Rabat – Tourists and businessmen are not the only people facing issues regarding Schengen visas.
International students, including Moroccans, have had to wait for as long as one year to get a response from German consular representations while trying to book a visa appointment, German news outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) published on Thursday, January 9, quoting AFP.
The Ministry of Education in Germany spoke about the nationalities that are facing long delays in obtaining visa appointments after MPs from the Alliance 90, or the Greens political party, addressed the issue in a parliamentary inquiry.
Students from countries including India, Morocco, and Cameron have had to wait for up to one year, and longer in some cases, to secure a visa appointment, the ministry finds.
Students from other countries had to wait over eight weeks in 2018 while trying to book a visa appointment 24 German diplomatic missions.
Read Also: MPs Call for Quick Intervention to End Moroccans’ Struggles with Schengen Visa Delays
The only countries where delays in appointment did not happen were Egypt, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
The delays in obtaining appointments might encourage international and researchers to find other options, members of the Alliance 90, also known as the Greens, warned.
The Greens spokesperson Kai Gherkin said that “multi-month visa waiting times are unacceptable and have a discouraging and demotivating effect for international talent.”
DW estimated the number of foreign students at 400,000.
In addition to delays in visa appointments, Moroccan students were also surprised to hear that the German international cultural center the Goethe Institute has suspended scholarships for Moroccan students due to security concerns in September 2019.
“We have to check how to avoid illegal stays,” the director of the Goethe Institute in Morocco, Susanna Baumgart, told Morocco World News last year.
Moroccan students are not the only people to face struggles with visa appointment delays. Moroccan MPs, businessmen and women, as well as tourists face issues to get Schengen visa responses, including from the French consular missions.
Members of Morocco’s parliament asked the kingdom’s government to conduct field visits at diplomatic missions to inquire about the situation.
The MPs discussed the issue of the Schengen visa on Tuesday, January 7 in a weekly parliament session at the upper house or the House of Counsellors.
