An Indian person eventually obtained a Schengen visa from the Netherlands after a seven-year battle that included numerous rejections from different Schengen Member States.

The successful visa applicant, who requests anonymity, disclosed that she and her spouse experienced disillusionment due to four visa denials from France, one from Spain, and one from Finland throughout the years. They sought support from several agents, but all of their attempts were fruitless, leading to large financial losses.

Unfazed, the applicant went to Jalandhar VFS Global on September 27 to submit the application for a Netherlands visa. Remarkably, the following day the file arrived at the embassy. Since both applicants applied at the same time, there was a sudden moment of panic when the applicant’s husband did not receive a communication regarding his passport.

Thankfully, the passports of both applicants were eventually sent, and the couple who had initially applied for a 14-day visa were given a 30-day single-entry visa. The couple intends to go to France and Italy in addition to the Netherlands, with authorization to remain in the Schengen Area for more than 14 days.

Recently, the Schengen nations have come under fire for allegedly “mercilessly” turning down visa requests. Visa applicants brought attention to the challenges faced during the application process by sharing on social media their unjustified experiences with denial.

Application rejection rates for Schengen visas in 2022 are 17.9%, based on data covering 7,572,755 applications in that year. Comparing this rejection rate to 2021 and the time before the epidemic, it is noticeably greater. Despite having the most applications received, France and Spain—two Schengen Member States—recorded the highest number of denials in 2022, with France rejecting 408,876 applications and Spain rejecting 227,712 applications.