Schengen visa for children: consent, fees and fingerprints

One application per child

There is no family visa. A baby, a ten-year-old and a seventeen-year-old each have their own application form, passport, photo, insurance and fee band, and each appears by name in the family’s bookings. The parents’ documents do most of the work: a child usually has no income, so the parents’ bank statements, income tax returns and employment papers stand behind the child’s file.

German missions ask for the child’s form to be signed by both parents, along with the birth certificate and copies of both parents’ passports. Those three items are a sensible baseline whichever country you apply to.

Consent rules in the EU list for India

The harmonised list for India sets out what a minor’s file needs in each travel situation. Copies of the parents’ identity documents “with signature and photograph” go in whichever situation applies.

What individual consulates add

National checklists tighten the EU wording, and Italy goes furthest. If a parent lives abroad or cannot sign easily, check these rules before anything else, because they decide how long the paperwork takes.

Fees, attending the centre and fingerprints

The Schengen visa fee is €45 for children aged 6 to under 12 and free for children under 6; from 12, the adult fee of €90 applies. German missions publish the rupee equivalents on their fee page and note that they can change without notice. The service charge of VFS Global or BLS International is set separately on the provider’s page.

Young children are treated more lightly at the counter. France does not collect fingerprints from children under 12, and Belgium exempts children under 12 from appearing in person. Finland is the one to plan around: it asks every applicant, whatever their age, to submit in person at VFS. Even where no fingerprints are taken, every child needs a photo that meets the same 35 x 45 mm standard as an adult’s.

The child’s passport

A child’s passport must meet the same Schengen rules as an adult’s: issued within the last 10 years, valid for at least three months after the trip ends, with two blank pages. Check it before you book anything; it is easy to look only at the adults’ passports and miss a child’s expiry date.

If the passport needs renewing, allow time. Passport Seva’s indicative list of cases not eligible for Tatkaal includes minors applying with Annexure C, so the fast route is not open to every child.

Bookings for a family trip

Put the whole family on one flight reservation, with every name exactly as in the passports. Switzerland’s checklist asks for a single booking “mentioning all the names of the travelling family members”, and the same approach keeps any file consistent. Hotel bookings should list the children as guests, so the room matches the number of people travelling.

The cover letter names every accompanying person, children included, and each child needs travel insurance in their own name or on a family policy that names them. If a child travels with one parent, the dates in the other parent’s consent should match the flight reservation.

For a family, the flight reservation is ₹708 incl. GST for the first traveller and ₹472 for each additional traveller, children included, shown in the total before you pay by UPI. A hotel booking is ₹590 incl. GST per hotel, however many of the family stay in it. Order on the day of the family’s appointment: the airline sets how long an unpaid hold lasts, and a booking made a week early will almost certainly have lapsed.

Travelling without the parents, and common slips

School trips, holidays with grandparents and summer camps all fall under the strictest rule: notarised consent from both parents. For Italy, both parents should expect to be called to the embassy if the child travels alone.

Write the consent so it answers the officer’s obvious questions: the child’s full name and passport number, who the child travels with, the destination, the exact dates, and both parents’ names, addresses and phone numbers. Attach copies of the parents’ passports showing signature and photograph, as the EU list asks.

• Avoid consent from the absent parent that is signed but not notarised.
• Check that the child’s name is spelled the same on the passport, the form and the flight reservation.
• Make sure hotel vouchers show the right number of guests, children included.
• Insure every child, not only the parents.
• Confirm the child’s passport has at least three months left after the return date.

Questions people ask