Schengen visa: France saw highest number of visa rejections in 2022: Report (2024)

What is Schengen visa?

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

Also Read: Planning a Europe trip? These 5 countries offer Schengen Visa easily

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

Also Read: Schengen visa delayed? Get yours in 5 days from THIS country

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

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

Coming back to visa rejections, the report showed that other countries which saw lowest rate but the applications for the visa too were low. Iceland saw 1,861 applications wherein 5.5 percent visas were rejected, Hungary with 9,046 applications saw 12.1 percent rejection, Belgium saw 4,824 visa applications with 12.2 rejections while Norway saw 18,016 application but rejection rate was 14.5 percent.

As per the report, other Schengen countries with the worst rate of visa rejection but had lower applications included Estonia with 56 percent visas denied of the 1,986 applications. Malta saw 45 percent visas denied of the 1,220 applications. Lithuania, Greece and Czech Republic were the other worst rate 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, 22 of which are Member States of the European Union - these include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia.

How much time does Schengen Visa appointment take in India?

Schengen embassies/consulates in India typically require you to schedule an appointment for your visa application 4-6 weeks in advance. So, start the application process ahead of your upcoming trip, considering it will take another two weeks for the embassy to reach a decision. Again, remember that the appointments may be booked out ahead of the summer or winter holidays, so start early. You can apply up to six months in advance.

Meanwhile, recently, The ambassadors of European Union member states gave a green signal to negotiate a proposal around digitalizing visa application process. In case the negotiations come through, the travelers will be able to apply for the Schengen visa online and the current 'Schengen' sticker will also get replaced with a digital bar code.

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Published: 15 May 2023, 12:59 PM IST