India figures among the top five countries with the most number of Schengen visa applications in 2017, according to recently released statistics by the European Commission. Schengen visa is required by those who wish to visit or travel to and within the Schengen Area, which comprises 26 countries in Europe.
According to schengenvisainfo.com, India climbed to the fourth spot in 2017 ( with 9,20,699 applications) as the countries that received the maximum number of Schengen visa applications at the corresponding consulates or embassies of Schengen Area countries worldwide, after Russia, China and Turkey. In 2014, Indians were seventh, and fifth in 2016.
France remained the favourite country to visit for Indians with 1.79 lakh Schengen uniform visas (a permit of one of the Schengen Area member countries to transit or reside in the desired territory for a certain period of time up to the maximum of 90 days every six-month period starting from the date of entry) issued by France to Indians in 2017.
This was out of 2.01 lakh applications received by French consulates in India (New Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai and Puducherry).
Overall too, France received the most number of applications for short-term visas compared to other Schengen countries (4.18 lakh more than in 2016, when France consulates around the world received 32.65 lakh visa applications).
Germany received the second highest number of visa applications from Indians, followed by Italy and Netherlands.
Multiple-entry visas
According to schengenvisainfo.com, more than half the total number of visas issued to Indian nationals were multiple-entry visas (MEVs); in the case of some countries, up to 90% of visas issued to Indians were MEVs (Austria, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg). On the other hand, the Czech Republic, France and Spain issued very few MEVs to Indians compared to the overall number of uniform visas issued by their consulates in India, it said.
As far as refusal rates are concerned, Estonia had the highest rate of visa refusals for Indian nationals (31.8% of 1,316 visa applications refused), followed by Latvia (27%), Lithuania (27.10%), Poland (20.15%) and Malta (16.90%). Countries with the lowest rate of visa application rejections for 2017 were Denmark (3.1%) and Finland (3.9%). In India, consulate-wise, the one in New Delhi received the most number of aplications. It also had the highest rate of visa refusals (14.81%), compared to the 10.85% average refusal rates of the 43 Schengen consulates in India.
