EU Ambassador in Türkiye Says Schengen Visa-Related Problems Aren’t Political Nor Exclusive to Turkish Nationals – SchengenVisaInfo.com

The Head of the European Union to Türkiye Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut has finally commented on the increase in visa cancellation for Turkish citizens by the Schengen Area embassies and consulates in the country, which in 2021, had reached a top high of 16.5 per cent, and the long waiting times for a visa application to be processed that Turkish citizens are facing in 2022.

In an interview for Deutsche Welle Turkish service, Ambassador Meyer-Landrut said that the delay in the processing of visa applications and the increase in visa rejections which he called “slightly above the world average”, aren’t political or exclusive to Turkish citizens.

According to Meyer-Landrut, in order for Turkish applicants to avoid having their application rejected, they should make sure that they submit their applications on time, which meet the requirements, adding that “most of the applications were rejected due to being incomplete and potentially fraudulent.”

In spite of the increase in the rejection rates, Meyer-Landrut claims that there’s still a positive trend as the rate of multiple-entry visas issued for Turks has increased in recent years.

Meyer-Landrut also stated that a positive trend had been observed regarding Schengen visas for Türkiye in recent years and that it was the increase in the rate of multiple-entry visas issued for Turks.

“We see that this rate increased from 58 per cent in 2014 to 82 per cent in 2021. This rate … is considerably higher than the world rate of 70 per cent,” he said.

In July this year, Türkiye filed an appeal to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) regarding the increase in the rejection rates in Schengen visa applications for Turkish nationals. The report that was sent to PACE claimed that the EU countries were asking for too many unnecessary documents, the charges for visa applications were too high, and they were turning the direct application process into a hassle.

France & Germany Have the Highest Rate of Rejected Visas for Turkish Nationals

Schengen Visa Statistics show that the number of visa applications filed at the Schengen embassies and the rejection rates in the last eight years are as follows:

• 2021 – 271,977 applications filed, 16.5 per cent of them rejected
• 2020 – 229,282 applications, 12.5 per cent rejected
• 2019 – 906,862 applications, 9.6 per cent rejected
• 2018 – 879,240 applications, 8.4 per cent rejected
• 2017 – 971,710 applications, 6.4 per cent rejected
• 2016 – 937,487 applications, 4.4 per cent rejected
• 2015 – 900,789 applications, 3.8 per cent rejected
• 2014 – 813,339 applications, 4.4 per cent rejected

As shown in the list given above, there is indeed a trend in the increase of Schengen visa applications rejected for Turkish nationals. In particular, the increase has been high in the last two years when in spite of the very low number of applications filed due to the Coronavirus pandemic, a very high share of the applicants received a negative decision on their application, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Countries with the highest number of visa applications filed by Turkish nationals are also those which have increased the rejection rates in recent years.

For example, in 2021, Germany rejected around 22.2 per cent of the visa applications received, which is way higher compared to 2018, when 11.9 per cent of applications were rejected, and way higher than in 2016, when the rejection rate was 6.7 per cent.

The case with France is the same as well, which in 2021 rejected 13.1 per cent of the visa applications filed in Türkiye, while in 2018, the same rejected only 5.8 per cent of the applications filed and only 3.2 per cent in 2016.

There’s a similar pattern followed by other countries as well.

Worldwide Schengen Rejection Rates Have increased, But in Türkiye, the Increase Is Consistent & Bigger

As Ambassador Meyer-Landrut says, overall, the rejection rates for Schengen visa applications have increased worldwide, from 5.1 per cent in 2014, to 6.2 per cent in 2015, 6.9 per cent in 2016, 8.2 per cent in 2017, 9.6 per cent in 2018, 9.9 per cent in 2019, 13.6 per cent in 2020, and 13.4 per cent in 2021.

“Overall, the rejection rates for Schengen visa applications have increased worldwide…however, when compared to other countries like Russia, Türkiye’s rejection rate growth is way bigger and consistent,” Shkurta Januzi, editor-in-chief at SchengenVisaInfo.com told Reuters this week.

In Russia, which usually accounts for one-fourth of the total number of Schengen visa applications filed worldwide, the rejection rate in 2021 was 3.1 per cent, 2.55 per cent in 2020, 1.49 per cent in 2019, 1.55 per cent in 2018, and 1.35 per cent in 2017.

The same applies to China as well, which in 2017 had a rejection rate of 3.3 per cent, which increased to 3.7 per cent in 2018, 3.8 per cent in 2019, 4.8 per cent in 2020, and the rate almost doubled to 8.7 per cent in 2021 due to China’s refusal to reopen the borders for the citizens of EU amid COVID-19.

Another country which experienced an increase in visa rejections is Morocco, from 15.3 per cent in 2017, to 18.0 per cent in 2018, 20.5 per cent in 2019, 23.6 per cent in 2020, and 27.6 per cent in 2021.

Unlike in Türkiye, for which there’s no official explanation for the continuous increase in Schengen visa rejection rates, the increase of the same for Morocco has occurred due to the latter’s non-cooperation for the repatriation of illegal Moroccan migrants in the EU. The rejection rates will increase even further for this country in 2022 since France officially announced last year that it would cut the number of visas issued to Moroccans for the same reason.

Another example that could be taken is that of Kosovo too, a country which is also fighting for visa-free travel to the EU for its citizens for over ten years now. The rejection rates in Kosovo are high but not consistent. In fact, in 2021, Kosovo marked its lowest rejection rate at 11 per cent, compared to 21.5 per cent in 2020, 18.8 per cent in 2019, 21.6 per cent in 2018, and 19.6 per cent in 2017.

>> Delay of Visa Liberalisation for Kosovo Makes the Latter’s Passport Europe’s Worst