Chances of getting approval for a Schengen visa are thinning for Turkish citizens as more stories about people, from tourists to celebrities, who were denied access to Europe make the headlines. The rate of rejection of applications for Schengen visas from Türkiye continues to increase, with Estonia, Finland and Belgium topping the refusal rates in 2022, data showed.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has described the visa problem with some Western countries as "political blackmailing," saying the issue will be resolved soon. About 906,000 Schengen visa applications were made from Türkiye in 2019, with 9.7 % of them being rejected. The rejection rate increased to 15% in 2022.

The comparison has been made with 2019 figures because of travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021 when the coronavirus was at its peak.

More visas for Russia

According to data from the Schengen Visa Info website, 15% of the 778,000 Schengen visa applications made from Türkiye in 2022 were rejected. In the same period, Russian visa rejections amounted to 10%, despite Western sanctions over the country's war on Ukraine.

Elsewhere, as many as 1,517 applications were made from Türkiye to the Estonian Embassy in Ankara for a Schengen visa in 2022. But 52.1% of these applications were rejected, meaning Estonia did not issue a visa to one in two applicants. The refusal rate of visa applications made through the Estonian Embassy in Ankara in 2019 was 16.95%.

After Estonia, Finland had the second-highest rejection rate in Schengen visa applications made from Türkiye last year. In 2022, 4,073 applications were made to the Finnish Embassy in Ankara. Of these, 1,558 were not granted visas and the rejection rate was 40.6 %. The rate is striking as the mission in Ankara rejected 23.20% of the 3,676 applications made in 2019.

Belgium's Consulate General in Istanbul did not grant visas to 2,566 out of 7,211 applications made in 2022, with the rejection rate being 37.7%. Thus, Belgium rejected more than one out of every three applications. The rejection rate of the consulate in 2019 was 33%. Last year, 13,553 applications were made to Sweden's diplomatic mission in Türkiye, of which 22.7% were rejected. The refusal rate was 20% in 2019.

Denmark, with 34% in 2022, became the fourth country to reject most visa applications from Türkiye. Last year, 5,407 applications were made from Türkiye to Danish missions and 1,822 of them were rejected. In 2019, as many as 7,511 applications were made and 13% of them rejected. Hence, the data shows, the rate of rejection of Danish visa applications from Türkiye almost tripled in three years. Norway rejected 1,482 of 4,648 applications from Türkiye in 2022, with a 31.9% rejection rate. In 2019, however, the Nordic country had turned down 1,537 out of 3,442 applications from Türkiye, and the percentage of visa denials was 38%.

The EU countries where Turks applied for visas the most last year are Germany, Greece, France and Italy, respectively. More than 591,000 of the 778,000 applications made from Türkiye for the Schengen visa were made to the diplomatic missions of these four countries.

With 21%, Germany had the highest rejection rate among the countries with the highest number of applications. France followed it with 13.4%. Italy, on the other hand, rejected the least number of visas, 7%.

In 2022, 223,699 people from Türkiye applied to Germany's diplomatic missions in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir for Schengen visas. But more than 48,000 of these applications were rejected, and the rate of refusal exceeded 21%, almost double that in 2019. More than 253,000 applications were made to German diplomatic missions in 2019, and the number of rejections was recorded as 30,823, which is 12.1%.

After Germany, the country to which Turks made the most visa applications was Greece in 2022. As many as 164,829 applications were made to the diplomatic missions of Greece in Ankara, Edirne, Istanbul and Izmir. Of these, 15,913 were rejected, and the rate of rejection was 9.65%. In 2019, Athens rejected 6,359 out of 148,551 applications, and the percentage of visa denials was 4.2%.

France turned down 115,114, or 13.4% of visa applications, from Türkiye last year. In 2019, the figure was 143,478, or 6.3%. Hence, the visa refusal rate doubled compared to 2019. In 2022, 87,648 Schengen visa applications were made to the diplomatic missions of Italy in Türkiye. Of these, 6,259 applicants, or 7%, were unable to obtain a visa. The figure was recorded as 6% in 2019.

Last year, 48,807 applications were made to the diplomatic missions of the Netherlands. Of these, 9,714, or 19.90% of the applications, failed to acquire a visa. In 2019, the visa refusal rate was 15.6%. According to the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ankara, 30,114 visa applications were made from Türkiye in the first five months of this year, and the rejection rate was 12%. Most of these refusal decisions were made due to the missing documents, the mission said.

In 2022, 27,664 visa applications were made from Türkiye to the diplomatic missions of Spain. Of these, 2,837 were rejected, with Spain being one of the least rejected countries, with a 10% refusal rate. However, the figure was 4.3% in 2019. The Spanish Embassy in Ankara said more than 16,000 visa applications were approved in Türkiye in the first five months of 2023, while nearly 10% of requests were rejected. Some 19,531 applications were made from Türkiye to the diplomatic representations of Hungary in 2022 and 2,366 of them were rejected, which is 12%. The percentage was 11 in 2019.

The rejection rates of other Schengen Area countries in 2022 are as follows: Latvia (33%), Lithuania (24%), Austria (20%), Czechia (18%), Malta (15%), Switzerland (15%), Slovenia (15 %), Portugal (11%), Poland (10%), Slovakia (9 %) and Luxembourg (7 %).

EU denial

European countries have been mostly silent on the causes of rejections and delays while the German Embassy in Türkiye issued a statement on June 6, expressing "pride" in handing out about 100,000 Schengen visas between January and May 2023, "a 50% increase compared to the same period in 2022." The embassy’s statement on its Twitter account said Germany did not issue such a high rate of visas elsewhere in the world. The Schengen Visa Info website quoted EU Ambassador to Türkiye Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut as saying that authorities do not use any policy aimed at preventing the issuance of visas to Turkish citizens. As per the long waiting times as well as the visa processing delays, the ambassador said that they are working to solve the problem, suggesting that this is happening mainly due to the high demand, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports. "We are doing our best to solve this problem, but first of all, it should be well known that the EU does not have any policy to prevent the issuance of visas to Turkish citizens," reads the ambassador's statement.

Rejection of Schengen visas and long delays in appointments for applications worry Turkish citizens who have to wait for months for entry to European Union countries, only to be refused access. Firuz Bağlıkaya, chair of the Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TÜRSAB), says it is an "unfortunate, systemic blocking." "Along with the delay of the applications, the rate of citizens rejected is very high. The rate of rejected visas was more than 15% in 2022 and this year, it increased to around 50%," he told Anadolu Agency (AA) recently.

Turkish officials have called for a swift solution, lower fees, permits for multi-visa entries and "fairer" evaluation standards for people like academicians and businesspeople in terms of economic and educational activities. Türkiye and the bloc enjoy good trade ties and decades of migration; however, relations are strained over multiple issues, including the prolonged process of modernization, expansion of the scope of the current customs union agreement and EU policies on refugees from Syria. Bağlıkaya says visa denial and delays were an attempt to curb the freedom of travel of people and for travel agencies organizing tours abroad for Turkish citizens, a serious economic loss.

Turkish businesspeople are among those who face rejection of Schengen visas or long delays in visa appointments. Some countries claim these delays are due to a backlog of post-COVID-19 applications, but Turkish authorities have branded it as a politically motivated move. After a Turkish lawmaker filed a report titled "Misuse of the Schengen Information System as a Politically Driven Sanction by Member States of the Council of Europe," highlighting 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 Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) approved a resolution calling for European states to avoid abusing the Schengen Information System (SIS). The resolution said that although it was the right of states to decide who to allow into the country, they should also respect the rights of third-country nationals trying to enter the Schengen area, "in line with the European Convention on Human Rights."

Bağlıkaya said that travel agencies are required to make long-term plans and early bookings due to the nature of their business and had to pay in advance. "But the visa application process which was delayed for 10 days at most in the past now is scheduled to much later dates. Solo travelers and travel agencies have to resort to intermediary agencies to secure a visa appointment under the name of ‘VIP application’ and that cost them high fees.

These "VIP applications" cost at least 300 euros ($320), compared to 80 euros charged for regular visa applications," he lamented. Bağlıkaya said TÜRSAB shared its concerns over visa issues with the consulates of France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as the United Kingdom and the United States and they were now waiting for an immediate solution to the issue.