entering the EU through another country would work, and allow you to travel to Greece.

[Randy W]

 

Wow, that's unbelievable. Make another appointment and maybe you will get one with two brain cells that actually communicate with each other. I kinda figured it would be a little harder with what is going on but that was ridiculous.

 

 

That IS unbelievable that they wouldn't recognize an American-issued green card and a Chinese passport as valid ID's, but you DID show them the white book copy of your marriage certificate, RIGHT?

 

Technically, even THAT is not official, but is accepted everywhere as BEING official - the certified English-language translation is what is needed. To make it even MORE official, you would take it through the consulates (Chinese in the U.S., or U.S. in China, I'm not sure which) - that's exactly what the Chinese require of our marriage certificates. Any non-Hague convention legal document is required to go through this certification, but is generally accepted anyway, as long as it has the official stamps.

 

But it sounds like these guys just didn't want to let her in. There's not much you can do, except to try finding a different officer, or a different COUNTRY for entry to the EU.

 

 

 

Authentication of Chinese legal documents (specifically, your marriage certificate) for use in the U.S. can be done through the American consulate - see https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/embassy-consulates/guangzhou/sections-offices/us-citizen-services-guangzhou/authentication/

 

Documents issued in one country and intended for use in another country must be “authenticated” or “legalized” in order to be recognized as valid in a foreign country. Authentication is the procedure by which the authority of persons who issue or execute documents in one country may be legally recognized by another country. Chinese documents issued by local Chinese authorities may be authenticated for use in the United States.

U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou only authenticates signatures of officials with the Foreign Affairs Office located within our consular district. Our consular district covers the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Hainan.

 

I doubt that that is what they're after, and expect that this would be a nightmare to try to get "signatures of officials with the Foreign Affairs Office".

 

. . . and I fully expect that the response you get at the Greek Embassy would be the same.