Invitation letters for a Schengen visa

Consulates use one word — invitation — for two very different documents, and mixing them up is the most common reason a file comes back incomplete.

Which one you need depends on the destination, not on the Schengen area as a whole. There is no single European invitation form.

• A private invitation letter — a free-form letter your host writes and signs: who they are, where you will stay, when, and who pays. It costs nothing and can be emailed. On its own it is only as convincing as the proof attached to it — usually a copy of the host's passport or residence permit and proof of their address.
• An official sponsorship declaration — a state form the host applies for in person at a named authority, which checks and registers it. Germany's Verpflichtungserklärung, France's attestation d'accueil, Belgium's annexe 3bis. It carries a fee, it has to be collected, and it makes the host financially liable for you.

Here is what it actually buys you in the file.

• Proof of accommodation — every short-stay file has to show where you will stay for every night of the trip. Staying with family means there is no booking confirmation to print; the invitation goes in its place.
• Proof of sufficient means — the official state forms go further. The Visa Code lets a sponsorship declaration count as evidence of sufficient means of subsistence, so a host with a solid income can cover a funds requirement you cannot cover yourself.
• A verifiable link to the trip — a registered form gives the consulate a named person at a checked address with a documented income. That is a fact a case officer can verify, which a self-written itinerary is not.

• It is not a visa — it gives no right to enter, to travel or to stay. Your host cannot invite you in; only a consulate can issue the visa, and only a border officer can admit you.
• It is not a guarantee of approval — the Visa Code lists the grounds for refusal, and an unconvincing purpose of stay or doubts about your intention to leave are among them. Files with flawless invitations are refused every week.
• It is usually not mandatory — supporting documents are a non-exhaustive list, and an invitation is one way to prove accommodation rather than a required item. If you are staying in a hotel, book the hotel — an invitation is not an upgrade.
• It binds your host, not the consulate — signing an official form means the host repays the state for public assistance, medical care and removal costs if it comes to that. In Belgium that liability runs for two years from the day you legally entered the area.

Invitations are not a courtesy invented by consulates. They sit in the EU's own visa legislation — and the reason they differ so much between countries is written into it.

• Article 14(4) of the Visa Code — “Member States may require applicants to present a proof of sponsorship and/or private accommodation by completing a form drawn up by each Member State.” Each state writes its own form, which is why there is no Schengen invitation letter, only national ones.
• Annex II — supporting documents — the Visa Code's list of supporting documents includes an invitation from the host if you are staying with one, alongside hotel bookings and other proof of the accommodation envisaged. The list is explicitly non-exhaustive, so a consulate may ask for more.
• Articles 21 and 32 — assessment and refusal — the consulate assesses the entry conditions and the risk that you will not leave, and refuses on listed grounds. No document in the file overrides that assessment.

The form, the authority, the fee and the paperwork are all national. These are the member states whose official form we have checked against the government's own page.

Fees and processing times are indicative and change. The linked government page is always the authority.

Every other member state

We have not verified a national form for these yet, so everything above is general information rather than country-specific advice. Check the destination's own consulate before your host pays for anything — and follow the country link for its Schengen entry rules in the meantime.

The private invitation has no official template — it is your host's own statement, so the wording is up to them. Fill this in and it produces a complete, correctly structured draft to print and sign.

To the consulate of Schengen area
To whom it may concern

Subject: invitation for [Visitor's full name] — application for a short-stay (type C) Schengen visa

Dear Sir or Madam,

I, [Host's full name], born [Host's date of birth], a citizen of Schengen area, residing at [Host's address], hereby invite [Visitor's full name], born [Visitor's date of birth], a national of [Visitor's nationality], holder of passport no. [Passport number], residing at [Visitor's address], to visit me in Schengen area.

Purpose of the visit: a family visit
Intended dates of stay: [Arrival date] to [Departure date]
Accommodation: the applicant will stay at [Host's address], free of charge.

I provide the accommodation described above for the whole of the stay. The applicant covers their own living expenses.

To the best of my knowledge, [Visitor's full name] will leave the Schengen area before the visa expires and has no intention of remaining beyond the authorised stay.

Enclosed with this letter:
- a copy of my passport or residence permit
- proof of my address
- proof of my income, if the consulate requires it

Yours faithfully,



________________________
[Host's full name]

Print this letter, sign it by hand and send the signed original to the applicant. Check the consulate's checklist for anything it wants added.

The exact list is national, but almost every authority wants the same handful of things. Have them ready before the appointment — an incomplete file usually means paying the fee twice.

What you file with your application

Getting the document is half of it. These are the ways it goes wrong at the counter.

• An out-of-date form — your host applies early, the appointment slips, and by the time you file the declaration is seven months old. Note the date of issue, then work backwards from your visa appointment.
• A copy instead of the original — emailed scans are convenient and, for the official forms, usually rejected outright. Budget for the courier.
• Dates that contradict the booking — an invitation for three weeks, a return flight after five, and a bank balance for one. Case officers read the file as a whole, and it is the inconsistency that gets noticed, not the individual document.
• Treating it as the whole file — an invitation covers accommodation, and sometimes funds. It never covers insurance, the purpose of the trip, or your reasons to come home.

No invitation, official or otherwise, removes the travel medical insurance requirement. It is its own line on the checklist, with its own minimum cover, and it has to be valid across the whole area — including for visa-free travellers, who are never asked for an invitation at all.