Switzerland halts Schengen visa application for Indian tour groups till Oct

Due to a high volume of pending applications for Schengen visas, Switzerland has put a temporary hold on applications from Indian tour groups according to SchengenVisaInfo.

The Swiss embassy in New Delhi stated that they will not be accepting applications until October. The decision was made by the embassy as a high volume of applications still needed to be processed. The embassy wants to clear the backlog before reopening applications.

The head of markets east at Switzerland Tourism, Simon Bosshart told SchengenVisaInfo that the problem was due to staff shortage. Adding that the staff shortage was also affecting Chinese tour groups.

Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs addressed the situation, stating that the country is currently processing 94 per cent of the visa applications that were made available in 2019.

A statement from the department reads, “While Switzerland is already processing 94 per cent of the visa applications made available in 2019, many other Schengen countries at various locations have not yet been able to restore their visa capacities from 2019.”