Words we use

Guides

These are the words on the public pages and inside a case. They are not embassy vocabulary. A case is not a visa application, and a reviewer is not a visa officer.

Status labels on Documents — Waiting for upload, Revision required, Please review draft, and the rest — are listed with who acts next in the documents guide.

Preliminary assessment

The four-step form on Contact. It asks for basic facts so we can recommend a service. It is not a visa application and is not sent to an embassy.

Scope

Which services your case will include, and at what price, agreed before paid work begins. You can buy one service or several, or the complete package.

Account

Your sign-in on this website. It is not a file at an embassy. One account can hold more than one case.

Case

The working file we open for your trip: questionnaire, documents, messages, drafts and timeline. A case is not a visa application at a consulate.

Case reference

A label in the form SP-YYYY-NNNN, for example SP-2026-0001. Use it when you write to us. It has no standing with a consulate.

Questionnaire

The longer set of questions inside the case. Answers are what the cover letter and itinerary are written from, and they decide which documents are asked for. This is not the same as the preliminary assessment.

Your Application Preparation

The Documents page on your case. Checklist items live here, with who provides each one and what happens next.

Provided by: You

You send the genuine file — passport scan, bank statement, invitation, and similar. The team reviews it. They do not invent it.

Provided by: Schengen Partners

The team writes this item from the facts on the case. Cover letters and itineraries are in this group. You do not upload your own for us to tweak.

I do not have this

The usual file does not exist for you. It is not a failed upload, and it is not the same as Not applicable. The team then looks for genuine alternatives.

Not applicable

This item is not part of your case. Neither side owes a file. A retired applicant is not asked for an employment letter because they are not employed.

Deliverable

A finished document the team has written and published for you to read and download — typically a cover letter or itinerary. It is yours: read it, tell us what is wrong, and confirm it describes real circumstances before you submit it anywhere.

Cover letter

A written account of the trip for the consulate: purpose, funding, accommodation, your circumstances at home and your planned return, each stated alongside the documents that support it. Schengen Partners writes it from your questionnaire. You read it and confirm it is true before it goes anywhere.

Itinerary

A day-by-day plan of the trip: where you are each night, how you travel between, and how that fits the purpose and dates you gave. It has to agree with your bookings and your cover letter, because they are read together. Schengen Partners writes it from your questionnaire.

Sponsor / host

Someone in the destination who may provide accommodation, funding, or an invitation. Their papers have to agree with yours.

Return ties

Genuine reasons you will leave when the visit ends — work, business, family, residence, property or community at home — presented truthfully.

Individual service

One item bought on its own, such as a cover letter or an itinerary. Priced on the pricing page.

Complete Application Preparation

The package that includes checklist, cover letter, itinerary, document review, sponsorship and ties guidance, interview preparation, refusal review where it applies, and a final consistency check.

Reviewer

The Schengen Partners person assigned to your case. They are not a visa officer.

Timeline

A record of what has already happened on the case — uploads, messages, payments, drafts. It is not a consular status tracker.

Competent authority

The embassy, consulate or other government body that examines and decides the visa. Only they can approve, refuse or place a sticker.

Official fees

Money paid to the embassy, visa centre, insurer, translator or booking provider. Those amounts are not included in our service price.

Independent service

Schengen Partners is not an embassy, consulate, VFS Global, law firm or travel agency. We prepare. We do not decide.

Two forms that are easy to mix up

The preliminary assessment is the short public form, before you pay. The questionnaire is the long form inside the case, after a case exists. The letter and itinerary are written from the questionnaire, not from the assessment.

Read The preliminary assessment and The questionnaire if you are not sure which one you are looking at.

Other guides

How the process works
From the first form to a prepared file: assessment, payment, questionnaire, documents, drafts, and what you still do yourself at the visa centre.
The preliminary assessment
What the four-step form asks, what not to send, the four confirmations, and what happens after you submit.
What happens after you pay
How a case begins, what an account and a case reference are, and the order of work: questionnaire, documents, drafts, then review.
The questionnaire
Why it is long, how to save a draft, how Fiverr answers arrive, how answers decide which documents are asked for, and the four confirmations at the end.
Your documents
Your next actions, who provides each item, the two statuses, what each button does, file types, and how private downloads work.
Messages
Where to write to your case team, how email copies arrive, how replies stay with the question they answer, and how to start a message from a document.
What Schengen Partners does and does not do
The service boundary in plain language: what sits outside our role, and what we do instead. We do not decide visas.
Questions about using your case
Already started an application, dates that change, a previous refusal, who sees your files, how to download them, and what happens when the case is finished.

All guides Sign in to your case