Citizens of Morocco interested in travelling to Italy will be eligible to apply for a visa in the new visa services office that will start operating in February 2024 in the North African country’s capital.
The offices will be operated by the worldwide visa-processing service provider, VFS Global.
An agreement of the visa services office in Rabat was signed by the Embassy of Italy in Rabat, Morocco, as well as VFS Global, on February 16, 2023.
The agreement was signed by H.E. Mr. Titanilla Tóth, Ambassador of Italy to Morocco, and Mr. Johan Virassamynaïck, Regional Head-North Africa, VFS Global.
Since Italy has no liberalisation agreement with Morocco, the latter’s citizens are required to apply for a visa when planning to travel to this country.
At present, Italy has five diplomatic representative offices in Morocco, or more specifically: the embassy and consulates in Morocco, the consulate in Agadir, the consulate in Fes, as well as the consulate general and promotion centre in Casablanca and a consulate in Marrakech.
Through the Italian Embassy in Rabat, Italian and international citizens in Morocco can benefit from various consular services.
The Italian Embassy in Rabat, among others, helps citizens of Morocco if they are looking for general or specific information regarding the Italian economy, education, culture and sports or if they need information regarding the requirements of acquiring citizenship in Italy, among others.
Moroccan citizen’s interest in applying for Italian visas has increased. According to the figures from SchengenVisaInfo.com, a total of 10,507 visa applications from Moroccan nationals were received by Italian embassies and visa centres last year; of them, 7,726 were issued, while 2,582 were rejected.
In addition to Italy, Moroccan’s interest in visiting all other Schengen Zone countries marked a significant increase last year, thus accounting for the fourth biggest market of Schengen Visa applicants.
Schengen Visa Statistics figures revealed that last year, a total of 423,201 Schengen visa applications were submitted by Moroccans, while the Schengen visa rejection rate also surged.
Statistics from the same source also revealed that in 2022, 30 per cent of Schengen visa requests from Moroccans were rejected, with France and Spain responsible for the largest numbers of rejected visas.
The total number of visa applications last year surpassed 7.5 million, thus accounting for a 158.7 per cent increase compared to 2021 statistics. While the overall rejection rate for Schengen visa applications last year was 17.9 per cent, Morocco alone accounted for a rejection rate of 29.7 per cent, thus making this country among the top countries with the highest Schengen visa rejection rates.
