Are you planning a trip to Europe? Then it is better to stay away from these three Schengen countries!
The Schengen Area, the world's largest free travel zone, comprises 26 countries: 22 EU states plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Almost 1.7 million people live in one Schengen country and work in another. Around 3.5 million people cross an internal border each day.
Croatia was the latest country to be voted into the Schengen Zone, allowing travellers to visit the country on a Schengen visa as of January 1, 2023.
According to recently released 2021 visa application statistics, of the 26 Schengen countries (Croatia was not a part of the Schengen then), three rejected the largest number of short-term visa applications in 2021—France, Germany, and Spain.
France tops the charts in terms of visa rejections. The country rejected 128,672 of the total 652,331 applications that it received across its embassies in 2021—a little over 21%. Spain is in second place, with 69,863 of its short-term visa applications rejected. Germany received 346,284 applications and rejected 53,987 of them.
While this is useful information, it might also be helpful to know which countries rejected the highest shares of applications they received. While Sweden received only 22,260 applications, it rejected 30% of them. Sweden is followed by Norway, France, Denmark, and Belgium on the list. In 2021, applicants applying to the embassies and consulates of these four countries were more likely to get rejected as compared to any other country in the Schengen area
Luxembourg rejected the lowest number of visa applications in 2021 (29 out of 2,383), followed by Slovakia (107 out 3,886) and Iceland (279 out 2,735).
All about the visitor's visa
The visitor's visa allows people travelling between its member countries to cross generally without having to show a passport, ID card or visa.
It allows one to stay in the Schengen area for up to 90 days over a period of 180 days. The processing time for these visas is between 15 and 30 days. To cut down processing time, one can apply up to six months in advance.
The visa fee costs 80 euros (approx Rs 6,700) for adults and 40 euros (Rs 3252 approx) for children aged six -11. It is free for children under six years.
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