Greece Accelerates Schengen Visa Processing in India
Travellers from third countries that do not enjoy a visa-free regime need to apply for a visa in order to be permitted entry to Greece or any other Schengen Area country. The requirement to obtain a visa before travelling to Greece applies to nationals of India too.
However, since the demand has increased significantly now that the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, Schengen countries, including Greece, have been unable to process all applications on time, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
Thus, in order to avoid chaos now that the summer season has officially begun, Greece has put in place a new initiative.
A spokesperson of a visa application centre in India said that the embassy officials are working on weekends as well as after office hours to clear the backlog.
“Over the last couple of weeks, Greece has put in place an initiative to clear the backlog with embassy officials working on the weekend and after office hours,” the statement of the spokesperson reads.
The same explained that previously it took more than 45 days for the passport to be sent to the applicant. However, in line with the new changes that have been made, the process has been accelerated. According to the spokesperson, the processing time for a visa has reduced to 20 working days.
It has been revealed that as soon as this new initiative got implemented, the processing of visas went a lot smoother. More than 4000 passports have been cleared o far, meaning that a high number of those who have been waiting for a visa have already received their document.
In addition to the above-mentioned, the spokesperson pointed out that people who had to cancel their vacation due to visa delays will be offered a ‘special option’. Further information regarding the matter is yet to be revealed.
Depending on the purpose of travel to Greece, there are different types of visas. Those planning to travel to Greece for travel purposes need to apply for a tourist/visitor visa.
Travellers applying for a Schengen visa in other countries have been dealing with delays too. The majority of visa processing centres have said that such a thing is happening due to the high number of applications.
