Indian citizens spent an amount of almost 70 million euros in 2019, in visa fees alone when applying for a Schengen Visa to Europe’s borderless area.

Exactly 68,502,300 euros have been collected by the Schengen embassies, consulates and visa processing centres all across India last year, while 10.8 per cent of this money has been paid for visa requests which were rejected.

According to the latest Schengen Visa Statistics, the Schengen States received 16,955,541 Schengen visa applications in total last year, 1,141,705 of which applications were filed in India. What makes India the third-largest source of Schengen visa applications after Russia and China.

Compared to the previous year, the number of applications filed in India saw an increase of 5.5 per cent. Alongside the increase in the number of applications, the rejection rate also increased. From 9.3 per cent as it was in 2018, the rejection rate increased to 10.8 per cent in 2019, or 123,175 visas not issued.

The good news is that 591,834 of the applicants, or 60.7 per cent, obtained multiple-entry visas, so they could travel to the Schengen area more than once with the same visa.

Data shows that 234,002 of the applications filed by Indians were for France, their top favourite Schengen destination country, followed by:

• Switzerland – 171,004
• Germany – 169,205
• Italy – 118,877
• The Netherlands – 93,812
• Spain – 74,028

While in 2019 a Schengen visa fee for Indians cost 60 euros, as of February 2020 the cost has increased to 80 euros. Yet, due to the Coronavirus crisis, the Schengen Area Member States have stopped receiving visa applications in India, and it is unknown when the activity of these consulates and visa centres will resume.

It is estimated that the number of Schengen Visa applications for 2020 will be the lowest in years, as the Schengen States still haven’t figured out when they will open their borders for third-country travellers as Indians, which borders have been closed since March.

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