Looking at long waiting times for Schengen appointments we have developed a special solution for business travelers and trade fair exhibitors. Appointments in the categories “urgent business” and “trade fair urgent” help with short-notice business trips and travels of trade fair exhibitors when no regular business / trade fair appointments are available. By this we aim at strengthening German-India business relations.

No extra fees apply!

Who can book?

“Urgent business”:

The offer is exclusively for business travelers such as the following purposes: business meetings, training, conferences, guest scientists, work, paper presentation.

Please be advised that applications for other purposes (e.g. trade fair, visit, tourism, studies) will not be accepted under the “urgent business” category.

If such an application is submitted, the appointment will be considered “canceled” and a new appointment must be booked in the correct category. A cancellation of such appointments by VFS does not require prior approval of the German Consulate.

“Trade fair urgent”:

The offer is exclusively for trade fair exhibitors!

Applications for other purposes in the “trade fair urgent” category (e.g. business, visit, tourism, student) will not be accepted!

If such an application is submitted, the appointment will be considered “canceled” and a new appointment must be booked in the correct category. A cancellation of such appointments by VFS does not require prior approval of the German Consulate

!! If your spouse wishes to accompany you on your business/trade fair trip for tourist purposes, he/she can join the appointment under the “urgent business” / “trade fair urgent” category, however the same travel dates are required. If travel dates do not match, the spouse’s application will not be accepted.!!

What does this mean in practice?

An appointment under “urgent business” or “trade fair urgent” does not speed up the visa process. The average processing time may still be up to 15 days. However, processing times may be longer if documents are incomplete.

Applicants who wish to book appointments under these categories must travel within four weeks of booking the appointment. If the travel date is later, an “urgent business” or “trade fair urgent” appointment cannot be booked and the application will not be accepted by VFS.

New appointment slots are released weekly at short notice. Please check the website regularly.

For more information please also refer to our Schengen Visa FAQs and the VFS website.