student visas

[pam]

hello!
in two weeks i'm heading out to cannes, france on an exchange program with my university in canada. i am obtaining a student visa as required for france, but not for the other european countries. holding a thai passport, i know i have to get a visa for all the countries i plan on visiting; italy, spain, germany, switzerland, and the netherlands. i heard there is a special card you can get once i get to france but have no idea or any info about this card. it works like a shengen (excuse my spelling) visa.
any info on this would be muchly appreciated.
thanks,
pam

[Kim]

Are you sure you need a visa for those countries? I'm Canadian as well and as far as I know, you can visit in those countries for up to 30 (might be 60, not positive on the #'s) days.

A visa is for an extended stay or to work or study-if you are just going to visit those countries for a few weeks, you should be fine.

Your best bet is to call the consulate in your area (it will be in the biggest city around you) and ask.

Kim

[pam]

Hi Kim,
I will get in touch with a consulate in my area. And yes, I need a visa in those areas as I'm a Thai passport holder as mentioned in my previous post!
Thanks plenty

[nitsansh]

There are no border control between EU countries, so you should have no problem going to Germany, Italy, Spain or Netherlands. You will need a visa for Switzerland.

[pam]

hi there,
i have just been approved a student visa which is valid for 3 months with multiple entries.
regarding my question about travel between countries, i think i may have a problem travelling through EU countries as on my passport, it says Valid for France
( +1 transit Schengen). I presume this means france plus one EU country, I would call the embassy and check but they are shut for two days. It also says Dispense temporaire de ca rte de sejour.
So i went to the italian consulate and they won't issue me with a schengen visa because it's not my first port of entry and it's not my main place to be. argh! any solutions anyone can think of?

i am aware i need a separate visa for switzerland, that shouldn't be a problem

[pam]

oops didnt mean to double post

[nitsansh]

Dispense temporaire de carte de sejour = Temporary exemption of residence permit

[nitsansh]

As I previousely said, there are no border control between EU countries. So there's no one to stop you as you travel from France to other countries. You COULD have a problem if you try to cross into the EU from a non-EU country, such as Switzerland.

[Patrick]

>>> oops didnt mean to double post <<<

Don't worry about it, they "magically" disappear. ;D

[pam]

hi everyone:)
i found out some helpful info which helped me, so i thought i would share with other people, this is only relevant if you're going to study and on a student visa.
also, this info is for students who need a schengen visa to travel EU countries (ie, not Canadians or Americans, but Thai or Indonesian passport holders)
If you have a student visa, they cannot issue you with a schengen visa. So therefore, once you land in the place where you're studying, take your passport with your valid student visa to a police station and they will issue you with a specific card which lets you travel to EU countries, including Switzerland if you're a student. To be safe I just checked with the countries I knew I was visiting to be safe that this card would work.
But, I didn't catch the "name" of the card I'm suppose to obtain, if anybody does know, pls pass the info
Thanks nitsansh for ya posts and help!
Ciao