The German government has, for the first time in history, declassified data on the issuance of German visas.
But, as Russkaya Germaniya writes, it turned out that the visa issue for many non-EU countries, primarily for Russia, has not only become quite significant in recent years, but even turned into one of the central topics in the current negotiation process with Brussels. Especially since in April 2011, the Common Visa Code will come into force in all countries of the Schengen area.
This document standardizes the visa policy of all members of the "closed club Europe," establishing uniform legal rules in this area. For example, according to the new Code, consular services will have to explain the reason for refusal to applicants, creating a legal opportunity to file a necessary appeal.
German consular offices abroad, as the German Foreign Ministry emphasizes, have been issuing a standardized form to "refuseniks" on a "voluntary basis" since April of this year, from which at least the "substantial reasons for the rejection of the visa application" can be understood. According to Berlin, the most important criteria for issuing the coveted passport sticker are the "family and economic roots" in the applicant's home country.
It turns out that there are special reference books to help German consular workers, such as the "Visa Handbook of the German Foreign Ministry" or the "Guide to Processing Visa Applications and Making Changes to Already Issued Visas." Based on these detailed instructions, the staff of consular departments at German embassies decide the fundamental question of the "applicant's willingness to return to their home country."
How does it work in practice? The leadership of the German Left Party also addressed this issue, sending a corresponding parliamentary inquiry to Angela Merkel's cabinet. According to the Foreign Ministry, last year 1,649,302 visa applications were submitted to all German consulates, of which 177,207 were rejected. This means that almost every ninth applicant was turned away instead of getting permission to enter Germany! Moreover, this trend has been fairly consistent. In 2008, there were 193,171 rejections out of 1,917,272 applications. And the record year for "refuseniks" was 2007: 209,783 document rejections out of 1,951,469 applications.
The German visa statistics by individual country are extremely interesting. The largest number of visa applications last year was submitted in Moscow – 216,698. This is the highest figure across all German consular offices. At the same time, there were only 8,115 rejections, which is just 4% of all applications. A similar situation occurred in the Russian capital in 2008: 251,267 applications and 9,483 rejections.
Second in terms of visitor influx is the consular department of the German embassy in Kyiv – 101,353 visa applications in 2009. Surprisingly, the number of rejections here is immeasurably higher than in Moscow – 12,513 people. The quota of "refuseniks" is 8%! In 2008, German diplomats in Kyiv rejected 12,609 applicants, processing 118,252 applications over the year.
Almost the same happens in Chișinău: 1,011 rejections out of 6,792 applications: every sixth Moldovan leaves the German consulate empty-handed. In Yerevan, 1,236 applications out of 7,844 were unsatisfied in 2009. In Astana – 1,305 out of 16,766. In Baku – only 596 out of 10,666, and in Minsk – 1,523 out of 70,771.
In addition to the consulate in Moscow, German Schengen visas are also issued in other Russian cities. Perhaps the most favorable situation is in Novosibirsk: last year there were only 542 rejections out of 39,176 processed applications. A similar situation in Yekaterinburg: only 268 "refuseniks" out of 29,808 applicants. In Kaliningrad, the percentage of rejections is higher: 529 out of 18,317 applications.
It turns out that over the past year, more than 300,000 Russians received a German visa, and thus the opportunity to visit all Schengen countries. And rejections were overall very few. Using these figures, the Russian side can now gain additional leverage in the negotiation process on visa abolition with European Union countries.
Indeed, if there are so few rejections, then why is this visa procedure, which is agonizing for many Russian citizens, even necessary? And the number of rejections for a Russian visa for citizens of European countries can be counted on the fingers of one hand – because traditionally, this or that visa regime is established mutually, works in both directions, and if Russians get the opportunity to travel visa-free to Europe, then Europeans will also be able to visit Russia without hindrance.
Another matter is that for all parties, visa issuance is not only a political issue but also a serious financial factor. After all, besides the millions of euros collected annually at consulates for processing visa applications, there are also hundreds of thousands of official invitations, which are also not issued for free by internal authorities in the country of visit.