Schengen visa rejections cost Turkish citizens millions of euros

ISTANBUL

Applications by Turkish nationals to obtain a Schengen visa exceeded 1 million, with the rejection rate standing at 16.1 percent, costing travelers millions of euros last year.

Only 867,545 applications by Turkish citizens were accepted in 2023.

Last year, around 68 million euros was spent on approved visas, while 13 million euros went up "in smoke" as nearly 170,000 visas were denied, according to Schengen.News.

Türkiye was the second-largest source of applications for Schengen visas in 2023, with over one million visa applications filed, which takes the expenditure level to 84 million euros, it said.

The rejected visa applications have cost Turkish residents a total of 619 million euros, spent on visa applications between 2014 and 2023, Schengen. News reported, citing data from the Schengen Statistics Portal.

The number of visas rejected for Turkish applicants has tripled, increasing from 35,971 in 2014 to 169,514 in 2023. The share of rejected visas rose from 4.4 percent to 16.1 percent.

Since 2013, when Türkiye and the European Union launched talks for visa liberalization, Turkish nationals have spent 619 million on Schengen visas.

Germany rejected the highest number of visa requests filed by Turks in 2023 (55,495), representing 32.7 percent of all rejected visas, followed by Greece, with 36,112 (21.3 percent) rejected applications and France with 19,586 denied visas (11.5 percent), Schengen.News reported.

The expenditure of Turkish nationals for rejected visas to the top 5 destinations in 2023 included Germany at 4.4 million euros, Greece at 2.9 million euros, France at 1.6 million euros, the Netherlands at 1.1 million euros and Italy at 875,000 euros.

As of June 11, 2024, Schengen visa applicants will have to pay 12 percent more for their applications, the news portal recalled, adding that it means that visa applications for Turkish nationals will increase from 84.4 million euros recorded in 2023 to 95 million euros.

According to the Schengen Statistics Portal, countries that were more likely to approve visas to Turkish nationals in 2023 include Portugal, with 93 percent of visa applications filed being approved, followed by Italy (91.1 percent), Slovakia (88.8 percent), Poland (86.6 percent) and Spain (86.5 percent), it said.

Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania had the lowest approval rates for Schengen visa applications filed by Turks. Denmark approved around 55.8 percent of the visas while Estonia and Lithuania granted visas to 57.5 percent and 63.9 percent of the applicants from Türkiye, respectively.