Schengen Visa: France to see highest number of visa rejections in 2022: Report

What is Schengen Visa?

Schengen refers to the passport-free zone of the European Union which covers most of the European countries. It is the largest free travel zone in the world. A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that allows a person to visit any member of the Schengen Area for tourism or business purposes for up to 90 days per stay. This is the most common visa for Europe. It enables its holder to enter, travel freely and leave the Schengen area from any Schengen member country. There are no border controls within the Schengen zone.

As per the report, in 2022, France will see 27,681 visa rejections, which is 20.12 percent, followed by Spain with 14,852 visa rejections in 2022, which is 18.5 percent.

The rejection rate in Switzerland was as low as 13.2 percent, however, the country saw a high volume of applications and a total of 13,984 visas were rejected. As per the report, Germany saw the lowest rate of visa rejection in 2022 which is 11.33 per cent with 8,615 visas rejected.

The report also showed the five most popular Schengen destinations for Indians in 2022 which are France (1.38 lakh visa applications), Switzerland (1.06 lakh), Spain (80,098 applications), Germany (76,352 applications) and Netherlands (52,616 applications). Are.

Coming back to visa rejections, the report showed that other countries saw the lowest rates but also fewer applications for visas. Iceland saw 1,861 applications with 5.5 per cent visa rejections, Hungary with 9,046 applications with 12.1 per cent rejections, Belgium with 4,824 visa applications with 12.2 rejections while Norway saw 18,016 applications but a rejection rate of 14.5 per cent.

According to the report, 1,986 applications were denied with 56 percent of visas in Estonia, a low among other Schengen countries with the worst rate of visa rejection. Malta saw 45 percent of 1,220 applications denied visas. Lithuania, Greece, and the Czech Republic had the worst rates of visa rejection countries, with 41.4 percent, 34.7 percent, and 34.1 percent, respectively.

There are currently 27 European countries in the Schengen Area, of which 22 are EU member states – these include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia.

How long does it take for a Schengen visa appointment in India?

Schengen Embassies/Consulates in India usually require you to schedule an appointment for your visa application 4-6 weeks in advance. Therefore, start the application process before your upcoming trip, given that it will take another two weeks for the embassy to reach a decision. Again, remember that appointments can be booked before the summer or winter holidays, so start early. You can apply up to six months in advance.

Meanwhile, recently, ambassadors of EU member states gave a green signal to hold talks on a proposal to digitize the visa application process. If negotiations are completed, passengers will be able to apply for schengen visa online And the existing ‘Schengen’ sticker will also be replaced by a digital bar code.