EU raises Schengen visa fee to €90
African citizens seeking visas to join the European Union may face higher costs, as the EU prepares to raise visa fees beginning Tuesday, according to Schengen visa statistics issued on Saturday. According to the article, effective Tuesday, African nationals will pay €90 rather than €80 for a Schengen visa application. According to the research, the EU gained €3.4 million from rejected Schengen visa applications submitted by Nigerian individuals. According to the data, African citizens received 704,000 rejected visa application responses in 2023."This means that €56.3m went up in smoke, considering that visa application fees are not refundable," it said. The research stated that a large number of refused visa applications had cost African nationals millions of dollars each year, with the payments known as'reverse remittances' benefiting only the EU countries. "African nationals spent €56.3 million on visa application fees in 2023, accounting for 43% of total expenses; rejection rates in 2023 were particularly high for African and Asian countries, which accounted for 90% of total expenses. Expenditures are expected to rise by 12.5% beginning next week as the EU boosts adult visa fees from €80 to €90 on June 11, following a recent decision by the EU Commission," it added.
Algeria was the nation of origin for the most rejected applications in 2023, accounting for 23.5% of the total amount spent on failed applications. The country also had the second-highest number of denied applications compared to all - 289,000 out of 704,000, or 42.3% of all requests.
This nationality group is particularly affected by visa rejections since it has a high application rate and suffers economic consequences when submitting visa applications," the survey noted. It went on to say that Moroccans, the top visa applicants from Africa this year, received the most visa rejections. "A total of 437,000 visa requests made by this nationality group were rejected in 2023, accounting for 62% of total. According to the data, Moroccans spent €10.9 million on rejected visa applications in 2023.
It also stated that Africans were heavily hit by these costs, given that the majority of African countries have among of the lowest earnings in the world. According to the research, African visa rejections account for 43.1% of all denied applications in 2023. According to a recent research by EU Observer, Schengen visa rejections produced €130 million in 2023. "In the previous year, this amount stood at €105m, showing an upward trend of Schengen visa expenses as well as rejection rates," said the report.
Marta Foresti, the founder of LAGO Collective, stated, "Visa inequality has very tangible consequences, and the world's poorest pay the price." The costs of denied visas might be viewed as'reverse remittances', or money going from impoverished to rich countries. We never hear about these costs when debating aid or migration; it's time to alter that.
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