Slovakia visa guideThe Slovakia family visit visa is a Schengen short-stay visa (type C) for visiting relatives or friends who live in Slovakia, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. You apply in person at VFS Global or BLS International in New Delhi, and the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in New Delhi decides, usually within 15 working days of receiving the file.
The host's paperwork decides most of these files. Your relative sends a notarised invitation and proof of legal residence in Slovakia. If this is your first Schengen trip, the Embassy also wants an invitation verified by the Slovak Foreign Police, which your host requests in Slovakia.
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Do Indians need a visa to visit family in Slovakia, and which one?
Yes. Parents visiting a son or daughter who studies or works in Slovakia, a brother visiting a sister, or a friend coming for a wedding all need a Schengen short-stay visa, type C. The visa category for it is "Visiting Family/Friend". There is no e-visa: the file goes in on paper at a visa centre, with fingerprints, and the Embassy of the Slovak Republic in New Delhi decides.
The visa gives at most 90 days in any 180-day period, and those days count across the whole Schengen area. It is for a visit, not for moving in. A parent or spouse who wants to live with family in Slovakia needs a national visa for family reunification, which is a separate category at the visa centres with its own rules.
Visiting family in Slovakia: the essentials
- Visa
- Schengen type C, visiting family or friends
- Stay
- Up to 90 days in any 180
- DecisionAbout 15 working days after it receives the file
- Embassy of the Slovak Republic, New Delhi
- Lodged at
- VFS Global or BLS International, New Delhi
- Host must send
- A notarised invitation and proof of legal residence
- First Schengen trip?Host applies in Slovakia and pays a €33 fee
- Invitation verified by the Slovak Foreign Police
Slovak Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Interior, Embassy in New Delhi, VFS Global and BLS International, checked 14 Oct 2026
Where do applicants from Punjab apply?
In New Delhi. Slovakia's two visa partners in India, VFS Global and BLS International, both have a centre there, and neither has one in Punjab, Haryana or Chandigarh. Indian citizens can also apply in Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata or Chennai. Every file reaches the same Embassy in New Delhi.
Each traveller goes in person, including parents in their sixties or seventies. The Embassy does not accept applications through agents, and fingerprints are taken at the counter unless the person gave them for a Schengen visa in the last 59 months. Children under 12 give no fingerprints. At VFS only the applicants enter, plus one parent or caregiver with a child under 18, so a son or daughter who comes along to help may have to wait outside.
Plan the date with care. VFS has posted that Slovakia applications are not accepted in the last three working days of each month, and the centres close on Slovak and Indian public holidays. The service charge differs between the two centres, as the fee section below shows. To see how dates are opening up, check our Slovakia appointment availability page.
If the person you are visiting is an EU citizen and you are their family member, contact the Embassy in Delhi before you book. VFS and BLS both ask family members of EU citizens to do this.
Which documents depend on your situation?
The common checklist is printed further down this page. A family visit adds papers from two people: the host in Slovakia and you.
What the host in Slovakia sends
The EU's harmonised list for India asks for an invitation from the family member or friend, with their address, contact details and the intended period of your stay, plus evidence that they live in Slovakia legally: a copy of their passport or national ID card, or their residence permit. The Embassy's checklist is stricter, and where two official lists differ the stricter one is the safe choice:
- For everyone: an original invitation letter from the person in Slovakia, legalised by a notary public, in which they undertake to cover your expenses. If you pay your own way, show your own finances instead or as well.
- For a family visit: proof of the relationship, and a copy of the host's residence permit if the host is not a Slovak citizen.
- For a first trip to Schengen: the official invitation form, verified by the Slovak Foreign Police. The Embassy marks this as mandatory only for first-time visitors to the Schengen area.
Who can send a police-verified invitation
The Slovak Ministry of Interior sets the rules for that verified form. The host must be a Slovak citizen with permanent residence in Slovakia, or a foreigner holding a permanent or temporary residence permit. So an Indian student or worker in Bratislava with a temporary residence permit can invite family.
Not everyone can be invited this way. A private host may invite only these relatives: a parent, child, grandparent, grandson, brother or sister, husband or wife, son-in-law or daughter-in-law. Anyone else, a friend included, can be invited only with the consent of the Ministry of Interior.
The host files the request in person at the Foreign Police department for the area where they live, on the official form, and pays an administrative fee of €33. They must prove three things with documents no older than 90 days:
- Money. A bank balance amounting in total to twelve times the subsistence minimum plus funds for each day of your stay.
- A bed. A confirmation from an accommodation facility, or a declaration of honour by the owner of the flat, or by the tenant if the tenant is authorised to give one.
- The purpose. Documents showing why you are coming.
The police decide within 15 days, and the verified invitation is valid for 90 days from issue.
What you add from India
Retired parents
- What to add
- Pension statements for the last three months, and/or proof of regular income from property or a business, plus the host's birth certificate or other proof that you are the parents
Salaried
- What to add
- Pay slips, employment contract, and your employer's approval of leave
Business owner or self-employed
- What to add
- Company registration with GST number, business bank statement, and a barcode-verifiable ITR
Spouse
- What to add
- Marriage certificate
Student
- What to add
- Certificate from your school, college or university
Child
- What to add
- The other parent's notarised consent if travelling with one parent, or both parents' consent if travelling alone, plus parents' ID copies and the birth certificate
All adults also give their original bank statement, stamped and signed by the bank, and the ITR acknowledgement for the last two assessment years. The harmonised list asks for three months of statements; the Embassy's checklist asks for six months of statements and salary slips. Give six.
How much is the Slovakia family visit visa fee?
The visa fee is €90 for an adult and €45 for a child aged 6 to 11, with no fee under 6. On 14 October 2026 that came to ₹9,794 and ₹4,897, and the centre's service charge was ₹3,265 at VFS or ₹1,840 at BLS, per person. If your host needs a verified invitation, they also pay a €33 fee in Slovakia. None of these is refunded on refusal. Our filing fee is shown at the top of this page.
How long does it take, and when should you apply?
Once the Embassy has your file, the usual time is 15 working days. VFS and BLS both say the days the file spends travelling between the centre and the Embassy are not part of that count. Slovakia's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs allows up to 45 calendar days where extra documents are needed.
For a family visit, the timing starts with your host:
- Host's invitation. A notarised letter is quick. A police-verified invitation takes up to 15 days and is valid for 90 days, so it should be ready before you book.
- Your application. The Ministry allows it up to six months before the trip, and in principle no later than 15 calendar days before it. Allow five to six weeks for the Embassy's working-day clock and transit.
- Fixed family dates. For a graduation, a wedding or a birth, count back from the date and book the appointment first.
Do not pay for the air tickets yet. The Embassy says there is no need to buy them until the visa is granted, and it issues the visa according to the dates on your booking.
Why do Slovakia family visit visas get refused for Indian applicants?
Family files fail on the same EU refusal grounds as tourist files, but the weak point is usually the host's paperwork or the link between host and guest.
The host's papers are incomplete
A simple letter without a notary's legalisation, a first-time visitor with no police-verified invitation, or a residence permit copy that has expired leaves the officer unable to accept the purpose of the visit. Check the host's permit runs past your return date, and send the verified form when it is required.
The relationship is not proven
If the Embassy cannot see that the host is your son, sister or spouse, the visit has no basis. Birth and marriage certificates should carry the same names and spellings as the passports. Where they differ, explain it in the cover letter and attach supporting proof.
Doubts that you will come back
Reason 13 on the refusal form: reasonable doubts about your intention to leave before the visa expires. Parents whose children all live abroad meet this most. Answer with what keeps you in India: pension, property, a business, other family, a booked return date.
Insurance that does not cover the whole stay
Reason 16: no adequate and valid travel medical insurance. The policy must cover at least €30,000 in every Schengen state for every day of the visit, including repatriation and emergency hospital treatment. Your host's own health insurance does not cover you.
What each refusal ground means, and how to answer it next time, is on our Schengen refusal reasons page.
Tips for a stronger family-visit file
- Two letters that agree. Your cover letter and the host's invitation should give the same dates, the same address in Slovakia and the same answer to who pays.
- The host's status. Send a clear copy of the residence permit or Slovak ID, both sides, valid beyond your return.
- Your own money. Even when the host pays, show your income and ITRs. It answers the question of why you will go home.
- A return booking. The Embassy asks for a confirmed round-trip booking with fixed dates, no more than 90 days apart.
- Insurance. Buy cover for the full stay, valid in all Schengen states, from an insurer on the approved list the Schengen consulates in India apply, Slovakia included. For corporate and group policies that list sets 70 as the upper age for full coverage, so older parents should check their policy. Our Schengen travel insurance explainer lists what to check.
- Short trips across the border. A weekend in Vienna is fine on the same visa, as long as Slovakia stays your main destination by days.
Do I have to register with the police while staying with family in Slovakia?
Yes. The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs says foreigners who enter on a visa must tell the competent police department, within three days of arrival, when their stay began, where they are staying and for how long. A hotel or other accommodation facility does this for its guests. When you stay in your family's flat, nobody does it for you, so put it on the list for your first days.
Keep to your dates too. The Ministry warns that misuse of a visa or an overstay can lead to expulsion and a ban on entering Slovakia or the Schengen area. If a real emergency stops you from leaving, a short-stay visa can be extended only in exceptional cases, such as natural disaster, humanitarian grounds or serious personal reasons. For holiday travel without a host, see the Slovakia tourist visa guide, and for the other routes, the Slovakia country page.
Official sources
- VFS Global India: approved Schengen travel insurers list (applied by Slovakia)
- Visa for foreigners to enter the Slovak Republic, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
- Schengen Visa, Embassy of the Slovak Republic in New Delhi
- Invitation of a foreigner, Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic
- VFS Global Slovakia India: visiting family or friends
- VFS Global Slovakia India: what happens at the centre
- VFS Global Slovakia India: non-submission days notice
- BLS International Slovakia India: visiting family and friends
- Visa Code, consolidated text (EUR-Lex)
