The reports of the long waiting times for an appointment with the external service provider VFS Global, which has been appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collect and check the Schengen visa application forms, have also reached other websites. Schengenvisa.info writes that the waiting times for an appointment can be from 3 to 5 months.
Complaints come mainly from Suriname, Thailand and Senegal (Gambia), but this may also be the case elsewhere in the world.
The editors of Schengenvisum.info have asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a response. Mr. Casper Soetekouw, consular affairs spokesperson, has stated the following:
“Following the easing of covid travel restrictions worldwide, there has been an increased demand for short-stay visas for the Schengen area.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working hard to process the increased number of applications, but faces a number of personnel and systemic challenges. Other Schengen countries face similar challenges, including countries that represent the Netherlands for short-stay visa applications.
Applicants may experience longer wait times to book an appointment and longer turnaround times. Unfortunately, the Ministry faces these challenges in a number of countries around the world, and they are not specific to any one region.
We are increasing capacity weekly and hope to handle pre-covid numbers by the end of this year. Meanwhile, applicants are advised to plan their travel well in advance and ensure all requirements are met to ensure speedy processing of their visa application.”
Read the whole article here: https://schengenvisum.info/lange-wachttijden-vfs-global-aanvraag-schengenvisum/
That means admitting that things are not going as they should, nice promises but not admitting that people are in violation of the Visa Code. Between the lines I read “this is true, but we are not wrong”. Well... If they had not worked with external commercial companies, there might have been enough staff, civil servants are usually not quickly unemployed on the street... Those service providers such as VFS probably have not extended short-term employment contracts and if the market picks up again, this is the result … that is to be expected and that is why I consider the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to be flawed. Cheap, expensive and putting the costs and consequences on the traveler's plate. Well great.
Unfortunately, no word on the government's simply not complying with legal obligations. Busy, busy, busy would be a valid argument for that? Should you, the other way around, try as a citizen against the government………
Yes, I am not paying my taxes for a while because I am so busy….
I can already see the following letter to the tax authorities:
Thank you for your income tax assessment for the year 2021. Due to the ever-increasing inflation and my income not keeping pace with it, I am faced with a number of challenges. Many others, both in the Netherlands and in other EU countries, are also facing the same challenges. Creditors may therefore have to deal with longer waiting times.
I hope to get my finances back in order by the end of this year. In the meantime I advise you to wait patiently.'
Should work, right?
Cornelius, do it! Just do it! In the very-very-very best case, you meet an official with a big heart who writes to you 'Your request for deferment of payment has been processed. You will hear from us shortly. Take interest into account.'
But the chance of meeting an official like this is minimal so you probably won't hear anything until someone comes to the door with a letter that starts with 'IN THE NAME OF THE KING'! So forget that letter and use that stamp as a down payment on your debt.
You are absolutely right. These kinds of government delays are always detrimental to Bert Burger. You will not get a letter that says 'We regret that we cannot impose an attack over 2022 due to a delay'.
You see it in several sectors that a delay policy (tactic) is being pursued.
The people of Groningen are put in queues, holidaymakers who are confronted with many delays, NS has problems, supposedly all due to absenteeism due to illness or a shortage of staff.
Now it's the farmers' turn.
I saw an interview with someone who had spent over 1000 hours researching the facts about the damage farmers, cows, do.
A farmer in Vlagtwedde has 600 cows, according to the ministry.
Inquiry shows that this farmer no longer has any cows and is a pig farmer.
They now want to check how things are with 100 farmers in Gelderland, for example.
If these figures are also incorrect, the fence is off the dam.
I think it's high time for a trial....
jesus
So my love and I never get to get married.
By the time we have a visa, the papers will have expired again…
To cry
You can get married in Thailand. Much easier too. Make sure you get the right document to register the marriage in the Netherlands later. We initially had the wrong document (2007) but the correct one was sent for a small extra fee to an address we specified in Bangkok, while we were on a motorcycle honeymoon in Northern Thailand ourselves.
george
If that was in 2007, then I assume that some adjustments have been made in the meantime.
I live in France, only encountered problems. Wrong stamp, or too few. And now probably already papers that expire while waiting for visas.
But there will come a day when…
And from neither of them not even an apology or a concession (eg in the form of a reduction of the (service) costs) because of the default!
This situation is not from the last few weeks, but has been going on for 3 to 6 months. Have they been sleeping all this time? Or do these organizations think that they do not have to comply with regulation 810/2009?
The service costs will definitely not be reduced, rather increased under the motto that extra staff must be recruited.
They certainly won't have been sleeping either, but they simply don't care.
By "they" I mean the VFS Global leadership and State Department officials who fail to intervene.
Those civil servants are in their own bubble, put everything on the plate of Corona, so that the vast majority of them also work at home and there are apparently no more consultations.
And politicians are too busy with themselves, they have, with a few exceptions, lost all feeling for the citizen and they will be concerned that visas will take months to arrive or will simply be refused.
Disinterest and incompetence on all fronts.
It just goes to show that complaining is pointless. They reluctantly admit that they have a chronic shortage of personnel and that the large number of files does not make it any easier for them. At the end of the day, they just continue as before.
The only thing we can do is start planning very well in advance in the hope that everything will be in order in time.
Not only the government has to deal with a (major) shortage of personnel, various industries are also sometimes seriously affected. And it will only get worse because a large group of elderly people are about to retire in the coming years, which will cause even more problems. I don't think it's right to blame the government; look at healthcare, Schiphol, construction of homes, the agricultural sector, catering, metal and technology, education and a series of other companies and industries where the lack of personnel has a direct impact on the performance, products and services provided. I think what the spokesperson writes is reasonable that capacity is gradually being expanded and I therefore understand the situation. And as written in the article other countries also suffer from shortages. Many on this blog are retired and are also partly the cause of a shortage of personnel on the labor market, and I do not mean it personally or negatively, but one may wonder why there are shortages and understand that you need longer to check in on a plane or stand in front of a closed restaurant door or in this case that a visa application takes longer than before.
To rule is to look into the future. One could see it coming that the world would one day go back to fairly normal. Anticipation, something that apparently is given to few.
Quickly to NL??: then swim in at the sluice of IJmuiden, throw away your passport and tell a sad story, then you will have all the help in no time, including furnished accommodation and living expenses.
To get to the Netherlands quickly, you must first have transport, and you can only enter an airplane or boat if you have the right papers (passport and visa). But even if your proof of speech steps into a balloon and you go silent to the Netherlands, and you jump overboard into the water there and lose your papers, you will still have to tell more than a pathetic story to be allowed to stay in the Netherlands. Your story will be investigated by the IND, and if it can be reasonably assumed that your life is in danger (or inhumane treatment) in your own country, you will be issued residence papers. You have to pay for that house yourself, but that is with living money received (social assistance) like everyone who has no work and does not receive any other benefits (WW, WAO, etc.). Yes, even the few Thai people who could prove that they were fleeing Thailand have been granted residence in the Netherlands and elsewhere in the EU.
No. At first we already received a lot of refugees from Serbia, no problem
Then we got a load of Syrians, no problem
Now a load of Ukrainians, no problem
Cartloads from Africa, even cause nuisance, no problem
A Dutch man, living in Ecuador with his wife, on the run because of the situation in that country> Ho stop, problemo! Didn't see it on news (it's been a while)? Finally accepted by Spain.
Hey.
Have you ever read about foreign children in the Netherlands, who have been living here for years in foster families and then are suddenly expelled?
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world, oh yeaaaaah
A long list of misery in the government, fill it in yourself. Running a country in times of prosperity is not a big job, but there is arguing over who should get the biggest slice of the cake. Divide abundance.
But if there is a headwind, then it turns out that we have all made the characteristic mistake again in the elections. Wrong, incapable candidates, wrong parties that canonize self-interest. It is high time to reduce the size of the rooms so that the wheat can be separated from the chaff. Maybe that will help, I honestly don't believe in it.
As usual (nowadays) a shameless gibberish reaction from an uninvolved official who plays good weather with our money. 0,0 feeling for the problems and inconveniences that the laxity of their policy causes.
A meaningless (and therefore worthless) response from a civil servant who doesn't give a damn about it on behalf of a government that doesn't give a damn either. The government simply has to fulfill its obligations, instead of leaving citizens out in the cold.
It would be to our ambassador's credit in Thailand (who recently showed a great commitment to the Dutch living in Thailand in a contribution to Thailand blog) if he puts an end (at least for those who apply for a visa for the Netherlands here in Thailand) to the mandatory intervention of VFS, an (nmm) incompetent and corrupt organization and let the embassy handle the visa applications themselves again. Perhaps the editors of Thailandblog can encourage our ambassador to do so.
Received a letter yesterday that they did not yet know when or how much the settlement would be with an annual statement. This is in connection with the case law regarding box 3.
Was also told when submitting the annual statement and now separately again, so after months, with a letter.
It would, it is reported, at least be no more and MAYBE less.
They HOPE to have everything ready by the end of this year to be able to submit the statement to you.
I think they are working on a way that is positive for them and they can start collecting the amount. For the time being I actually have some credit since its ridiculous introduction in 2014 and the state actually has to pay back every Dutch person. Does that happen? Probably not, because that will cost them 7 billion.
Sorry little mistake, thank you for your money, you will not get it back.
Where do I know this from? Oh yes surcharge affair,
It can always get worse: if a Thai wants to go to Denmark, he / she can only go to VFS in November:
https://scandasia.com/visa-for-thais-to-visit-denmark-seriously-delayed/
That is completely out of the question and more than totally unacceptable. So VFS is completely wrong. A commercial company is letting staff go (corona time) and finding staff (back) in time is not possible. Then it goes very wrong.
I heard from a reader, have not yet been able to confirm this, that VFS therefore hires external freelancers to collect papers. They have had no training at all (the basic training of VFS personnel is usually just enough to be able to pass papers through, but things went wrong there, without training it certainly goes wrong!). If that is correct, it could also explain the high rejection figures: file is messed up by freelancers/temporary workers via VFS, so half a file arrives, which gathers dust for another 2 weeks in the digital pool of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where enterprising civil servants in The Hague are also then quickly assess the application negatively… that would be totally irresponsible because this is correct information! It would explain a lot...
side seam = be like
The same article also states that the Swedish Embassy in Thailand handles a visa application within 9 days……..
And at the moment VFS for Sweden has 20 time slots available within 14 calendar days.
So it is possible, because I do not think that the number of applications for a visa to Sweden is inferior to those to the Netherlands.
PS: for Sweden you have to go to exactly the same VFS office as for the Netherlands.
https://visa.vfsglobal.com/tha/en/swe/attend-centre/bangkok
Why is the waiting time for VFS between 3-5 months? That will apply to Suriname, for example, I'm guessing? The readers here at TB have reported wait times of 4-5 to 6 weeks lately. Still too much and unacceptable, but not as absurd as 3-5 months.
I think I'm going to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy how many appointments/applicants there have been in recent months (since January 1) and how that compares to the same periods during and before the pandemic. If the numbers are comparable to the 2018-2019 level, then it is purely foreseeable failure and shortcoming of the “you just go to an external service provider and no longer via the embassy” system. But if one can show that there are now, say, twice or more applications in this period than in the same period pre-corona. Yes, then I could still go along with the idea of "force majeure, could not be foreseen and planned at all".