Issuing Schengen visas in Thailand under scrutiny (2015)
This spring, EU Home Affairs, the Home Affairs department of the European Commission, published the latest figures on Schengen visas. In this article I take a closer look at the application for Schengen visas in Thailand and I try to provide insight into the statistics surrounding the issuance of visas to see if there are any striking figures or trends.
An extensive analysis of the figures is available as a PDF attachment: www.thailandblog.nl/wp-content/uploads/Schengenvisums-2015.pdf
What is the Schengen Area?
The Schengen area is a cooperation of 26 European member states that have a common visa policy. The Member States are therefore bound by the same visa rules, which are laid down in the common Visa Code: EU Regulation 810/2009/EC. This enables travelers to move within the entire Schengen area without mutual border controls, visa holders only need one visa - the Schengen visa - to cross the external border of the Schengen area. More information about the regulations can be found in the Schengen Visa Dossier: www.thailandblog.nl/dossier/schengenvisum/dossier-schengenvisum/
How many Thai came here in 2015?
Exactly how many Thai people came to the Netherlands, Belgium or one of the other member states cannot be said with certainty. Data is only available on the application and issue of Schengen visas, but it is not known exactly how many Thais crossed the Schengen border. It should also be noted that not only Thais can apply for a Schengen visa in Thailand: a Cambodian who has the right of residence in Thailand can also apply for a visa from Thailand. Thai people from elsewhere in the world will also apply for a visa. The figures I mention are actually purely production figures of the paperwork that the posts (embassies and consulates) move in Thailand. Nevertheless, they give a good impression of the state of affairs.
Are the Netherlands and Belgium a popular destination for Thais?
In 2015, 10.550 visas were issued by the Netherlands for 10.938 applications. Belgium issued 5.602 visas for 6.098 applications. These figures are slightly higher than in the previous year, in 2014 the Netherlands issued 9.570 visas and Belgium 4.839 visas.
This means that our countries are by no means the most popular destination. Germany, France and Italy received half of all applications and issued about half of all visas. For example, Germany received 50.197 applications, France 44.378 applications and Italy 33.129 applications. The Netherlands only received 4,3% of all applications, which is ninth in terms of popularity. Belgium 2,4%, good for twelfth place. Looking at the number of visas issued, the Netherlands is in eighth place and Belgium in thirteenth place. In total, more than 2015 visas were applied for and 255 visas issued by the Member States in 246.
Do not forget that the visa is applied for at the country that is the main goal, a Thai with a visa issued by Germany (main goal) can of course also visit the Netherlands or Belgium for a short time, but this cannot be analyzed from the figures.
Were those Thai travelers mainly tourists or were they visiting a partner here?
No figures are kept per destination, so this cannot be determined exactly. Both the Netherlands and Belgium were able to give an estimate/rule of thumb regarding the travel purpose of Thai: about 40% is tourism, about 30% for visiting family or friends, 20% for business visits and 10% for other travel purposes.
Are the Netherlands and Belgium strict?
Many of the Schengen embassies operating in Thailand refuse between 1 and 4 percent of applications. The Dutch embassy refused 3,2% of applications last year. That is not a bad figure, but it breaks the trend compared to 2014, when 1% of applications were rejected. So here the pattern of fewer and fewer rejections has been broken.
The Belgian embassy rejected 7,6% of the applications. Significantly more than most embassies. If there were a trophy for most rejections, Belgium would take silver with its second place. Only Sweden rejected much more: 12,2%. Fortunately, Belgium shows a declining trend when it comes to rejections, in 2014, 8,6% were rejected.
Both countries issue a relatively large number of multiple entry visas (MEV), which allow an applicant to enter the Schengen area several times. As a result, an applicant has to apply for a new visa less often, which is great for both the applicant and the embassy. Since the introduction of the back office system, whereby Dutch visas are processed in Kuala Lumpur, almost 100% of all visas are MEVs. The RSO back office implements this liberal visa policy throughout the region (including the Philippines and Indonesia): 99 to 100% of visas are MEVs and the number of rejections in the region was around 1 to a few percent last year.
The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that its mail in Bangkok delivers a lot of MEV to bona fide travelers at 62,9%. They then have to apply for a visa less often, and this also has an influence on the rejection rate, according to the ministry. She obviously has a point with that, because many other missions are less generous with MEV, which nevertheless only partly explains the relatively high number of rejections. This could possibly be explained by a different profile (eg more family visits and fewer tourists compared to fellow member states) of Thais coming to Belgium or other risk analyzes by the Belgian authorities. For example, the risk of tourists (on an organized tour) is generally estimated to be lower than visiting family: the latter might not return to Thailand. Such a suspicion results in a rejection on the basis of “danger of establishment”.
Are many Thai people still refused at the border?
Not or hardly, according to Eurostat data. This statistical office of the EU collected figures, rounded to 5, about refusals at the border. According to these figures, only about 2015 Thai people were refused entry at the border in the Netherlands in 10, comparable to the number of refusals in previous years. In Belgium, according to the rounded figures, no Thai has been refused at the border for years. Thai refusal at the border is therefore a rarity. In addition, I must give the tip that travelers prepare well: bring all the necessary supporting documents so that they can demonstrate that they meet the visa requirements when asked by the border guards. I advise the sponsor to wait for the Thai visitor at the airport so that they can also be reached by the border guard if necessary. In case of refusal, it is best not to have yourself sent back immediately, but to consult a (on-call) lawyer, for example.
Conclusion
In general, the vast majority of applicants get their visa, which is good to know. There seems to be no talk of rejection factories or discouragement policies. The trends that became visible in my previous “Issuing Schengen Visas in Thailand under the microscope” blogs seem to be broadly continuing. Apart from the fact that the Dutch embassy rejected slightly more applications, there are few remarkable changes. For most embassies, the number of visa applications is stable or increasing and the number of rejections remains stable or continues to decrease. These are not unfavorable figures for the longer term!
If these positive trends continue, it certainly wouldn't hurt if the visa requirement was put up for discussion if the EU and Thailand could sit down to discuss treaties to be concluded. During treaty negotiations, many countries in South America have seen the Schengen visa obligation for their nationals lapse for reasons like this. It would of course also not be wrong if ambassador Karel Hartogh, like his predecessor Joan Boer, committed himself to abolition.
Sources and backgrounds:
– Schengen visa statistics: ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/visa-policy/index_en.htm#stats
– Schengen Visa Code: eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32009R0810
– Refusal at the border: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-datasets/-/migr_eirfs
- www.thailandblog.nl/dossier/schengenvisum/issue-schengenvisums-thailand/
- www.thailandblog.nl/dossier/schengenvisum/issue-van-schengenvisums-thailand-onder-de-loep-deel-2/
- www.thailandblog.nl/dossier/schengenvisum/issue-schengenvisums-thailand-2014/
- www.thailandblog.nl/dossier/schengenvisum/afgifte-schengenvisums-thailand-2014-nakomen-bericht/
- www.thailandblog.nl/nieuws-uit-thailand/ambassadeur-boer-thaise-toren-visumvrij-nederland-reizen/
– Contact with the Dutch and Belgian authorities (via the embassies and RSO). Thanks!
Good content article.
With regard to abolishing the Schengen visa obligation: I do not think it should be abolished as stated in the conclusion. Exemption for 30 days and a visa for longer stays, mirroring the Thai requirements, seems better to me.
Only when these Thai admission requirements are relaxed then adjust on an equal footing.
I can very well imagine that a (group of) country(ies) is careful what they let in to less wealthy people. This is also linked to checking who has been inside for how long. In the EU… you have to do very strange things to get caught with a one-way airport sanction and a free ticket to the country of origin, while in TH you stand out much more with much heavier sanctions.
The fear is to be saddled with the costs of medical facilities in particular: no one is taken out of the hospital with just an aspirin to die on the street here, while in TH people do little or nothing. A "farang" generally always has the means to get "home" again, but with many Thai things are different.
So I can well imagine that people ask for proof of sufficient means of subsistence and travel medical insurance during the stay, a return ticket and a valid reason for leaving the EU again.
Looking at the size of Germany and France, the direct flights + the many international fairs (only ANUGA – Cologne or SIAL – Paris already attract more than 1000 Thais every other year), I find the number that goes to Switzerland much more striking.
By the way: I still do not understand why this is not regulated at EU level. However, it is impossible to check the distribution in days of stay over several Schengen states, let alone even interesting.
Incidentally, I advise all my business relations - even if they fly over Schiphol - to apply for their visa at the German or French embassy: it is significantly faster - I can hardly imagine that such a person would want to miss his or her passport for 2 weeks - and as a factory owner you are not treated as a potential fraudulent smuggler.
Hello Harry, yes if you zoom in further there is certainly all kinds of fun to be found in the numbers. I don't think that will interest the average reader, but who knows, a piece like this will make readers enthusiastic to dive deeper into the figures and trends or to loosen their tongues. 🙂
I am familiar with the misery that your business relations had with visa and residence permit (VVR pass with "Taiwanese" on it, with a subsequent entry from UK to NL, hassle with the KMar and access refused), as you have explained in the previous blogs as well as by email. revealed your e-mail. Those kinds of things make me in favor of a common EU isum application center (VAC) so that travelers can be helped quickly and well at minimal costs.
I would prefer to see the RSO disappear (everything takes longer, Thai language no longer supported!), also dump VFS (it goes for profit, public pays the price). In (my) theory, with an EU VAC you could help the Thai with their application quickly, efficiently, customer-friendly and at the lowest cost. Great for tourism but certainly also business travelers. If the EU were to cooperate more, this would also make a difference in attempts to draw people away from other countries. In practice, in my opinion, you see that Member States still have a strong focus on their own interests and want to benefit as much as possible from European cooperation with as little compensation or disadvantages as possible. We are not yet a real union.
Incidentally, if your business travelers come to the Netherlands as their main purpose, they must submit their application there. The Germans should refuse an application unless Germany is the main target or unless there is no clear main destination and Germany is the country of first entry. If a traveler - understandably - does not want to go 1 to 2 weeks without a passport, the choice is simple: make sure that the Netherlands is not the main destination. Of course, the Netherlands misses the chance of some euros that come in through business, tourism, etc.
What is "main destination" ? a few days in one country, a few in another, again a few in a 3rd and again a few in a 4th….but often spend the night in my house in Breda…. 2 hours drive to Lille and Ruhr area.
No customs officer cares if you not only visit the port of R'dam, but also Antwerp, pass in front of the Eiffel Tower and return via an arch past the Cologne Cathedral. That along the way we also stop here and there with customers there, companies where they can learn something or buy something...etc..
In recent years we also crossed at Calais: in Dover people were only interested in whether they had a passport anyway, on our return we could not find any immigration even after an hour of searching, so we continued. Two weeks later at Schiphol: no Marechaussee who was interested…
If we as consumers could benefit from the European Union or Schengen Agreement, the national egos would know how to torpedo that.
Must have to do with "better small own boss than big servant".
The fact that the Dutch embassy in BKK is missing out on income… doesn't interest me.
According to Article 5, the main residence is where the longest stay will be or what the main reason for the visit is (think of a business trip to Brussels but with a short tourist trip to Paris, then Belgium is the right embassy).
If someone wants to do 2 days in Germany, 2 days in the Netherlands and 2 days in Belgium, then there is no main goal and Germany is responsible because that is the country of first entry. If the plan is 2 days in Germany, then 3 days in the Netherlands, then 2 days in Belgium, the applicant must be in the Netherlands and the application cannot be submitted to the Germans. Who horwn to refuse such a request.
I myself know an example of a Brit with a Thai partner who wanted to spend the first half of the holiday in France and the second half in Italy before leaving via France again. Naturally, the application went to the French. However, she refused the application on the grounds that the Thai lady would be on Italian territory for a few hours (!!) longer than French territory, as it turned out from the calculation of the travel planning and reservations. Those are of course excesses that leave a very bitter taste in my mouth.
Some of the refusals are as indicated because the foreign national did not apply for the visa at the correct embassy (main purpose of residence). Then everything else can still be in order, but the application is not admissible.
An EU VAC would then be easy: the applicant submits the visa request and supporting evidence (accommodation, insurance, sufficient resources, etc.) and the staff of the member states can then pass the application to which it belongs. Or in an extreme example as I mentioned discussing among themselves and just wasting the applicant's time.
Once with the visa in the passport, it will soon be fine. After all, you can enter through all Member States. A Thai who has to be in the east of the Netherlands can therefore easily enter via Germany with a Dutch visa. But if you have a Fims visa and you travel through Italy without any papers proving that you are also going to Finland, the border guard can hardly dorn and refuse entry for reasons of insincere intentions or lying during the application for the visa.
Of course I was talking about lost income from companies and government (VAT, tourist tax) in the country of destination. During the negotiations - which are still ongoing - for a new Visa Code, various member states indicated that the 60 euro visa fee does not cover the costs and there is a lobby to increase this amount by a few tens. So far, the Commission is not convinced that the fees should be increased. Whether the Netherlands makes a profit on applications I do not know, but I cannot guess. Shouldn't be cheaper for anything through VFS Global and the RSO. I don't have numbers so I can't comment.
Of course there is much more to discover if you look at the figures of previous years. I also noticed that Austria had 9.372 applications before last year, and in 2015 that had increased enormously to 14.686 applications. Partly because of this, the Netherlands has dropped a record. Then you can of course ask the question why this increase is due, perhaps Austria itself has a nice explanation for this. However, I have assumed that most readers are mainly interested in the Netherlands, Belgium and the broad outline and left it at that instead of typing a file of a few more A4 pages. I even wonder how many readers view the PDF download and how many stick to the text or images in the article itself.
Those who like numbers will find the appendix in the PDF document useful or simply download the Excel source files at EU Home Affairs. 🙂
I keep following developments with Schengen visas, but I also notice that everything is still on the back burner for me. For example, I no longer follow the developing concepts for the new Schengen Visa Code and it has taken me much longer to write this piece about developments in Thailand. The figures were already available at the end of March, but I postponed writing time and time again and did it in small steps. There are quite a few evenings when I don't get much done. The next day I blame myself because that's not a good thing and my Mali might even be a little angry with me. It remains an uphill battle but I am confident that I will reach the top and everything will go more or less as usual.
It must be a very stupid comment in the eyes of many who have chosen Thailand for their domicile. That Schengen visa may well remain that way and why should the Dutch ambassador interfere with something established at European level? Let Thailand first create decent standards for foreigners living there or am I misunderstanding this? Why Germany is number 1 seems quite logical to me because a lot more people live there than in the Netherlands and Belgium and the Flemish people and to a lesser extent the Dutch men are a lot more women-friendly, otherwise we would have been classified much lower. Moreover, the German men are not nearly as sensible as the gentlemen from the Southern Netherlands.
The thing that bothers me about the visa application is the following I have experienced it myself so I speak as a “professional” that my wife applies for a visa at the Dutch embassy in Bangkok part of it is outsourced to a private company I believe VHS It doesn't matter for a while, but the visa will be issued in Kuala Lumpur. you will say yes and. But at the airport in Bangkok they make it so terribly difficult that she was not allowed to come along.
After many calls back and forth, it finally worked.
I can imagine such a lady at the check-in desk saying hey hello this is Bangkok not Kuala Lumpur
Would be a lot easier for the Thai people, who already have trouble reading all those flight schedules when a visa is issued in Bangkok, saves a lot of aggravation
Dear Ton,
My girlfriend and various acquaintances have already been to the Netherlands several times on a Schengen visa issued in Kuala Lumpur. Also at Schiphol, some border guards are sometimes unaware that a visa is now issued in Kuala Lumpur and are surprised about this. however, to my knowledge, there have never been any problems with the passage of the traveler.
But I fully believe your story because of the experiences I have had in the past at so-called counter and service employees. Will give an example; after checking in online, I reported to the online check-in counter to drop off my suitcase .A colleague of the airline defended me to the 1st class check-in, according to this idiot this was the online check-in and I was at the internet check-in. So I asked him nicely what the difference was, in his own language. Again he said , pointing with his finger, this is the internet and that is online check in. At the end of the song I was back at the online check in counter. At the 1st class I was not helped but referred to the internet check in.
Such a check-in employee who says “This is Bangkok, not Kuala Lumpur” has little knowledge of visa matters. It is logical that an employee knows nothing about the RSO system. In theory, a Schengen visa can be issued anywhere. So even if the visas would still be made in Bangkok, not every traveler needs a visa from Bangkok. For example, a Thai who works in Malaysia can go to Kuala Lumpur for a Schengen visa, and such a sticker will state Kuala Lumpur as the place of issue. And a Thai who is family of an EU national traveling to another EU country can go to any embassy: a Thai-Dutch couple can also apply for a Schengen visa in Jakarta, London or Washington - free and simplified procedure - at a non-Dutch embassy (NL may not be the purpose of the trip). It will not often happen that a Thai has a visa sticker from, for example, London, but it is possible. And there are also people from neighboring countries who get their Schengen visa in Thailand and simply leave from their own country. All the desk clerk has to do is check whether the visa is valid (name, validity match). But there will surely be those who, out of ignorance, also look at the place of issue or embassy of issue. I can already see the discussion “this visa is from the German embassy but you are flying to Spain!” *sigh*
It will probably also sometimes happen in the Netherlands that desk staff find it strange that a Thai visa has been issued by a consulate in BE or D. That is the disadvantage of the system that airlines can receive fines and sanctions for transporting travelers without the correct papers: fanatic, ignorant or panicked employees can make it very difficult for the traveler.
In conclusion: it can of course do no harm to share this kind of experience with the embassy and RSO. Contact details of the embassy are easy to find, the RSO can be reached via: Asiaconsular [at] minbuza.nl