June 9th, 2023 at 02:54 pm
Best and Worst Countries for Schengen Visas for Travellers Revealed
The Schengen visa numbers for 2022 have been made public, and they show some interesting facts about how Indian travelers can apply for visas. Even though the number of applications from Indian travelers was the third most in the world, 18% of those applications were turned down.
This article looks at how well Indians do at getting Schengen visas, shows which countries have the biggest rejection rates and talks about the best countries for Indians to visit to get a Schengen visa.
Applications for Schengen Visas from India
According to figures from Schengen Visa Info, 56% of the 1,986 Indian visa applications that were turned down in 2022 were turned down by Estonia. Malta came in second, turning down 45 percent (506 out of 1,220) of visa requests, and Slovenia turned down 44.5% (2,732 out of 6,134) of visa requests.
In terms of the number of visas they turned down, several countries refused more than others. Switzerland, for example, turned down 13,984 out of 106,025 visas, which means that 13% of visas were turned down.
France turned down 19.9% of visa applications (27,681 out of 138,643), and Spain turned down 18.5% (14,852 out of 80,098). Austria turned down 24% of the applications (5,945 out of 24,791), and Greece turned down 34% (9,118 out of 27,457).
Portugal turned down 29.9% of its applicants (1,593 out of 5,326). Sweden got 27,775 applications and turned down 5,110 of them, or 18.7%.
Best Countries for Schengen Visas for Indian Travellers
Germany was the place where Indian travelers were turned away the least often. Only eight of the 6,345 Schengen visa applications that were sent to the consulate in Bengaluru were turned down. Also, only one entry was turned down in Kolkata and two in Chennai.
Italy and Hungary were also good places for Indian travelers to go, with rejection rates of 11.5% (794 out of 6,909 visas) and 12.1% (1,098 out of 9,046 visas) respectively.
In 2022, there were a total of 7,572,755 applications for short-term Schengen visas at consulates around the world. Turkey had the most visa requests, with 778,409. Russia was next, with 687,239 requests.
India came in third, with 671,928 applications for standard visas to the Schengen area from Indians. Out of these, 121,188 applications were turned down, which means that 18% were turned down.
This rate of decline is higher than the average around the world, which is 17.9%. India was second only to Algeria in the number of Schengen visa applications that were turned down. 179,409 of India’s applications were turned down.
Trends in Schengen Visa Applications
The way visas are made has changed over time. The number of applications was much higher in 2022 than it was the year before. In 2021, people from all over the world filed a total of 2,926,104 applications.
But the numbers have not yet gone back to where they were before COVID. Another interesting trend is that the average rate of visa rejections will rise from 13.4% in 2021 to 14.1% in 2022.
Even with these problems, there were some good things that happened that are worth mentioning. In 2022, only 18.7% of visa requests from India were denied, which was a big change from 2021, when 42.26% of visa requests from India were denied.
In a similar way, Switzerland made some good changes by giving more visas to Indian travelers in 2022 and lowering the rate of rejections from 21% in 2021 to 13% last year.
France also showed progress by giving Indian travelers more Schengen visas in 2022 than they did the year before. The rate of rejection dropped from 30.8% to 19.9%.
RECOMMENDED
- FIRSTLY, TOTAL COST OF DV LOTTERY VISA | 2024 GREEN CARD LOTTERY
- SECONDLY, EU VISA ROUTE | NEW CHANGES AND ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS | EUSS 2023 CHANGES
- THIRDLY, INVITING FAMILY MEMBER TO GERMANY ON FAMILY REUNION, SPOUSE OR CHILD VISA
- MOREOVER, HOW TO PROOF YOUR FINANCIAL RESOURCES WHILE APPLYING FOR A GERMAN VISA?