EU Plans to Increase Schengen Visa Application Fees

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The EU is planning to increase the Schengen visa fees by 12 per cent due to inflation.
• The Commission proposed for the basic Schengen visa fee to be increased from €80 to €90 for adults.
• The initiative will be open for feedback on the matter by EU citizens until March 1.

The Commission of the European Union has launched a new initiative for the revision of the amount of the Schengen visa fees.

In the presented draft, the Commission has proposed that the fee for the Schengen visa application increases from €80 to €90 for adults and from €40 to €45 for children.

Moreover, it has been proposed that the Schengen visa fee be increased for countries not cooperating in the readmission of their nationals remaining without proper documentation in the EU, too.

As revealed in the draft, the Commission wants to raise the fee for a Schengen visa for countries showing a lack of cooperation on readmission from €120 to €135 and from €160 to €180.

In addition to the above-mentioned, the EU has suggested that in line with the revision, external Schengen visa service providers will also be able to apply a higher fee.

In the draft, it has been said that external service providers that collect Schengen visa applications on behalf of the member states may generally charge a fee up to half of the standard visa fee. This means that they will be able to charge €45 for their services instead of €40.

As for the extension of a Schengen visa, the Commission has proposed on the draft that the fee remains the same – €30.

The same stressed that a revision would not affect the visa fees for countries that have already reached facilitation agreements.

The revision of the visa fees does not affect the fees laid out in visa facilitation agreements, unless the agreement’s provisions make explicit reference to the visa fees set out in the Visa Code.

EU Commission

As the Commission explained, a meeting on the matter was already held with experts from the Schengen member states in December of last year, where the draft on revising the visa fee was discussed.

The Commission has also launched an initiative that will be open for feedback until March 1, 2024, stressing that the increase in visa fees is being planned due to the inflation rate in the EU.

Citizens of the EU will be able to share their opinions on the matter, whether they support a Schengen visa fee increase or not.

A German citizen who has given feedback on the initiative has said that the EU has enough money, stressing that foreigners applying for Schengen visas also suffer from inflation.

The EU has enough money. Stop inflation, and you don’t need to adjust prices to inflation. Foreigners also suffer from inflation, don’t make travelling to the EU more expensive. Even a small rise in fees has a significant impact on poor / less wealthy people.

Feedback from German citizen

The German citizen also added that the increase would be discriminatory for middle-class people.