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So I (Estonian citizen) and my girlfriend (Indonesian) are living in Indonesia and planning to get married. We would like to get married in Estonia and then return to Indonesia.

As I would imagine the biggest issue with this kind of application will be to prove that she will return to her country. What if she has weak ties to her country (on paper), job in small company, no property to her name, comes from poor family etc. I will of course make the invitation and sponsor her trip.

What is the proper procedure to apply for a Schengen visa for such purpose?

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    Once you are married, the two of you have the right and work in every EU country with the potential exception of Estonia. So ties to Indonesia shouldn't be that important. I would expect that they'll rather care whether you have a genuine relationship, rather than eg she romance-scamming you or you sex-trafficking her.
    – Arno
    Commented Jan 16 at 21:37
  • So I assume they expect proof of long lasting relationship? We could provide that considering we have been together for 6 years.
    – Egl
    Commented Jan 17 at 2:33
  • It's probably faster to ring the nearest Estonian embassy than rely on stack exchange in this instance. EU states generally recognise long-term partnerships as equivalent to marriage, and your embassy should be able to advise you on this. Assuming that you can show that you've been together for sufficiently long in the way that's acceptable to your country.
    – Dima Tisnek
    Commented Jan 21 at 5:28

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It will be much easier to get legally married first in Indonesia and only then go to Estonia. Once they are a "core family member" of a Schengen citizen, they basically have the right to join you in the EU and visa processing is much more straightforward:

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/entry-exit/non-eu-family/index_en.htm

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  • Free movement does not generally apply to non-EU family members when they are traveling with the EU citizen to country of nationality, as is the case here. The second paragraph of the linked page: "However, this does not apply to the country of your nationality. If, for example, you are a German national and your non-EU family members want to join you in Germany national rules apply."
    – phoog
    Commented Jan 17 at 1:31
  • @phoog That's for residing in the country of nationality. This is discussed in detail in travel.stackexchange.com/questions/6807/…, and while I see you've left dissenting comments there as well, I don't see an answer from you explaining why?
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Jan 17 at 7:06
  • It is common for couples to select the location for their wedding to enable family and friends (for example a frail grandparent) to attend, or occasionally to enable a preferred officiant. From the original description it appears that the point of the travel is to conduct the wedding in Estonia.
    – arp
    Commented Apr 22 at 1:13

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