According to the results of 2022, Estonia became the leader in refusing to issue Schengen among the countries of the European Union. Diplomatic missions of this country in Egypt, Turkey, and India rejected a large number of applications, as a result of which hundreds of people could not cross the border, according to SchengenVisaInfo.
The Estonian embassy in Cairo rejected nearly two-thirds of all Schengen visa applications last year, the highest percentage yet. The same happened in Turkey and India, where 56% and 52.1% of all Schengen applications were rejected, respectively. Malta, Sweden, Belgium, and France are also on the list of countries with high rejection rates.
Commenting on the figures, the press attaché of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Hanna Tisler-Lavrentiev, said that all countries of the Schengen Agreement have a high percentage of refusals. If we talk about visa applications submitted by citizens of Egypt, Turkey, and India, Tisler-Lavrentiev explained that the reason for the rejections is the unreasonableness of the trips. Applicants could not prove that Estonia is not a way for them to reach other EU countries.
“The problem is the authenticity of the documents confirming the purpose of the trip, which are submitted when applying for a visa, and when there are reasons to doubt that the destination is Estonia and not another Schengen state,” Tisler-Lavrentiev said.
In addition to the above, Tisler-Lavrentiev noted that misleading information provided by Schengen visa applicants is also a factor in denial. Many applicants claim that they visit relatives in Estonia only to find out that these relatives no longer live in Estonia.
While Estonia has one of the strictest rules for issuing Schengen visas, some countries are more loyal to foreigners. The SchengenVisaInfo portal recently shared a list of the 10 countries with the lowest rejection rates in 2022:
- Italy – 12.7% refusals
- Greece – 12.5% refusals
- Switzerland – 12% refusals
- Poland – 11.6% refusals
- Luxembourg – 10.5% refusals
- Finland – 9.7% refusals
- Slovakia – 9.7% refusals
- Latvia – 9.5% refusals
- Lithuania – 7.8% refusals
- Iceland – 1.9% refusals