Delay in Schengen visa issuances riles India’s MEA

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Delay by western and central European missions in Delhi in issuing visas and subsequent backlog have irked India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

MEA had earlier issued a demarche and has been regularly holding high level meetings with missions to clear the jam.

The wait for visas to Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Greece have been of concern. Shortage of staff and subsequent delay in processing are the reasons, ET has learnt. The situation has been complicated by the annual leave EU diplomats avail in July.

While the demand for EU visas and travel to Europe has been high, with end of the hiatus due to Covid-19 creating an unprecedented increase in number of applications, some EU missions did not make the case easier, though the situation has eased in the past month. EU mission insiders told ET that the number of visa applicants in 2022 was unprecedented.

“All appointments for Schengen visas (business, tourist and visitor visas, trade fair visitors and exhibitors) are fully booked or already overbooked until mid-September.

The dates for October will be released by VFS (Visa Facilitation Service Global) at the beginning of August and can then be booked accordingly. Appointments are always released at least two months in advance. Early booking is recommended. Short-term trips are not possible,” a German embassy personnel told ET.

“The processing time is about 3 weeks from receipt of application at the visa section of the embassy. VFS usually only needs one day to send the accepted applications to the embassy. Exception: Applications that are accepted on a Thursday reach us on Mondays. After the visa is issued by us, the passport is returned to VFS for delivery to the applicants. Another week of waiting time should be planned for this, since VFS is also working on the limit of their capacity,” he added.

The MEA had raised the matter with EU missions, while issuing the demarche, following which France and Spain made special efforts to ease the process. Denmark, which stopped issuing visas for a month, has smoothened the process after resuming issuance, ET has learnt.

The mission has made efforts to issue visas quickly. “The pressure to get visa has increased manifold and we are all trying to cope with the extraordinary situation,” Danish envoy Freddy Svane told ET.

Switzerland and Czech Republic flew in extra staff to help with quick issuance of visas. Norway too has made efforts to process visas quickly. The situation in the Greek mission may have suffered due to the absence of an ambassador.

MEA is also in touch with the Polish mission to ease the process and issue early visas. Poland is the new destination for Indian students studying medicine. Poland hosts around 6,000 Indians students. A person who did not wish to be quoted claimed visa delays have cast a shadow on people to people ties and business trips. He claimed that in contrast, Indian missions abroad worked overtime, if needed, to issue visas.

(The Economic Times)