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Rabat – Morocco is the fifth-largest receiver of Schengen visas, with 157,100 Schengen visa applications filed in 2021.
Morocco equally holds a higher-than-average number of rejected applications, with 39,520 applications rejected in 2021.
The country’s rejection rate stood at 27.6% in 2021, more than double the global average of 13.5%, according to newly published Schengen Visa statistics.
Data from Schengen Visa statistics indicate that more than half the applications in Morocco, totaling 84,499, were filed at Spanish embassies, consulates, and visa centers.
France is the second European largest recipient of Schengen visa requests from Moroccans, having processed 58,310 applications.
The report further notes that Schengen visa applications issued by Moroccans have significantly dropped in 2021 compared to 2019.
In 2019, 705,293 applications were filed, 77.7% more than the number of applications filed last year.
The drop in applications from Moroccans echoes an international trend, as the number of Schengen Visas applications filed by foreigners has fallen steeply. Global Schengen visa applications went from over 16 million in 2019 to a little more than 2 million in 2021.
Overall Shengen visa applications dropped by a staggering 83% compared to pre-pandemic levels, the report specifies.
Commenting on the drop in visa applications, Founder of Schengen Visa Info, Besart Bajrami, said that it is largely the result of the spread of COVID-19.
“Even in countries that reopened borders in 2021, there were so many changes every week on who can enter and who cannot,” Bajrami said.
According to Bajrami, different restrictions imposed by European countries to contain the spread of the virus “discouraged travelers, and in particular tourists, from planning a trip to the EU, and thus from applying for a Schengen visa,” Bajrami said.
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