The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wopke Hoekstra, has answered the written questions of Member of Parliament Piri (PvdA) about the long waiting times when applying for a Schengen visa for the Netherlands, answered in a letter.
These questions were submitted on June 28, 2022 with reference 2022Z13323.
Ask 1
Are you aware that it regularly takes four to six months for people from both Suriname and Morocco to obtain a Schengen visa for a short stay in the Netherlands?
Reply
Yes.
Ask 2
The website states that applicants will know within 15 calendar days whether they will receive the visa, and that this can exceptionally take up to 45 days. How do you explain that in many cases the standard deadlines are not observed?
Reply
The Corona pandemic has caused travel movements and therefore Schengen visa applications to come to a virtual standstill. During this 'visa dip', the decision-making capacity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was temporarily scaled down. The ministry is in a restart phase of the visa process and is working to increase the decision-making capacity to the pre-Corona level. Due to the rapid increase in applications from people who want to travel to the Netherlands, the demand for visas is currently greater than the decision-making capacity. That is why it has been forced to accept a fixed (maximum) number of visa applications at some locations. As a result, in some countries, including Suriname and Morocco, waiting times are unfortunately longer than the standard period of two weeks for submitting a visa application. The intake capacity is regularly increased as the decision-making capacity increases. Several Schengen countries are facing similar challenges to increase the processing capacity of visa applications.
The 15 calendar days referred to in the question concerns the processing time of the visa application after it has been submitted by the applicant. These processing times are not exceeded in the majority of the visa applications submitted.
Ask 3
Given the close ties with both Suriname and Morocco, are you aware that the slow processing of visa applications has major consequences for the applicants, so that they cannot attend family events such as birthdays or saying goodbye to loved ones?
Reply
The ministry regrets the inconvenience and disappointment this may cause and is therefore increasing its decision-making capacity as quickly as possible.
Ask 4
How do you reflect on the collaboration with VFS Global in this light?
Reply
The waiting times are not caused by VFS Global, but by capacity at the ministry and the decision to take a set number of visa applications in some countries.
Ask 5
Besides Suriname and Morocco, are there any other countries known to you where the problem of long waiting times occurs? If so, which countries does this concern?
Reply
Yes, this problem occurs in several 'high volume' countries, such as India, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Iran, Algeria and Pakistan.
Ask 6
What will you do to ensure that the waiting times for applying for a visa from Suriname and Morocco decrease in the short term?
Reply
Restarting the visa process is an important priority for the ministry. In order to meet the demand for applications, the Ministry is working to increase its personnel processing capacity by recruiting new employees and further developing digital systems. The shortage on the labor market and the training of new employees are challenges in this regard, which unfortunately means that this is taking longer than hoped. The aim is for the Schengen visa grant to be 80% of production in the pre-Covid year 2019 by the end of this year, enabling visa applicants to submit their visa application again within the applicable period. Priority will be given to countries where this leads to special bottlenecks, such as Suriname.
1) Obtained through own information.
Source: House of Representatives – https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/kamervragen/detail?id=2022D30960&did=2022D30960
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