From 90 days to 180 days of travel period, Schengen visa is not required forAmerican citizens. If you are a citizen of another country apart from USA, including green card holders are not eligible for schengen countries without schengen Visa.

If you belong to countries like India, China etc you will need to follow the procedure of that country to apply for schengen visa.

You may not be residing in your country of origin and in case you are away from your home, it is important you approach proper schengen embassy to process your schengen visa application.

You may have gone to USA or Canada other than the country mentioned in passport, it comes under jurisdiction of your permanent residence.

At least some hundreds to thousands of Indians and Asians travel every year across Europe. Even during transit via European countries that are part of Schengen, it is advised you apply for schengen Visa before you travel.

All of these passport holders are required to hold schengen Visa even during short duration in any of the schengen European countries.

Even when transit is for 10 minutes, you cannot fly over these schengen countries without schengen Visa.

If you are residing in USA on visitor Visa or visas like H, J or F or L or any kind of visa, you will still need schengen visa even when you have not planned of stepping outside the airport during transit.

Now the question comes like, where should I go to apply for schengen visa? Or can I do it online?

Well the procedure says you can apply for this visa from any one of the schengen embassies in the USA.

At first you may want to schedule an appointment online on consulates website of any one of the schengen countries.

 Then you need arrange for all the necessary documents from the checklist and visit the consulate on the date of appointment for interview.

Now the government has outsourced there services to https://www.vfsglobal.com/en/individuals/index.html

You can schedule an appointment with VFS global, checking if schengen country you are applying to is enlisted with them or not. If not you may apply directly with consulate or embassy itself.

Application has set of rules, and you need to follow them at the time of applying.

At first you need to determine what kind of visa you need, you need to plan in advance because the entire procedure might take some time. 15 days to 30 days is the usual time for the Visa to get approved. In some cases however it might even go beyond 30 days.

 There are various reasons we travel to schengen countries, depending on this, the requirement of documents may vary. It is always advised to carry documents than being asked for rather than giving explanation. As sometimes it may lead to visa rejections.

Another important factor is Schengen Visa Insurance. If you are staying in USA, you might already have insurance. But this doesn’t satisfy the requirement for schengen country travelling. You need to have visa insurance bought for schengen countries you were travelling to.

Schengen Visa fee is same irrespective of where you are applying from. Though schengen countries use euro currency, still you will pay in dollars. And dollar rate might change from time to time.

Your Visa fee may vary based on who you are applying for, like child, adult etc.

It is also known that certain travelers enter schengen countries from a different country other than mentioned in itinerary. It is important that you travel from the country where your schengen visa got approved as the rules are strict about this.

Unless you have mentioned clearly the origin and destination in the itinerary of visa application, it shouldn’t be a problem as well.