Residents rethink Europe travel plans due to Schengen visa delays
Revellers looking to fly out during Eid break say they are unable to get visa appointments before July-end
Some UAE residents are having to change their holiday plans for the Eid Al Adha break due to long waiting times for interview slots to get a Schengen visa.
According to astronomical calculations, Eid is expected to be observed from Friday, July 8, to Monday, July 11. That means it’s going to be a four-day weekend for public and private sector employees in the UAE next month. The actual dates will be determined by the sighting of the crescent moon.
Travel agencies and residents who have been trying to book appointments for Schengen visas are unable to get a booking before end-july. “The earliest appointment
I could find was for July 27,” said Malik Bedekar, operations manager at Smart Travel. “We had a lot of queries for Switzerland, but there is no way for us to get appointments. There are options to pay for a premium service, but those are also limited.”
Malik said there is good demand for travel on the sector, but the visa hurdle has put a spoke in most people’s plans. “After two years, many people want to travel for their vacation. We have been getting a lot of enquiries for Europe. We have some great packages that we want to push, but the inability to get appointments for visa is really impacting all this,” he said.
A spokesperson for Deira Travels also confirmed that they have been facing delays in getting appointments for clients for the Schengen visa. “Getting an appointment is a big challenge. We have many clients who are interested in travelling, but have had to cancel their Europe plans or change their destination on countries which have visa on arrival option.
“There have been situations where some appointment slots opened up randomly probably due to cancellation of existing appointments. However these slots would be for one or two individuals and will not benefit family travelers,” the spokesperson said.
For Dubai resident Sameer who was planning to visit Switzerland, it was a case of being second time unlucky. “I had booked my tickets and hotel stay in Switzerland during the school midterm break, but when I tried to get an appointment for the visa interview, it was not available till the end of March. So I had to change all my bookings, lost some money and traveled to Mauritius.
“Anticipating a similar kind of delay this time around, I tried to book my visa appointment for Switzerland in April itself. However, to my shock, even then there was no interview slo t available till mid-july.
“Rather than risk not being able to travel at all, I decided to book a trip to Norway instead.
“I got all my documentation sorted ahead of time. However, I decided to take my mother on the trip, but, unfortunately there are no appointments for the Norway visa either. I think it is quite unfortunate that many European countries are losing out on tourism business from the UAE because of visa delays.
“No one plans that far ahead for a holiday any more. So countries, which have already lost out on income during the Covid pandemic should be doing more to ensure that those who want to travel can do so with ease,” he said.
Smart Travel’s Malik says that people are making last minute travel plans, given the fluid situation. “With so much uncertainty and the possibility of travel bans, people don’t want to plan much in advance. For example, we have a group tour leaving today. We got a call last night from a family who wanted to book for it. That is the general trend we are seeing these days.”