It's summer, the time of the year when hundreds of Indians chart out trips to Schengen countries, but high waiting time, uncertainty on visa approval, and denial of visa without any valid reason have left the travellers angry and anxious. This comes at a time when Europe is promoting multiple entry to Indians in Schengen countries through its new visa rules.
A retired couple, who plan two to three international trips a year, this time planned to go to Greece but were disgruntled when they found out that only one of them got the visa.
"It is funny that my visa got rejected and my wife got the visa. This clearly is an error and an oversight which has cost us close to 6,000 euros. I am 72 years old, a well-travelled HNI (high net worth individual) and have been to around 40-45 countries. The reason for rejection was that my intended stay was not justified. We have provided them with the confirmed hotel booking, return flight tickets. I have my family here in India, my kids, my house. So, I have no reason to go to their country except for tourism," the traveller said.
He added that the Schengen visa rules are not friendly for Indian travellers. "They don’t take applications without confirmed hotel and flight booking. How can they ask to pay for the bookings when there is no security of getting the visa?" the traveller questioned.
Spoiled summer trips
While Indians plan in advance for summer travel to Schengen countries, appointments are not readily available and lead time is very high, leaving travellers with a lot of uncertainty, said Mohak Nahta, founder of Atlys, a visa platform.
"Schengen countries have become easier to travel to because of increased connectivity. But there is a lot of uncertainty because often visas are rejected which is the prerogative of the government. The challenge is that travellers do not know the specific reason for visa getting denied and they do not know where to improve or where they went wrong. Typical wait time is 35 to 40 days on an average. So, you wont get an appointment before early or mid June if you apply at the end of April," he said.
Nahta said that an analysis of 2022-23 shows that one in five Indian traveller's visas to Schengen countries gets rejected. "We saw 20 percent of visas were rejected in 2022-2023. In some Schengen countries there is a disproportionately high rejection rate."
The wait time for Schengen visas is particularly high for Indian travellers intending to visit popular destinations such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, said Abhishek Gupta, co-founder and director of trip navigator, a corporate travel solutions and event company, adding that these countries often experience a high volume of visa applications, leading to longer processing times and appointment waitlists.
"As the summer approaches, the scenario has gotten difficult. Lot of people call us up saying that they do not want to deal with Schengen countries and are opting for places like Turkey and Asian countries to some extent," said Shefali Jain Mishra, founder of Karevoyage, a travel and experiences platform.
Unfair treatment
The kind of treatment Indian travellers are getting is not justified, Mishra added.
Mishra, who helps older travellers to plan holiday trips, had applied for Schengen visas for a group of 25 passengers all in the age of 65-70.
"Out of 25, seven visas got rejected on flimsy reasons, despite all the necessary documents, including six-month bank statement, ITRs (Income Tax Return), hotel bookings. The reason given was that the intended stay is not justified. We had reapplied for all the rejected visas with more supporting documents. But they were rejected again. If they are unable to process visas because they are understaffed, they should communicate the same so that people do not put in their hard earned money," she said.
The availability of visa appointments for Indian travellers in major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore is limited, with slots often booked several weeks or even months in advance, noted Gupta.
The high demand for appointments coupled with the limited capacity of visa processing centres is contributing to the scarcity of available slots, he said.
A 75-year old widow who planned a trip with her friends to Greece for the first time in six years had to shelve the plans when her visa got rejected.
"It was very difficult for us to convince our mother, who lost her husband a few years back, to go for an international trip. But when she finally agreed, we landed in an unexpected situation. First time the reason for rejection was that the intended stay was not justified. Second time, they gave the reason that travel was not justified. If an embassy finds any discrepancy in papers they should reach out to the travel platform/agent or the traveller. How can they outright reject the visa? She (our mother) ended up losing her pension money," said the family of the 75-year-old traveller.
Not counting on new rules
The expectations are not very high for the new visa rules for Schengen countries among Indian travellers.
"This (the new Schengen visa rules for Indians) affects a very tiny percentage of the overall applicant population like less than 1 percent because very few Indians visit Europe several times in 2 years to be able to qualify for this. So, the situation will be the same in terms of appointment lead time this summer unless governments adopt new mechanisms to screen applicants which is faster, helps them with evaluation. Until then I don't see the situation improving," Nahta said.
The implementation of new Schengen visa rules, while beneficial in the long term, has initially resulted in administrative adjustments and processing delays, said Gupta.
To improve the situation for Indian travellers the rejection rate needs to come down, said Nahta.
"For this both applicants and governments need to put more effort. Applicants need to do a better job with their applications and governments need to do a deeper analysis then the situation will improve. All Schengen countries want tourism from India but it is the bandwidth issue. Not all countries are staffed at pre-Covid level. There are a lot of applications that do not meet the requirement. Also, India is one of the many source markets for Schengen countries. The US is a big market and India is not among 5 or top 10 markets," he said.
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