Muscat: People in Oman who have planned to visit Europe for a vacation, or for work, are facing waiting times of up to two months to secure Schengen visas, making it difficult and expensive for them to finalise their itinerary.
The reason for this, say travel agents in the country, is the sudden spike in tourists who want to fly to Europe, after being unable to do so for about two years, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For two years, people were unable to travel because most international travel was stopped, on account of the coronavirus,” said Faiyaz Khan, general manager at Travel Point. “Ever since restrictions on travel were lifted, however, there has been a huge surge in travel, and simply put, visa processing centres are unable to handle the volume of applications.”
A recent returnee from Europe said that although he wanted to travel to Greece, there were no appointments available in the short-term. As an alternative, he booked his Schengen visa from the French visa processing centre, but that meant he had to fly to Paris, stay there for a day, and then continue onward to Greece.
“Some immigration officials may allow you to go directly to your chosen country, but the standard rule is that if you have applied for a Schengen visa for a particular country, you need to enter Europe through that country alone, and then fly to your intended destination,” added Khan. “We always advise our customers to never skirt the rules when it comes to booking a visa.”
Visitors who want to travel to the Schengen Zone need to have a confirmed hotel booking, return tickets, travel insurance, and proof of funds that ensures they can meet their expenses while in Europe. With people required to book their tickets even before securing their visa appointments, long waiting times to apply for a visa makes it difficult for them to properly plan their travel.
Among many of the Schengen Zone countries for which visas are processed in Oman, France has among the shortest waiting times: Visa appointments are available as early as 23 June.
Those who wish to travel to Germany, however, need to wait until 2 August to secure an appointment.
Potential travellers to Italy can’t even secure appointments right now, with those who attempt to make a booking through the online system receiving a message that reads: “No appointment slots are currently available, please try another application centre if applicable.”
The earliest slots to apply for a Schengen visa from Austria are on 18 July, at the time of writing, while people planning to travel to the Netherlands need to wait eight days more: their nearest slot is on the 26th. People hoping to travel to Spain are also out of luck: all the slots for June are completely filled.
The UK government has also admitted that it is facing longer processing times for visas. “Standard visitor visa applications are currently taking on average six weeks to process,” said UK Visas and Immigration in an online advisory on 11 May. “We are working hard to process applications to get back to the three-week service standard.”
UK transit visas are also taking up to six weeks to process, and as UK Visas and Immigration devotes its attention to Ukraine Visa Scheme applications, in the wake of the ongoing conflict, applications for study visas and work visas may also take longer to process. Processing times for family visas for the UK could take up to 24 weeks.
