The number of visa applications filed by Indian nationals to Finland has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, with the Ambassador saying that India’s growing affluence and passport ownership will enable more Indians to travel abroad.
The Finnish Ambassador to India, Kimmo Lahdevirta, said that he sees the growth of tourism between the two countries on a positive note and that he expects the number to surpass 2019 levels in 2014.
Now, of course, the pandemic caused a slump in the tourism industry as well. But now we have already reached almost the level of 2019, for example, in visa applications, and I think that’s indicative that the number of people who are travelling is increasing. I’m pretty confident that next year, we will have even bigger numbers than we had in 2019. So, I would say that the trend is very good.
Discussing the visa application process, the Ambassador pointed out that the average waiting time for Indian nationals is currently set at two weeks, hoping to make Finland an attractive country for Indian travellers seeking shorter visa processing times.
He also pointed out that the challenges these two countries face are not so well known to each other countries. The two countries will have to continue working together to make each other known to the respective populations.
One of the challenges we have had is that India is not that well known in Finland. But I think Finland is not that well known in India, either. So, we certainly want to continue the efforts to put Finland on the map of India and India on the map of Finland. So that’s an ongoing project.
According to Schengen Statistics, 7,950 visa applications from Indian nationals were filed to Finnish authorities, with 6,297 or 79.2 per cent being approved while another 1,323 were denied. In general, the share of multiple entry uniform visas issued to Indian nationals is higher in Finland compared to some other countries in Europe, such as Austria (76 per cent), Denmark (74 per cent), and France (77 per cent).
On the other hand, Schengen countries that have a higher recognition rate for Indian nationals include Iceland (93.6 per cent), Germany (88.4 per cent), Switzerland (86 per cent) and Norway (85.4 per cent).
In general, Indian nationals have filed 671,928 visa applications in 2022, with 80.5 per cent of applications being approved while another 119,346 applications received a negative response.
