Visit Visa — Family & Friends (Schengen Type C)

You can file it yourself, and for a straightforward case you may not need anyone — we will say so if that is what we think. What we add is the part almost nobody does alone: reading your file the way the Italy officer will. Your documents get checked against each other rather than against a checklist, so a date on your leave letter cannot contradict your ticket and a bank credit cannot appear from nowhere. Then someone reads the whole file again, deliberately looking for the reason to refuse it.

A licensed consultant reads your situation and comes back the same working day: whether the case is ready, what is missing, and whether you should apply at all. You get a checklist built for your profile — salaried, self-employed, farming income, retired or sponsored files each need a different evidence set — plus a realistic view of Italy timing. Nothing is charged for that conversation.

Six passes over the same papers, in the order the officer reads them. One: every name, date and spelling matched across every document. Two: each document checked for who issued it and whether it is still valid on your travel dates. Three: the financial story traced to its source, not just to a closing balance. Four: purpose and itinerary checked for internal contradictions. Five: ties to India documented rather than asserted. Six: a final read by someone deliberately trying to refuse it. Most applicants do the first pass. Almost nobody does the last.

It is one box on the officer's form, and it is the box most applicants have already covered. The refusal grounds that catch well-funded files are the other ones: purpose of travel not justified, intention to leave before the visa expires not established, accommodation or insurance not evidenced. Officers also read where the money came from rather than what the closing figure says — a large deposit that landed three weeks before you applied, with nothing explaining it, is one of the most questioned items in any file.

An invitation naming you and the relationship, proof of their own status in Italy (residence permit, passport or citizenship), proof of address, and — if they are paying — their income evidence and a formal undertaking. Several countries have a specific sponsorship form; using a plain letter where a prescribed form exists gets the file bounced. Send us their documents together with yours: the two sides have to agree with each other, and mismatched addresses or dates between sponsor and applicant are one of the quietest refusal causes.

It is the question officers probe hardest on a family visit, because a visitor visa turns on whether you will come back. It is not a bar — thousands of these are approved every month — but it has to be answered rather than ignored. The answer is your own life here: your job or business, your dependants, your property, your bookings. A file that names the relative and then says nothing about your ties invites the officer to assume the obvious.

Up to 90 days in any 180-day period. The window rolls: on any given day the authorities count backwards 180 days and add up the days you were inside. It is not 90 days per country and it does not reset when you leave and come back. Entries are single or multiple entry, as granted by the embassy. Getting this arithmetic wrong is how people end up overstaying without realising, which follows you into every future application.

You apply to the country you will spend the most nights in. If the nights are equal across several, you apply to the one you enter first. Applying to the "easier" consulate when your itinerary says otherwise is a well-known refusal ground and, if the mismatch looks deliberate, it reads as misrepresentation rather than a mistake. Send us your itinerary and we will tell you which mission is the correct one for your trip — sometimes that is not Italy.

By watching it properly, which is dull work rather than a trick — releases come in batches at no fixed hour, and cancellations reappear constantly. We hold your file complete and ready so that the moment a workable date appears it can be taken immediately, instead of you scrambling for a document while the slot goes. What nobody can do is create an appointment or jump the queue: the release schedule belongs to the visa centre. Any agent claiming a private channel to slots is describing something that does not exist.

You send whatever you have on WhatsApp — photos are fine. We build the checklist for your profile, tell you precisely what is missing and in what form, then assemble the file in the order the officer reads it. Cover letter and itinerary are written to match your actual documents rather than a template. Anything in Punjabi or Hindi that matters — land records, J-Forms, affidavits — gets flagged for translation, because an officer who cannot read a document treats it as if it were not submitted. You approve the finished file before anything is filed.

No — and this is where most applicants waste money. Premium lounge, prime time and courier add-ons buy comfort, a shorter queue and convenience. They do not buy a better decision, a faster embassy verdict or a friendlier officer, because the mission never sees which counter you used. The reason people buy them is usually anxiety about being turned away at the desk for a missing paper. We remove that anxiety instead: you arrive with a checked, ordered file and a briefing on exactly what to carry and what you will be asked, so the ordinary counter is enough. Buy them if you want the comfort — just do not buy them believing they help your case.

You arrive with your appointment confirmation, passport, the file we prepared and the fee receipts. Staff check the documents against their list, take your photograph and fingerprints, and keep your passport. It is a submission counter, not an interview — they are not assessing your case and are not the people who decide it. We brief you beforehand on what to carry, what to expect and how to answer the handful of factual questions they do ask, so a single visit is enough. After that your file goes to the mission and we track it until the decision.

Three things sit between today and your trip: preparing the file properly, waiting for an appointment, and the mission's own processing. Italy currently states 15 working days from submission at VFS (extendable up to 45 days). Apply between 15 and 180 working days before your planned departure date. Study (C) short-term visas: up to 90 days processing. The Embassy reserves the right to call for personal interview or additional documents. for the decision itself. We control the first, which is usually days. The middle depends on slot releases. The third is entirely the mission's and no consultant can shorten it — anyone telling you otherwise is selling something they cannot deliver. Tell us your travel date and we will tell you honestly whether it is realistic.

Send your documents on WhatsApp, answer the questions we ask about your case, and attend the biometrics appointment. That is the whole list. Collection, checking, forms, portal work, appointment booking, submission and tracking are ours. For professional accounts we collect documents from your clinic, office or factory.

Most of it is not ours. The Italy government fee (currently €90) goes to the mission and the visa-centre fee goes to VFS — both charged to you at cost, never marked up, and shown as separate lines on one GST invoice in the registered company name. Our service fee is the only part we set, and it is published rather than quoted case by case.

No, and anyone who does is lying to you. The decision rests entirely with the visa officer and no consultant, licensed or otherwise, has any influence over it. What we commit to is that your file will not be the reason you are refused. And if you are refused, our service fee comes back to you in full — the government's fees are the one part nobody can return.

We are Pro Lifeset Overseas Pvt Ltd, licensed by the Government of Punjab under licence 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024, valid to 2029 and issued by the District Magistrate, Patiala — so there is a regulator with authority over us. Every payment carries a GST invoice in the registered company name and we never take money into a personal account. Ask any consultant for those three things; the answer tells you a lot.