Schengen Visa Taking Longer Than Usual To Be Processed

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Why You May Have To Wait Longer To Get A Schengen Visa?

If you are planning a trip to any European country in the near future, there’s a little disheartening piece of information we’d like to share with you. Indians are having to wait a little longer to get their Schengen visa for travelling to Europe. By Karan Kaushik

You may have to wait some more for your Schengen visa

According to the latest media reports, Indians are going through a tough time in getting a Schengen visa on time. Embassies and consulates are faced with an increased rush in the number of people wanting to travel to Europe for tourism and business purposes. There are no appointments to submit a visa application till June end. While the minimum time to process a visa application is 15 days, people are forced to wait for a month in many cases.

As a result, most travellers are losing money on cancelling flights and hotel bookings. In order to get a Schengen visa, one has to attach their confirmed ticket and hotel bookings with the visa application.

According to a report published in The Times of India, the Danish embassy in New Delhi has temporarily suspended all new visa appointments because of a steep increase in the number of visa applications.

The report adds that VFS (Visa Facilitation Services) Global is facing high volumes of visa applications, while the number of available appointments is limited. VFS Global is the largest visa outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions in the world. The organisation is getting as many as 20,000 applications from India every day.

What is Schengen Visa?

Schengen is a term used for the European Union passport-free zone that covers most of the countries in Europe. It is the world’s largest free travel area. A Schengen visa is the most common visa for travelling to Europe. It is issued for a short stay in Europe for business or tourism purposes.

It allows a person to stay up to 90 days in most European countries. With a Schengen visa, you can enter, freely travel within, and leave the Schengen zone from any of the Schengen member countries. The Schengen Zone has no border controls. The visa facilitates visits to 26 European countries falling under the 1985 Schengen Agreement.