Millions of travelers from all over the world have to get a visa before they head to France, Spain, Germany, and other popular destinations in Europe (i.e., the Schengen area).
This process is a constant pulse underneath the world of travel, with thousands of applicants every day. Entire companies are dedicated to the application process, and they operate in countries around the globe.
In an increasingly tech-reliant world, the Schengen visa application process remains the same, heavily manual – today, that is.
The Schengen visa application process
Currently, the Schengen visa application process is quite manual. On the surface, this might seem surprising, but it makes sense in the grand scheme of things.
Visa processing is ultimately subject to visa policy, which is decided at an administrative level. Generally speaking, government and deeply administrative bodies are slower to modernize operations. This is due to a number of reasons, like approval processes, validation and adoption. Then there are transitional periods – especially if a change has wide sweeping effects.
The visa application and approval processes run smoothly today, albeit manually. An update would mean broad changes internationally. It’s a big undertaking with a lot of moving parts.
While parts of the current process happen online, like scheduling appointments at visa application centers and tracking applications, the nuts and bolts of it happen on paper and in person.
For the most part, visa applications have to be printed out, and original documents must be hand-submitted by mail (like passports and other official records).
Then, an Embassy consulate official must review the file by hand during the decision-making process. When that decision is made, the passport (with the visa, if approved) is mailed back to the applicant.
While the Schengen visa application process is smooth, secure, and works, it’s clear to see that optimizations could be made.
The future of Schengen visa applications
The European Union saw a need for the same thing.
While the current system works, it does leave room for human error, among other risks. After all, it is mostly by hand, through the mail.
This is why the European Union has moved to completely overhaul the system and digitize it worldwide.
Currently, the applicable teams are working on creating the new online portal, which will be called the European Union Visa Application Platform (EU VAP). Once it has been launched and fully adopted, all Schengen visa applicants from all countries will be able to apply online, saving applicants a lot of time.
There will still be one in-person part of the process – biometric (fingerprint) collection. But this typically will only need to happen once every 5 years.
So, when is it coming?
EU VAP is supposed to be fully operational by 2030, but that doesn’t mean that’s the year it’ll be available to you.
Because it is such a tech-heavy process (and really revolutionizes the way Schengen visa applications are submitted and approved), there will be a lengthy, multi-year transitional period. It will take some countries more time to adopt the new technology than others, but it’s only a matter of time.
Until it is available in your country, the current method will prevail.
