The efforts of the Foreign Ministry accelerated the visa process of some countries including the United States, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Tuesday.
“All ambassadors have been summoned to our ministry and the necessary warnings were made,” Çavuşoğlu said at the budget commission meeting of the Foreign Ministry’s 2023 budget at Parliament in the capital Ankara.
Many Turkish citizens face visa problems, such as increased scrutiny of visa applications and months of waiting to obtain an appointment date.
The Schengen visa issue was previously brought to the spotlight by a Turkish lawmaker. Ziya Altunyaldız from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) raised the issue in a report presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
The report, titled "Misuse of the Schengen Information System as a Politically Driven Sanction by Member States of the Council of Europe" highlights the "unnecessary and large amount of paperwork" required for visas, as well as high fees and the requirement that applications be submitted in person.
The report adopted at the PACE Legal Affairs and Human Rights Commission meeting in the last week of June recommended that the Schengen Information System be revised immediately. Altunyaldız stressed that the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees freedom of movement. "Use of data in the system should not violate human rights, privacy and freedom of travel," the report added. However, the number of Schengen visa application refusals increased rapidly from 4% in 2014 to 12.7% in 2020, he told PACE, adding that the misuse of the Schengen Information System could be one of the factors behind this. He pointed out that Türkiye is the country with the highest number of Schengen visa applications, but on the other hand, Turkish businesspeople face difficulties when they apply for Schengen visas. Altunyaldız stated in his presentation that Turkish nationals, particularly those seeking to engage in business operations, have difficulties in visa application processes despite presenting the required documentation, such as their itinerary and accommodation. Problems such as requesting unnecessary and excessive documents, high fees, issuing single-entry and short-term visas, issuing the visa after the purpose of the visit has passed and the obligation to apply face-to-face were listed in the report.
