Visa-appointment waiting time for Germany reduced to 8 weeks

He also said that there are a large number of visitors from India in Germany, which adds to the delay in visa applications. “We are working to further reduce the waiting time for visa applicants from India,” he said.

“We are at roughly eight weeks now. We hope to get better with regard to that; we don’t want to invite you here to promote tourism of Indians to Germany and then ask them to apply for a visa three years in advance then you’ll have a good chance,” Enzweiler added.

A Schengen visa is a short-stay (up to 90 days) visa that allows a person to travel to any member of the 27-country Schengen Area of Europe for tourism or business purposes. The delays in visa processing have been a dampener for Europe travel.

The German Embassy had in April issued an advisory saying “longer waiting times for appointments and longer visa processing times apply.” At the time, the visa appointment waiting time ran into several months.

“If you are planning to travel to Germany in the near future, please make an appointment with our external service provider VFS in time,” it said, even going to the extent of saying it would be advisable “to postpone the trip in case the travel date is imminent or lies within two weeks of application date”.

According to new data from the German National Tourist Board, Indian tourists cumulatively spent more than 6.23 lakh nights in Germany in 2022, a two-fold increase when compared to 2021, even as the number was still 65 percent of the pre-pandemic levels. The numbers had touched a record level in 2019 with 9.61 lakh nights.