Was your Schengen visa rejected for 'useless reasons'? You are not alone
To visit a foreign country, especially a Schengen country, you need to go through the precarious process of getting a visa. Why precarious? Because applying for a visa is like tightrope walking: if you take one wrong step, you slip and fall down. You then need to begin from scratch.
Now, there are various steps one has to go through before getting a visa and making it to the appointment interview. Assuming you got to the folks who will interview you, after waiting for a few years (really), then all you have to do now is: pray. (pray that your visa does not get rejected)
The rejection rate of a tourist visa by any Schengen country has been at an all-time high in the last three years, with a 13.4% rejection rate in 2021.
Once you have made it to the appointment, and applied for the visa, according to the official website of schengenvisainfo.com, your visa can be rejected because of 12 major reasons.
While some reasons may look logical and acceptable in the beginning; well, others, not so much.
Some logical ones are:
- Having a criminal history
- Having false travel documents
- Lacking a valid passport
- Lacking proper financial statements or birth/marriage certificates
- If you have previously failed to respect the Schengen visa limitations
Now, the other reasons which can get your visa rejected can be very subjective (and random).
Basically, if your visa gets cancelled because of some reason that you can't comprehend, chances are that your visa was rejected solely because of the subjective understanding of the rules by the visa officers.
PS: If your visa gets rejected, it's because "there is something UNSATISFACTORY as regards that visa application," the official site says.
However...
Twitter says something else.
Many people have taken to Twitter to vent their anger at seeing their visas rejected for, what they think, is no valid reason.
Take a look at some of them:
@VFSGlobal my Schengen visa got rejected because your officers did not take a copy of my green card extension. It's cost me 2K to fly across the country for a 2nd appt and now thousands of dollars in reservations at risk because I have run out time. Sadly will miss my BFs wedding
— Vindya Dayananda (@Vindya_Day) June 11, 2022
One of my friends' request for Schengen Visa was reject once because she hadn't mentioned her reason for stay once. This time it got rejected and the reason given to her was that she was considered as a threat to one of the member states. How does that make sense?
— Sara. (@BauhatSara) January 20, 2019
Applied for Denmark schengen visa for observership in skive hospital. Visa got transferred to DIS and got rejected as professor was on leave and they couldn't confirm visit. Have flights booked for 03-09-22. Kindly help @meaMADAD @DenmarkinIndia @DrSJaishankar @IndiainDenmark
— pankush gupta (@drpankushgupta) August 21, 2022
Covaxin My Schengen Business visa got rejected in spite of being fully vaccinated with Covaxin. Reason provided was I am a threat to Public Health as per their regulation (EU) no. 2016/399. @PMOIndia@PiyushGoyal @DrSJaishankar @nsitharaman @narendramodi @BharatBiotech pic.twitter.com/YIm3Y1AMpc
— Gayatri Bhave (@GayatriBhave) May 5, 2022
Bureaucracy and absurd admin "requirements" will be the death of me ?? Apparently, we were able to submit our visa applications with no issues except for our 3yo application, which was rejected on the basis of not having the "right" translation of the birth certificate ??
— Ahmed Alghuraybi (@A_M_G_A) August 24, 2022
@GermanyinIndia rejected transit visa application saying "There are enough flights available without having to change planes in a Schengen country".
— Hemant Khatri (@Hemant_Khatri_) July 26, 2022
Why do you have transit visa category then?
Had to cancel tickets @lufthansa. Wasted time and money. It is just harassment. pic.twitter.com/CUiaZNd9KX
My UK visa also got rejected with a lame excuse by chennai (madras) UK home office, my application clearly states that iam NOT a pension receiver,but the rejection reason was I am a pensioner & pension documents not attached such unfounded rejections calls for all charges refund
— kadija (@kadija1954) August 26, 2022
Nonsense @USEmbassyQ8
— ANAS NP (@Anaspilassery) August 25, 2022
Rejected my visa application without any prior reason.
It's not fare without informing proper reason#usa #usembassykuwait
27th follow up.
— Product Guy (@TsukumoHaruko) August 24, 2022
I had applied for a visiting visa to your country but it was rejected for reasons that are not right. I request you to look into it.
Application Number: V340094764
UIC Number: 1127618696@JustinTrudeau #canada https://t.co/AqZkybRX0Q
Have you also had a Schengen visa rejected? Let us know in the comments.