Countries You Can Visit
The "VALID FOR" section of your visa sticker specifies the countries or regions where your visa is valid. For instance, if the sticker says "ETATS SCHENGEN" or "SCHENGEN STATES," your visa grants access to all countries within the Schengen Zone. A uniform Schengen visa will display this information on the visa sticker.
Limited Territorial Validity Visa (LTV)
If you possess a Limited Territorial Visa (LTV), you are only permitted to visit certain Schengen countries. In this case, your visa sticker will show the abbreviations of the specific countries you can enter. For example, if your visa includes the acronyms ‘F, FIN, GR, H, I, IS, L, LT,’ it means you can only travel to France, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, and Lithuania.
Conversely, if your Schengen visa sticker states ‘ETATS SCHENGEN (-NL),’ this indicates you are allowed to enter all Schengen countries except for the Netherlands. The country you are restricted from entering is marked with a minus sign before the abbreviation.
List of Schengen State Abbreviations:
- AT - Austria
- BE - Belgium
- BG - Bulgaria
- CH - Switzerland
- CZ - Czech Republic
- DE - Germany
- DK - Denmark
- ES - Spain
- EE - Estonia
- FR - France
- FI - Finland
- EL - Greece
- HR - Croatia
- HU - Hungary
- IT - Italy
- IS - Iceland
- LU - Luxembourg
- LT - Lithuania
- LV - Latvia
- MT - Malta
- NO - Norway
- NL - Netherlands
- PT - Portugal
- PL - Poland
- RO - Romania
- SE - Sweden
- SK - Slovakia
- SI - Slovenia