Schengen Visa for Cabin Crew: Keep Your Passport, 10% Off

If you fly for Emirates or Etihad, the hard part of a Schengen visa was never the paperwork. It is the passport. A standard Schengen application in the UAE means handing your passport to the visa application centre on the day of your appointment, and it stays there until a decision is made. For most applicants that is an inconvenience. For cabin crew it is a grounding.

There is a better answer than hoping for a quiet roster, and it is more specific than most agencies will tell you: two Schengen countries publish a rule that lets crew get their passport back before the decision is made, and they are not the ones people usually guess.

10% off for Emirates and Etihad cabin crew

FastSchengen is offering 10% off our service charge on every Schengen visa package for Emirates and Etihad cabin crew. Mention that you are crew when you get in touch and show your airline staff ID. That is the whole process, there is no code to remember.

Prices are per person and cover our service only. The Schengen government fee is separate and is currently EUR 90 for adults and EUR 45 for children aged 6 to 11, unchanged since 11 June 2024.

Germany: the clearest crew rule published by any Schengen mission

Germany is the standout, and it is in writing. The German mission’s published requirements for applications made in the UAE state that the original passport must be submitted on the day of the appointment, and then add a line written specifically for people in your job:

Cabin crew and pilots will be allowed to withdraw their passports from the respective application centre in Dubai or Abu Dhabi within 1 to 3 working days after their application is submitted at the Consulate.

Germany goes further than a note on a webpage. There is a dedicated consulate form headed Cabin Crew and Pilots, which you sign as part of the application. It confirms that crew may request an exemption and receive the passport back without the visa decision within three working days, and sets out what you agree to in return.

The obligation runs both ways. You must bring the passport back so the visa can be placed in it. The published resubmission window is stated as 10 to 12 calendar days on the requirements page and 15 days on the consulate form, so treat 10 days as your working deadline and tell the counter staff at the time of submission if your roster makes that impossible. The form also asks you to allow a minimum of two working days after resubmitting for the decision to be applied.

Netherlands: crew are named as an exception to handing the passport in at all

The Netherlands takes a different and in some ways simpler route. Its published requirements for UAE applications say that you are asked to submit your passport during your appointment so the application can be processed, and then name the exception directly: you do not have to submit your passport if you are airline flight crew or cabin crew.

That wording is repeated across every visa category the Netherlands publishes for the UAE, including tourist, business, visiting family and friends, and study. It is not a special case buried in one category.

One caveat worth knowing before you choose the Netherlands on this basis alone. The Dutch government’s own guidance quotes a processing time of 25 calendar days, which is longer than the 15 calendar days the Visa Code sets as the standard. Plan around the longer figure.

What about Denmark?

Denmark comes up constantly in crew groups, and the claim is usually that Denmark has a keep your passport scheme for cabin crew. That is not what Denmark publishes. What exists is a temporary withdrawal facility, and the Danish mission frames it around emergency travel rather than employment:

In case of emergency travel, passport can be temporary withdrawn through VFS Global.

There is no cabin crew, aircrew or pilot category anywhere in Denmark’s published UAE material. A roster is not automatically an emergency. Denmark also warns that neither VFS Global nor the Consulate General will notify you when a decision is ready, which matters if you are away.

Denmark may still work for you. Just do not choose it expecting a crew scheme that is not there, and do not let anyone sell it to you on that basis.

The honest position on every other Schengen country

We checked the published UAE requirements for Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Hungary, Iceland and Luxembourg. None of them publishes a passport retention route or a crew route from the UAE. Norway’s published material contradicts itself on the point, saying in one place that the passport may be requested back during processing and in another that the embassy cannot accommodate withdrawal requests, so we do not treat Norway as a crew option until that is resolved.

Where crew categories do appear elsewhere, for example with Greece and Finland, they refer to vessel crew and seafarers, not aircrew.

Things worth knowing that are specific to flying for a living

• The passport is held from submission, not from the decision. Every mission we checked works this way. The clock on your passport starts the moment you hand it over, not when a decision is near.
• Apply to the right country. Your application goes to the country that is your main destination, or where you will spend the most nights. Choosing Germany because of the crew rule when your trip is entirely in Italy is the fastest way to a refusal.
• Six months in advance is allowed. Schengen applications can generally be submitted up to six months before travel. For crew, applying early is worth more than paying for speed later.
• The legal processing time is 15 calendar days, extendable to 45 where a file needs further examination. Some UAE missions run considerably longer in practice.
• Previous fingerprints do not guarantee a shorter process. If you gave biometrics for a Schengen visa in the last 59 months you may not need to give them again, but no UAE mission publishes a confirmation that this removes the appointment or shortens how long the passport is held. Do not plan on it.

What we do, and what nobody can do

What we do is practical. We tell you which country your trip actually qualifies for, we prepare and check the file, we book the appointment around what your roster will allow, and where Germany or the Netherlands is the right destination we make sure the crew provision is applied properly at the counter rather than discovered after your passport has gone.

What we cannot do, and what you should not pay anyone for, is a guaranteed decision. Whether a visa is granted, how long it is valid and how many entries it carries are entirely at the discretion of the consulate. Any agency promising you an approval is selling something it does not control.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Country detail for the two routes above: the Germany visa from the UAE and the Netherlands visa from the UAE. For the Danish position in full, see the Denmark visa from the UAE. Documents are the same for everyone: Schengen visa documents checklist for the UAE.

Sources

• VFS Global, Germany visa requirements for the UAE, and the German consulate Cabin Crew and Pilots disclaimer form
• VFS Global, Netherlands visa requirements for the UAE
• Netherlands Worldwide, waiting time after a visa application
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Schengen visa practical information
• European Commission, Schengen visa fee increase from 11 June 2024

Checked 21 September 2026. Published requirements change without notice, so confirm the detail for your chosen country before you submit.