Schengen and Canada - Order of obtaining Visas

Question

I am from India and I am going to start my undergrad degree in Canada this fall. Before going to Canada, I plan to stop in Paris for 4 days and then continue with my trip to Canada.

My question here is can I apply for the Schengen Visa while my application for the Study permit is in process? Because the study permit application can take some time and might not leave me with enough time to apply for the Schengen Visa.

My confirmed flight bookings are as follows: Delhi - Paris - Toronto - Stay in Canada for 3 months - Delhi. After that I'll going to and fro between India and Canada but I have no tickets for that as the dates depend on the uni's academic calendar.

Edit: I would like to add a few points and make my situation more clear:

• My application for the student permit in Canada has already been submitted and I have an automated letter from Canada stating the same.

• From my comment: I'll be a tourist in France and a Student in Canada. I don't have a study permit yet but I do have an enrollment letter from my University which states that I have enrolled in the university; the start dates of the program; and have made a tuition fee payment in the upwards of $40,000 and a Bank Account in my name which from which I can withdraw funds only after I'm in Canada (Guaranteed Investment Certificate)

• The only reason I am asking this is because the Schengen Visa application asks for the Entry permit to the final country of destination (if applicable). I have a confirmed ticket from Canada to India in december so shouldn't that make India my final country of destination? Thanks

UPDATE: So, I finally decided to apply for the schengen visa. I applied for the visa on 26th June and got an approval the very next day. Thanks for helping :)

Answer 1

If you have your passport, you can apply for the Schengen visa at any time in the three months leading up to your travel. But the application will be stronger if you wait until you have the study visa.

If you apply before you have the study visa, you'll need to convince the consulate that you don't have a plan B of "go to Paris, stay there illegally and look for work".

Perhaps, depending on your personal circumstances, it will be easy for you to convince them of that. (If you're in a position to drop $40,000 for a three month course of study, then it's probably not an attractive prospect for you to be an undocumented immigrant worker in Europe anyway). Or it is possible that your circumstances look so dodgy that you can't get a Schengen visa no matter what. Between those two extremes is a gray area were it can be advantageous for you to wait.

It is practically impossible to say with any certainty whether your circumstances fall into that gray area based on explanations on a site such as this. So it's a decision you need to make yourself. In general the advice would be to wait if you have time for it -- but on the other hand, the longer you wait, the more expensive it might be to change your flight bookings if you get refused by the French consulate.