written by JohnCrawford on 14/04/2010
The Germany Embassy in London is awful if you're a tourist wanting to obtain a Schengen Visa (a visa that let's non EU people travel around Europe).
I have obtained a few of these visas before (Spain, France and the Netherlands). In all the other countries I had little trouble in obtaining the visa and to be honest, I had no trouble in getting my visa from the German embassy in London. So what was the problem? It was the massive hassle I had to go through to get it.
Instead of being able to go through an agent (as I don't like taking days off work simply to get a visa) as MANY real embassies do, I could not. Also the Germany Embassy has not yet caught up with the times as it still does NOT have any features to use your Visa/Mastercard. But perhaps the worst of all was the length of time the visa was valid for. I was given a mere 3 days after paying almost GBP80.00!
How can any decent embassy think that is worth it? When I went through the French, I obtained a 6 month visa for the same price.
If you're looking for a Schengen Visa to travel around Europe, I'd suggest that you avoid the German Embassy in London like the plague! Rather go to another European country.
Pros: Fast Service (it only took 4 working days)
Cons: Poor value for money, had to pay cash (no 21st century equipment), waste of time, VERY expensive setup (you had to dial a premium number that charges 1GBP a minute. This call lasts a total of 15 minutes!)