This year as of now I have 2 holidays plan, the first one is to Germany and the second one is Japan. The first Germany holiday is happening in March. Actually, it is a business trip and extended with some leisure days. Hubby has a conference in Frankfurt; we decided post his conference we will extend our stay and see the place. We have never been to Germany and hence we made this decision. The Japan holiday is happening in May and that's going to be a family holiday with Son.

As of now the preparations are going on for the Germany holiday. The most painful part I find in planning for the holidays is getting the Visa. Yesterday we went to the Visa application center. Here the application processing is being done by a third party and not the consulate themselves. The third party will do all the document checks and then send to the consulate for visa stamping. I have had multiple Schengen Visas in the past but this time was a hassle.

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Normally when me and hubby travel, we show bank documents of one person, which is my hubby's but this time the lady at the counter asked me to attach a copy for self also. Which is ok. After that the NOC letter which is normally given by hubby's Company and has only his name on it, so the lady wanted my name also. We have our flights booked, and hotel stays also. But we had 2 hotel days stay missing, which we had thought would do it later, but she was insistent on that as well.

After 2 weeks I had got this appointment and when she created so many hassles, I was worried that this schedule will get cancelled and I will have to wait for another 2 more weeks. Thankfully that she was considerate about and she asked us to gather the missing documents and return before 12:00 p.m. It was good that I had taken the first 8:30 a.m. appointment, so there was enough time. We did all the required formalities and returned back and submitted. Now let's see what happens next and how much time it will take.

I feel there should be some relaxation on these formalities if you have taken visa of a place for multiple times. Me and hubby both have more than 15 Schengen Visas taken in the last 20 years and still there is a hassle. Once the visa is done then it is a big relief and I can go on to planning other things.

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