Starting from March 18, 2024, Turkish nationals applying for a German Schengen visa will have to go through a two-step application process.
By changing the way the nationals of Türkiye schedule appointments for short-stay visas, Germany wants to make the process more efficient and straightforward, reducing the long waiting times, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
In line with the new process, Turkish applicants will first need to register for an appointment and thus become part of the waiting list. Once they are registered, they will receive an email which confirms that their registration has been successfully made.
Then, after some time, all those who have completed the registration process will be notified of a date when they should submit their visa application through iDATA, which is an external service provider.
As the German Representations in Türkiye revealed, visa appointments will be given out in the order that applicants are registered. As soon as it is someone’s turn to submit their visa application, iDATA will inform them via email.
The same stressed that this change would make the process simpler for all applicants and, at the same time, said that Turkish nationals would no longer have to wait for a long period of time to find available time slots.
Appointments are allocated exclusively in the chronological order of appointment registrations. The time-consuming search for a free appointment will no longer be necessary in the future.
Service Fee Needs to Be Paid Within 48 Hours of Having An Appointment Assigned
While registering for an appointment for a German Schengen visa is free, a service fee must be paid.
All Turkish applicants are required to pay the service fee within 48 hours of having a visa appointment assigned to them by iDATA. The iDATA service fee must be paid online via a credit card.
Those who fail to make the payment in time will have their appointment cancelled, and they will have to re-register in order to be able to make a new appointment.
To confirm the appointment, the iDATA service fee must be paid online by credit card within 48 hours of receiving the email. Appointments not confirmed and paid for on time will be cancelled, and re-registration will be required.
It has been further stressed that Turkish nationals applying for a German Schengen visa will not have to ask for the help of intermediaries to complete their application, as the process is very easy.
Regarding the waiting times, it was emphasised that they will vary depending on the demand for Schengen visas. It is expected that the demand will start to increase as soon as warmer months approach, especially during June.
Turkish Nationals Filed Over 223,000 German Schengen Visa Applications in 2022
According to official Schengen statistics, in 2022, Turkish nationals filed a total of 223,699 German Schengen visa applications. However, not everyone was granted a visa.
Of the total number of applicants, 174,929 of them were granted a German visa in 2022.
On the other hand, 48,040 Turkish applicants were refused a German visa.
