Schengen Visa Appointments in the UK: How Booking Works for All 29 Countries

How do Schengen visa appointments work in the UK?

You book one appointment, in your own name, on the official booking system of the country you are applying to, and the booking itself is free. At the appointment you hand over your documents and passport, give your fingerprints and photo, and pay the €90 visa fee plus the centre’s service charge.

British citizens do not need a Schengen visa for short stays; this applies to UK residents of other nationalities who do. Each Schengen country decides who runs its UK applications. Most outsource the front desk to a commercial provider (VFS Global, TLScontact, BLS International or GVCW), which collects your file and passes it to the embassy or consulate for a decision. Three countries, Luxembourg, Poland and Romania, take applications at the mission itself (Slovenia’s embassy also accepts applications directly by email appointment, alongside VFS). The provider never decides your visa: it only books, receives and returns. For what happens at the centre itself, see our biometrics appointment guide.

You apply to your main destination, which is the country where you will spend the longest time, or your first point of entry if stays are equal. If you are unsure which that is, read which country to apply to before booking, because an appointment with the wrong country is wasted.

Which provider and UK cities does each country use?

Each country has its own provider and set of UK cities. The table below shows who handles short-stay visas for all 29 Schengen countries in the UK and where you can submit in person, as checked in October 2026.

A few points the table cannot show:

• Jurisdiction rules. Some countries let you use any centre; France has no regional jurisdiction at all. Others assign you by where you live. Spain splits the UK between its London, Manchester and Edinburgh consulates, Portugal decides by county of residence, Romania sends the North West, North East and Yorkshire and the Humber to its Manchester consulate, Germany sends residents of Scotland to its Consulate General in Edinburgh, and Italy sends residents of Scotland and Northern Ireland to the Edinburgh centre, although the London consulate decides every Italian file. Greece asks you to pick the centre for your residence address but publishes no postcode list.
• Satellite centres can take longer. Where the deciding mission is in London, files submitted in Manchester, Edinburgh, Smethwick or Cardiff are couriered there first. VFS allows about 2 extra days (2-3 working days for Estonia); GVCW says about 5 extra days for Greece. Spain’s three consulates, the Portuguese and Romanian consulates in Manchester and the German Consulate General in Edinburgh decide locally.
• No Manchester centre for some countries. Norway, Sweden and Slovakia have no Manchester option, and the Czech Republic, Luxembourg and Poland accept applications in London only.
• Birmingham has moved. The VFS Joint Visa Application Centre for the Birmingham area relocated on 27 July 2026 to 2nd Floor, 5-14 South Road, Smethwick B67 7BN. Older confirmation emails and maps may still show the previous address.
• City-by-city detail. Our guides to Schengen appointments in London, Manchester and Edinburgh list every centre in each city.
• Some countries need an online form first. France uses France-Visas, Denmark uses ApplyVisa and Norway uses UDI’s Application Portal Norway (you pay the visa fee online in both), Iceland uses visa.government.is, Lithuania uses MIGRIS, Croatia uses crovisa.mvep.hr before you book at VFS, Sweden uses an e-application portal through VFS, and Romania’s e-Viza portal is the form, the document upload and the booking in one.

Note: Providers change. Switzerland and Liechtenstein moved from TLScontact to VFS Global in July 2025. Always start from the embassy’s own visa page, which links to the current provider.

How do you book a Schengen visa appointment?

You book free, in your own name, on the official system; no official provider charges for the slot itself. The process is broadly the same across providers:

1. Complete any online application form the country requires, so your reference number is ready.
2. Create an account on the provider’s site (for Italy, through the booking route VFS sets out, which may be its Italy Global app) using your own email address. Confirmation emails and any changes go to this address, so do not use someone else’s.
3. Enter your details exactly as they appear in your passport. Centres check that the name on the booking matches the passport presented at the door.
4. Choose your centre and visa category (short-stay tourism, business, visiting family and so on).
5. Pick a date and time, or, for France and for Germany in London and Manchester, join the queue and wait for an allocated slot.
6. Print or save the confirmation and bring it on the day.

You pay the visa fee and service charge at or before the appointment, depending on the provider. The fee is €90 for adults and €45 for children aged 6 to 11, charged in sterling at a figure each consulate sets (around £80 for an adult). Children under 6 pay nothing. See our fee guide for detail.

Important: Schengen Visa Support does not book, hold or supply visa appointments. If you use our visa admin support service, we help you create your account and complete the booking on the official system, in your name, and make sure your file is ready for the day.

Why are appointments so hard to find?

Slots are scarce because centres release only as many as the consulate can process, while UK demand bunches around school holidays. The weeks before Easter, July and August, and Christmas are the hardest, and pressure is usually most noticeable for the most popular destinations, such as Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Germany.

Three other things make it worse:

• Batch releases. Slots tend to appear in batches rather than steadily. Poland’s embassy, for example, releases tourist and visit slots on e-Konsulat every Sunday at 11:00, and the Croatian ministry says next month’s VFS slots usually open on the 15th of each month.
• Automated booking. Bots and slot resellers can take newly released dates almost immediately. Allocation systems such as the French and German queues remove the race to click first.
• Late planning. You can apply up to 6 months before travel and no later than 15 calendar days before, and some missions ask for more: VFS advises Malta applicants to allow at least 3 weeks, and the Czech Embassy suggests booking at least 45 days ahead. In busy seasons, starting only a few weeks out leaves little room if the calendar is full.

What helps in practice:

• Start as soon as your trip is fixed, and avoid non-refundable flights until you have an appointment date.
• Have your documents ready before you book, so a short-notice slot is usable. Our documents checklist is a good starting point, and an employer letter and flight and hotel bookings are the items people most often leave late.
• If you are not sure which country is easiest to book for your trip, our guide to the easiest Schengen visa from the UK explains why the main-destination rule still decides.

What can you do if there is no slot before your trip?

If the calendar is full up to your departure date, your realistic options are to keep checking, widen the centres you look at, or move your travel dates. Changing the country you apply to is only an option if your plans genuinely change.

• Check other permitted centres. If your country lets you use any UK centre, an Edinburgh or Manchester date may come up before a London one. Confirm the jurisdiction rule first.
• Keep watching for cancellations. Released or rescheduled slots reappear without notice, so check at different times of day.
• Move your dates if you can. A later trip within the 6-month window is usually easier to book than an earlier one.
• Do not switch countries to find a slot. Applying to a country that is not your main destination is a common refusal ground. If your itinerary really changes, check our guide on which country to apply to and keep your bookings consistent with it.
• Reschedule or cancel properly. If you cannot attend, change or cancel through your account so the slot is released. A missed appointment is simply lost, and you will need to book again.

Tip: Keep your passport free for the whole processing period. The centre keeps it until the consulate decides, so do not book an appointment that clashes with other travel.

How do France’s allocated appointments work?

TLScontact no longer offers a calendar of short-stay slots at its UK France centres. Appointments are allocated automatically from a queue: London and Manchester switched on 1 August 2026 and Edinburgh on 11 September 2026.

You complete the France-Visas form first, then register on the TLScontact France UK site for the centre you want and provide each applicant’s details. Once validated, you wait in the queue with no fixed waiting time. When an appointment is allocated, TLScontact emails you and you have 12 hours to pay its service fee and confirm. If no appointment is allocated within 60 days, TLScontact deletes your data and you must register again. Any centre is open to any UK resident, and the Consulate General in London decides every file. More on our France appointment page.

How do Germany’s allocated appointments work?

Since 1 June 2026, Germany no longer lets short-stay applicants choose a date at TLScontact London or Manchester. Instead, you complete the VIDEX form, register on the waiting list for the right centre and category, and are allocated the next available appointment, first come, first served.

When a slot is allocated to you, you have 24 hours to pay TLScontact’s service fee. If you miss that window, the appointment is cancelled and you re-join the waiting list. Watch your email (including spam) closely after registering. The notice names London and Manchester; it does not mention Edinburgh, which since 1 February 2025 serves residents of Scotland only, decided by the Consulate General in Edinburgh. More on our Germany appointment page.

How do you book an Italy appointment?

The Consulate General of Italy in London says Italian short-stay (C) appointments in the UK are managed only by VFS Global. Book through the link on the consulate’s visa page or the VFS Italy UK site and follow the booking route VFS sets out there; if it directs you to its Italy Global mobile app, download it only from the VFS link.

You submit in person at VFS in London or Manchester if you live in England, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Isle of Wight, the Channel Islands or Gibraltar, and in Edinburgh if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland; the London consulate decides every UK file. Reports that Italy went fully digital in 2026 are not reflected on the consulate’s page, which still requires in-person attendance, so plan to attend with your passport and originals. See our Italy appointment page.

Which countries book directly with the embassy?

Luxembourg, Poland and Romania do not use a commercial centre; you book with the mission itself:

• Luxembourg: appointments at the embassy at 27 Wilton Crescent, London SW1X 8SD, are arranged by email only; there are no walk-ins, and visa applications are taken 09:00 to 16:00, Monday to Friday.
• Poland: book on the e-Konsulat system and attend the consular section at 10 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8AX; no other Polish consulate in the UK issues visas.
• Romania: complete the form and upload your documents on the e-Viza portal (evisa.mae.ro); once the consulate validates the file you choose a slot at the Consulate General in London, or in Manchester if you live in its published area.

There is no service charge from a provider here, but slot numbers are small, so the planning advice above matters even more.

Do you need premium extras such as Premium Lounge?

No. Providers sell optional extras, and none of them affects the decision on your visa. Typical options include:

• Premium Lounge: a quieter waiting area and assisted submission.
• Prime Time: appointments outside normal hours, such as early morning or weekend slots, where offered.
• Courier return: your passport sent back to you rather than collected.
• SMS updates, photocopying and photographs at the centre.

These are charged by the centre, not by us, and prices differ by country and change often. Check the current price list on the provider’s booking site. Paying for an extra does not make the consulate decide faster: standard processing is 15 calendar days and can be extended to 45. Our processing time guide explains what affects it.

Why you should never buy an appointment slot

Never pay a third party for a slot. Bookings sold this way are typically made with automated tools or under another person’s details, and centres and providers warn applicants about exactly this.

The risks are real:

• The booking may be cancelled if the name or passport number does not match, leaving you with no slot and no refund.
• Your personal data is exposed. You hand passport and travel details to someone with no accountability.
• There is no recourse. If a paid-for slot never materialises or is cancelled, the provider and consulate will not help you recover the money.

Our position is simple: we do not book, hold or supply appointments, and we cannot guarantee any date. What we can do is help you use the official system properly and arrive with a complete application.

What should you bring to your appointment?

Bring your printed confirmation, your passport (with at least two blank pages, issued within the last 10 years and valid for at least 3 months after you leave Schengen), your full set of originals and copies, and proof of your UK status, usually valid for at least 3 months beyond your return (check the country’s rule). Non-British residents now prove status with a UKVI eVisa and share code rather than a BRP; our eVisa share code guide explains how, and our guide to an expired BRP covers what to do if you still hold one. Arrive on time, as late arrivals can be turned away, and expect airport-style security with limits on bags and electronics.

If you want help booking free in your own name and checking your file before the day, see what our admin support includes; we do not book, hold or supply appointments and cannot guarantee a date.