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Schengen, work visas for Europe still tough for Indians: Experts weigh in
Securing a Schengen visa for travel or long-term work remains a challenge for many Indians, despite ongoing efforts to simplify the process. The issued was acknowledged by Dr Ewa Suwara, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to India, at an event marking the launch of the Global Access to Talent from India (GATI) Foundation on Tuesday, who said, "One major challenge is that visa applications must be made to individual EU member states. There is no centralised EU visa process. This complexity can be frustrating for Indian applicants".
In response to mounting complaints, the European Commission introduced a new "visa cascade" system in 2024. Under this policy, Indian nationals with a track record of lawful Schengen travel can now obtain multi-entry visas valid for up to two years. However, high rejection rates, rising fees, and inconsistent processing continue to pose hurdles.
In a conversation with Business Standard, she explained, 'The issuance of visas is the prerogative of the individual member states of the European Union. The EU as such does not issue visas. However, the European Union is working with India in the context of broader processes.'
She added, '2025 has been designated the 'Year of EU-India.' Our goal is to build an enhanced strategic partnership. We want to ensure India knows it is welcome in Europe, and we aim to actively contribute to India's development and global security efforts.'
'We need each other, and we can benefit from each other. Yes, we can work on simplifying processes, but that requires discussion. It is an ongoing process," she said.
Speaking about wider collaborations, Dr Suwara said, 'I mentioned the Trade and Technology Council (TTC) and the various dialogues we are holding. There is also an element of this within the current Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. These ongoing discussions are aimed at identifying obstacles and figuring out how to overcome them. Additionally, we have the EU-India Migration and Mobility Dialogue, which aims to address these issues.'
Last week, an Indian entrepreneur shared an image of his nearly 400-page visa application, triggering fresh debate.
Kapil Dhama, founder and CEO of Options 360, posted a photo on X showing a towering stack of A4-sized papers he said were needed for his application.
'Almost 400-page application for a Schengen visa. Real power of passport,' wrote Dhama.
Why visa delays persist
Ajay Sharma, an immigration expert, pointed to limited staffing as one of the main reasons behind long waiting times.
'If you take out Germany and France, the majority of other countries have very limited staff to address the volume of applications. Considering the free movement between countries, a significant number of applicants use their visa to enter one country and then travel to others,' said Sharma.
He added, 'This situation means that countries need more staff to carry out proper due diligence on applicants. Secondly, there's now a noticeable increase in the number of people applying to work in EU member states, particularly in healthcare. The IT sector has historically been dominant, but its share is reducing a bit.'
According to Sharma, several factors are driving the surge in visa demand:
Rising numbers of Indian tourists and business travellers
Growing interest in healthcare and trade jobs across Europe
Limited consular resources to handle applications
Inconsistent systems for crowd management at consulates
'Indian applicants often face difficulties because Europe does not place limits on visa-free travellers, like those from the US, Canada or Australia, who can enter freely. As a result, Indians are penalised without being responsible for the overcrowding," said Sharma.
He suggested that introducing quotas for visa-free entrants might create a fairer balance.
Technology could ease visa bottlenecks
Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director at BLS International, a visa outsourcing and technology services provider, pointed out that technology can help streamline visa processing.
'Following the beginning of the summer season, every year we witness a surge in air travel demand from India to international destinations, particularly Europe. As a result, there seems to be a significant increase in the number of applicants, which leads to difficulties in securing visas," Aggarwal told Business Standard.
He said, "Visa processing today operates at the intersection of technology, compliance, and diplomatic protocol. As visa demand surges—especially for European countries—what's critical is ensuring the process remains efficient without compromising on security or the law of the land.'
Aggarwal suggested several solutions:
* AI-driven pre-verification tools to validate documents early
* dynamic slot management to reduce appointment bottlenecks
* mobile biometrics collection to ease physical visits
* greater data integration across Schengen missions for faster checks
* AI-based appointment forecasting for better predictability
In 2023, The Economist published an article titled Indians are conquering the world, which pointed to the difficulties Indians face. The article noted, 'Rich Western countries make Indians feel unwanted…. Britain's visa fees are extortionate. Getting a visa for Europe's border-free Schengen zone… requires stacks of paperwork, evidence of financial health and proof of intent to return. Many travellers find it humiliating.
Schengen visa basics for Indian travellers
A Schengen visa allows non-EU nationals to make a temporary stay in any of the 30 Schengen zone countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands. Indians commonly apply for:
Short-stay Schengen visas (Type C) for tourism, business, family visits, or short training courses
national long-term visas (Type D) for work or study
For a short-stay visa, travellers must submit:
A valid Indian passport
Travel insurance covering at least €30,000
Proof of funds
Return flight bookings
Hotel reservations or an invitation letter
Processing usually takes between 15 and 45 days, and the visa fee is about €90 for adults. A Schengen visa does not allow work; doing so without permission can result in fines, deportation, or future bans.
For work or study lasting more than 90 days, Indians must apply for a national visa directly from the country concerned. There is no single Schengen work visa. Examples include:
Germany's Job Seeker Visa, EU Blue Card, and Skilled Worker Visa
France's Talent Passport and Work Permit schemes
The Netherlands' Highly Skilled Migrant Programme
Sweden's job-linked work permits
Most schemes require a job offer, proof of qualifications, health insurance, a clean criminal record, and accommodation details. Processing times range from six weeks to three months.
Rejection rates for Indian applicants
According to 2023 Schengen visa statistics:
Indian short-stay visa applicants faced a rejection rate of about 18%
France rejected 21% of Indian applications
Germany rejected 19%
The Netherlands rejected 17%
Italy rejected 14%
Estonia and Latvia rejected over 25% of Indian applications
Rejections were mainly due to:
Incomplete or inconsistent paperwork
Doubts over the applicant's intention to return
Inadequate financial documents
Insufficient travel insurance
Fake or unverifiable bookings
Long-term visa rejection rates vary, according to data sourced from the embassies:
Germany's work visa rejection rate is around 15–20%
France's Talent Passport scheme has a 10–15% rejection rate
The Netherlands maintains a rejection rate below 10%
Sweden has seen rejection rates rise to around 20–30%
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IN THE SPACE of a week, Kerala has seen two rows break out over a portrait of 'Bharat Mata'. First, the LDF state government relocated its World Environment Day celebrations from the Raj Bhavan, claiming that the photo of Bharat Mata on display at the event was 'one used by the RSS'. But, days later, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar paid tributes to the same image during Goa Day celebrations at the Raj Bhavan. Objecting to the use of the image at Raj Bhavan, CPI leader and Agriculture Minister P Prasad said, 'A seat of a constitutional body should not be using this.' Arlekar, who recently took over as Governor after a long period of fractious relationship between the LDF government and Raj Bhavan, hit back, saying, 'Whatever be the pressure from whichever quarters, there will be no compromise whatsoever on Bharat Mata.' State BJP leader N Hari also attacked the LDF, claiming 'they are afraid to say Bharat Mata… due to vote bank politics'. While the symbolic icon of Bharat Mata, or Mother India, has often been depicted in art, there is no official version of the portrayal. The image used at the Kerala Raj Bhavan, for instance, depicted Bharat Mata holding a saffron flag in front of a relief map of India. The Left objected to this. Another image, used by the CPI for a local party event in the middle of the row incidentally, showed Bharat Mata carrying the Tricolour. As the BJP celebrated the Left's use of the image, the party hastily withdrew the same. In the history of modern Indian art, Bharat Mata has adorned the canvas of only two artists of repute. The first was the product of the Bengal Renaissance, Abanindranath Tagore, who first visualised the Indian nation as the Mother. The second was the modernist M F Husain, whose painting of Bharat Mata was banned and trashed – and he was forced to spend his last years outside his country. The imagery first appeared in the works of artists and writers in Bengal, much before it was used elsewhere in the context of India's national movement for Independence. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1882 novel Anand Math contained the hymn to the motherland Vande Mataram, which became the mantra of the freedom movement, and the official song of India after Independence. The novel depicts the three faces of Bharat Mata as Goddesses Jagaddhatri, Kali and Durga. Two decades later, in 1905, after partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon, Abanindranath painted his iconic Bharat Mata, a woman in saffron robes, with a serene face and halo around her head, beads and scriptures in her hands. The revolutionary Aurobindo Ghose wrote in a letter to his wife Mrinalini Devi in August that same year: 'I look upon my country as the Mother. I adore her, I worship Her as the Mother. What would a son do if a demon sat on his mother's breast and started sucking her blood?' Mother India retained her symbolic force through the national movement, even though the metaphor often changed with the speaker who employed it. In The Discovery of India, written by him in jail in the 1940s, Jawaharlal Nehru recounted his experience when people greeted him with slogans of 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. 'Who was this Bharat Mata, Mother India, whose victory they wanted?… Mother India was essentially these millions of people, and victory to her meant victory to these people,' he wrote. The first major enunciation of the Mother India concept came in the writings of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya. 'The foundation of our nationalism is Bharat Mata,' he wrote. 'Remove Mata, Bharat will be reduced to just a piece of land.' 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Fifteen years after the Partition of Bengal, in August 1920, Aurobindo underlined the limits of the slogan and sought a greater mantra: 'We used the Mantra Bande Mataram with all our heart and soul… (but) the cry of the Mantra began to sink and as it rang feebly, the strength began to fade out of the country… A greater Mantra than Bande Mataram has to come.' The first two paragraphs of Bankim's Vande Mataram were adopted as the national song after Independence. The government did not retain the verses that mentioned either 'sapt koti', or the eulogies to the Goddesses Durga and Lakshmi. The obvious reference to Bengali nationhood was removed. Almost up to Independence, few underlined the religious overtones of the slogan, and it remained an essential mantra of an occupied country, a rallying call for its people. It found little resistance from other communities until 1947, when during the Partition riots, 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' was perceived as a communal slogan, the same as 'Allah-o-Akbar'. But, barring some isolated voices against Vande Matram, Mother India remained a largely benign concept that did not attract controversy. During the Ram Janmabhoomi movement of the late 1980s, however, 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' was used for communal mobilisation. Now Bharat Mata was an aggressive image, carrying swords and other weapons, and sometimes riding a tiger. The Anna Hazare movement of 2011, one of the biggest mass mobilisations of recent decades, which shook the Central government and paved the way for the emergence ultimately of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, used the image of Bharat Mata as the rallying point for an anti-corruption crusade. More recently, in February 2023, the Indian Council for Historical Research, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, faced 'objections' over a photo of Bharat Mata in its office, alongside pictures of President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In early 2016, after allegedly anti-India slogans were raised at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, leading to a sedition case against its then students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that youth should be taught to chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi shot back, saying he would not chant 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' even if a knife were put to his throat, prompting the Shiv Sena to tell Owaisi to 'go to Pakistan'. RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale then referred to Owaisi as 'anti-national' and a 'traitor'. Later, in March 2016, AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan was suspended from the Maharashtra Assembly for refusing to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', even as he said he was willing to chant 'Jai Hind'. At the time, the BJP, Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP together backed a resolution to suspend Pathan for the remainder of the Budget Session. However, weeks after the controversy, BJP veteran L K Advani called the row over the slogan 'meaningless', while Bhagwat said nobody should be 'forced' to say 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'. In 2020, in the aftermath of the Delhi riots, former PM Manmohan Singh said the slogan was 'being misused to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India that excludes millions of residents and citizens' while speaking at the launch of a book titled 'Who is Bharat Mata'.
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It also brought a modern Air Interception (AI) radar with look-down/shoot-down capabilities, and the first BVR missile, the Super R530, Later the all-aspect Magic 2 missile changed the dynamics of close combat. IAF also got the first comprehensive EW suite on any aircraft with a self-protection jammer, RWR, chaff and flare dispenser, an escort jammer and an Elint Pod. The aircraft was later upgraded to the Mirage 2000-5 Mk 2 standards, and extended its useful life for another 20–25 years. The upgrade included a new mission computer with higher memory, new radar, advanced navigation and electronic warfare systems, advanced communication and identification systems. It also has a new glass cockpit, and helmet-mounted displays. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Re-designated Mirage 2000I, aircraft also got the MICA air-to-air missiles. It can also carry the Israeli Spice-2000 glide bomb and the indigenous Astra AAM. Mirage 2000 performed exceedingly well in the 1999 Kargil conflict, which took place over some of the highest terrain in the world. Easy maintenance and a very high sortie rate made the Mirage 2000 one of the most efficient fighters of the IAF. Later Mirage was the chosen platform for the Balakot Strike, and took active part in Operation Sindoor. Rafale, the Winner of MMRCA Competition IAF needed additional medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA). The aircraft in the fray for this Indian tender were Lockheed Martin F-16C/D, Mikoyan MiG-35, Saab JAS 39 Gripen, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The 126 aircraft were to fill the gap between the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the in-service Sukhoi Su-30MKI air superiority fighter. On 27 April 2011, after an intensive and detailed technical evaluation by the IAF, two fighters, the Typhoon and Rafale, cleared technical evaluation. 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The 36 aircraft, €7.87 billion (Rs 58,891 crore), Government-to-Government (G2G), Rafale deal included 28 single-seat, and eight twin-seat aircraft. The deal included tailor-made IAF specific enhancements including the integration of an Israeli helmet-mounted display (HMD), radar warning receivers and low-band jammers. It included a weapons package and a performance-based logistics agreement. The aircraft's 14 hard-points can carry 9,500 kg external load. The air-to-air missiles include Matra Magic II, MBDA MICA IR or EM, and MBDA Meteor. Meteor is an active radar guided BVRAAM that offers multi-shot capability against long range manoeuvring jets, UAVs and cruise missiles in a heavy electronic countermeasures (ECM) environment with range of around 180 kilometres. The no-escape zone of over 60 km is the largest among air-to-air missiles according to the manufacturer. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD India also procured SCALP air-to-ground cruise missiles. Subsequently, the HAMMER (highly agile modular munition extended range) glide bomb was bought. The Indian Rafale is a modified version of the F3R standard. The two squadrons are located at two different air bases. Both these airbases have infrastructure and capacity for an additional squadron each. French has already tested the F4 variant with upgraded radar, improved HMDS, OSF (long-range optoelectronics system) will add IRST for detecting and identifying airborne stealth targets at long range. It will be more effective in network-centric warfare, with more data exchange and satellite communication capacity. Make-in-India Rafale Win-Win for India, France Indian Navy has just ordered 26 Rafale-M, French Air and Space Force and Navy have combined orders for 286. Other operators with confirmed orders are IAF (36) Croatia (12), Egypt (54), Qatar (36), UAE (50), Indonesia (42), and Serbia (12). More orders are on the way. The current production rate is 25 aircraft a year. It will take nearly 10 years to meet existing orders. France desperately needs another production in India will be for all global customers. India's capability to make global class aero-structures has been proven with cabins of Apache AH-64, Sikorsky S-92 helicopter and Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. India also makes Lockheed Martin F-16 wings. India makes the entire indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA). Making the Rafale fuselage in India will work out much cheaper for France. Induct 114 Rafale: Best Way Ahead Traditionally India and France have been enjoying an exceptionally warm relationship, which is the fruit of deep affinities and the unwavering trust between the two countries since India's independence. France is considered as the most reliable Western 'friend'. France has never imposed any sanctions or tried to arm-twist India. IAF regularly carries out Garuda series of air exercises with the French Air Force since 2003. The latest 'Garuda VII' was held at Jodhpur in November 2022. French air and Space Force (FASF) also participated in IAF multilateral exercise 'Tarang Shakti' in August-September 24. IAF is already down to 30 fighter squadrons' vis-à-vis the authorised 42. India has a two-front war threat. IAF urgently needs more fighter squadrons. The Request for Proposal (RfP) for 114 new 'Make-in-India' is still to be sent out. A full-fledged selection process could take 6-8 years. Rafale is a tried and tested aircraft. India has already paid for one time India specific enhancements. We have spare capacity at existing IAF Rafale bases to take more squadrons. There is 95 per cent commonality between the IAF and Navy Rafale. Most recent aircraft deals have all been G2G. Rafale has already been a winner of a contest in which similar competing aircraft were involved. India already has a large variety of fighter fleets. Multiple fleets are a logistical nightmare. To save time, it would be prudent to acquire 114 Rafale 4.5 generation aircraft. Initially, India would mostly make the fuselage airframe. As we go along, more sub-parts and components will be manufactured. If India chooses to make 114 Rafale for IAF, the order numbers along with the Navy would go up to 140. India could thus insist on making the entire aircraft in India. India could also tie-up with France's Safran for India's fighter aero-engine development. It will make better economic sense for IAF also to choose Rafale and acquire the latest variant F4 in a G2G deal and make it in India in larger numbers to amortise costs. The writer is former Director General, Centre for Air Power Studies. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
